1. Why does Anne feel that writing in a diary is really a strange experience?
It must be remembered that Anne Frank was just a thirteen-year-old girl. She was in the hiding and cut off from the larger world. She was hesitant that no one would be interested in the musings of a young girl. She had never written anything before. So, it was naturally a strange experience for her.
2. What motivated Anne Frank to write in a diary? Or Why did a thirteen-year-old girl start writing a diary? Did her suffocation led her to it?
It should not be forgotten that Anne was living in a hiding. She couldn't have normal dealings with the people outside. She could talk about 'ordinary things' with her family and friends. She couldn't talk highly personal and intimate issues with them. She didn't have any real friend. She felt utterly lonely and depressed. Writing in diary could get all kinds of things off her chest.
3. Give a brief life-sketch of Anne Frank.
Anne was born on 12 June, 1929. She lived in Frankfurt until she was four. Her father emigrated to Holland in 1933. Her mother went with him to Holland in September. Anne and her elder sister, Margot, were sent to Aachen to stay with their grandmother. Margot went to Holland in December and Anne followed in February. She started right away at the Montessory nursery school. She stayed there until she was six, where she started in the first form. His grandmother died in January 1942, when she was thirteen.
4. Why does Anne say: "Paper has more patience than people"?
Anne doesn't seem to have much faith in the people around her. She was living in a hiding and couldn't trust people so easily. Moreover, people do react. Sometimes people react rather in negative, unpleasant, vulgar and violent manners. Paper is an impersonal and non-reactive object. Whatever you write on it, it receives it without giving any such reactions.
5. Why doesn't Anne want to jot down facts as most people do in a diary? Why does she call it her friend 'Kitty'?
For Anne Frank, a diary writing is a highly personal and intimate experience. She is not like other diary writers who load it with facts and non-personal matters. She wants to compensate her loss of having no 'true friends' with opening out of her heart in the pages of her diary. She wants the diary to be her true friend and calls it 'Kitty'.
6. Why does Anne think it prudent and wise to provide a brief sketch of her life?
Anne frank calls her diary 'Friend Kitty'. She addresses all her writings to Kitty. For readers it would be rather difficult to understand a word' of her stories to Kitty. So, instead of plunging right in', she thinks it wise to provide a brief sketch of her life. Though she dislikes doing so.
7. Why did Anne Frank feel suffocated?
Anne Frank was a very sensitive girl. She was cut off from the mainstream of life, her friends and her people. She was living in a hiding to escape being arrested by the Nazi agents in Holland. Moreover, even with the so-called friends, she could not share her intimate and personal feelings and problems. She felt suffocated. She was left with no alternative than opening out her heart through the pages of her diary. 'Kitty', her diary, became her most intimate friend.
8. Give a brief description of Anne Frank's family.
Anne confesses that she has 'lovely parents'. Her father Otto Frank is 'the most adorable father' she has ever seen. Her elder sister Margot was born at Frankfurt in Germany in 1926. Her mother Edith was 25 when she married her father. She and her elder sister stayed with their grandmother before they were sent to live with their parents in Amsterdam.
9. Anne Frank had a great attachment with her grandmother. Justify your answer.
There is no doubt that Anne Frank had a great attachment with her grandmother. When her parents migrated to Holland, she along with her elder sister Margot were sent to live with her grandmother in Aachen. The grandmother died in January 1942. She thought of her quite often and still loved her.
10. Why was the entire class quaking in its boots?
It is true that the whole class was shaking with fear. The teachers were to decide about the fate of the students. They were to decide who would go up in the next class or not. Half of the class was making bets. The verdict of the teachers could go either way. They were quite unpredictable creatures on earth.
11. Why did Anne Frank says that teachers are the most unpredictable creatures on earth?
Anne Frank felt that nothing could be predicted about the mood of the teachers. They were the most 'unpredictable creatures on earth'. It depended on their choice who would go up in the next class. Only they could decide who would be kept back. Half the class was making bets.
12. How was Anne getting along with her teachers? Why was Mr. Keesing annoyed with her?
No doubt, Anne Frank was getting along well with all her nine teachers- seven men and two women. Mr. Keesing was an old-fashioned man who taught them maths. He was annoyed with her for a long time. The reason was simple. He didn't like Anne as she talked so much in the class.
13. Why did Mr. Keesing call Anne 'an incorrigible chatterbox?
Anne was very talkative. She didn't stop talking despite being punished. She wrote an essay on the topic ‘A Chatterbox’ as a punishment, she also justified her over talkative nature.
14. How did Anne justify her habit of talking in her first essay on ‘ A Chatterbox’?
Anne Frank wrote three pages on the topic . ‘A Chatterbox’. In the essay she justified her habit of talking. She argued that talking was a student’s trait. She would never be able to cure herself of the habit. Her mother talked as much as she did, if not more. She would do her best to keep it under control. However, it was very difficult to control her inherited trait.
15. What were the second and the third essays assigned to Anne Frank as punishment?
Mr. Kessing had a good laugh at Anne’s arguments in the first essay on ‘A Chatterbox’. He assigned her a second essay on ‘An Incorrigible Chatterbox’. She did write on the subject. Mr. Kessing was not satisfied. He said, “Anne Frank, as punishment for talking in the class, write an essay entitled - ‘Quack, Quack, Quack’, said Mistress Chatterbox.