Living in hiding, in the secret annex, was twice as hard for the children than the adults because they were always told to hold on to their opinions at a time when their ideals were being shattered by the mayhem of war. As a young girl growing up during the time of the most destructive war in history, seeing the worst side of human nature brought to the fore, it was next to impossible to believe that there could be such things as truth, justice or a god.
This is the juncture at which Anne’s diary became so important in her life. Her writing had a transformative power that took every day mundane activities and made it into amusing anecdotes, showing us how a claustrophobic space such as the secret annex could also be a fertile ground for creativity and imagination. Anne deftly navigated her inner and outer world, weaving them together through her contemplative stance on life, which was often undercut by her ironic interjections. Her diary not only captures her personal journey but also gives us a commentary on the social and cultural atmosphere and especially, the experience of the war from the perspective of lived reality.

Anne believed that her personality was split into two. One side contained her exuberant cheerfulness, her flippancy, the joy in her life and above all, her ability to appreciate the lighter side of things. This side would lead her to appreciate flirtations, a kiss, an embrace and even off-colour jokes. The other side of her was purer, deeper and finer, subsumed under the lighter side of her. She could be an amusing clown for an afternoon and a profound thinker but the former was always a diversion, a comic interlude, soon to be forgotten, which most people hardly knew. Her lighter and more superficial side always stole a march on the deeper side.

In Anne's account, we get a picture of the unforeseen misery unleashed upon the Dutch people due to the air raids. The common occurrences during that time were that of frightened women, trembling houses, raging epidemics and people relentlessly stalked by hunger. People would have to stand in line to buy vegetables and all kinds of goods, doctors could not visit their patients and automobiles were stolen. Burglaries and thefts had become quite common. Little children smashed windows of people's homes and stole whatever they could get their hands on. People did not dare to leave the house even for five minutes since they were liable to come back and find all their belongings gone. Newspapers were filled with reward notices for the return of stolen typewriters, Persian rugs, electric clocks, fabrics and so on. The electric clocks on street corners were dismantled; public phones stripped down to the last wire. Morale among the Dutch was low and everyone was going hungry. A week's food ration did not last for more than two days unless it was ersatz coffee. Men were shipped off to Germany, children were sick or undernourished and everyone wore their worn-out clothes and run-down shoes. Commodities were expensive even on the black market.

Anne Frank is the young writer of The Diary of a Young Girl. She emerges as a playful yet introspective teen forced to live under extraordinary and trying conditions. Over the course of The Diary, Anne seems to grow from an impudent and stubborn girl into an emotionally independent young woman.
Despite having a loving family and several friends, Anne is unable to share her thoughts with any of them. Instead, she turns to her diary for this purpose. She has a troubled relationship with her mother who she believes falls short of her ideal mother. She is close to her father. But, in her mind, even he fails to provide her with the emotional comfort she seeks. She has a rebellious spirit, desires to be treated as an adult and hopes to make a name for herself in the world.
Accounts of Jewish suffering anguish Anne to the point of remorse at her own good fortune. Nevertheless, she holds on to her ideals of honesty, hard work and self-improvement, and her trust that humans are essentially good.