Diaspora, Exile, and Suffering – Anne Frank’s Psychological Progress of Jewish Identity Discovering and Feministic Awakening

Anne Frank, a teenage girl, who spent two years hiding in the Annex and finally died in the concentration camp, revealed and exposed the darkness during the Holocaust. She expresses her early maturity and extraordinary thoughtfulness in her diary and poured her heart in it with her pure spirit. Although she seemed to live well, having enough supplies, she never stood under the sky until she was arrested. What amazes readers is not naivety and innocence but her discovery of Jewish Identity and feministic awakening. She was imprisoned in an isolated condition, suffering Diaspora and exile; however, she reached the avant-garde trend of thought and became one of the memorial figures of the Holocaust. Since she was honest toward her diary, her progress can be analyzed in details.

Nationality and Jewishness, which are the main issues of the diary, enlighten Anne Frank’s Jewish identity (Stewart 101-2). Under the persecution of Hitler’s Nazism, the Franks begin life of Diaspora and exile with the Daans. Anne does not discover her Jewish identity and feministic thought immediately but gradually and progressively; she even feels that hiding in the secret Annex is interesting, seeming to be on vacation (26). However, she gets tired of hiding because there is nothing new in the Annex; her mood changes, and she becomes upset.

Mendels states, “The central symptoms of depression are sadness, pessimism, and self-dislike, along with a loss of energy, motivation, and concentration” (6). If Anne is getting depressed, she shall be on the first level of her psychological progress. In Anne’s diary, she notes, “It won’t do us or those outside any good if we continue to be as gloomy as we are now. And what would be the point of turning the Secret Annex into a Melancholy Annex?” (69). She seems to be rather sad, blue, miserable, and perhaps a little bit pessimistic; it is just the beginning of her rebirth.

Another symptom stated by Mendels is “psychomotor retardation”: “It involves an apparent inhibition or slowing down of all bodily movements and thinking and a reduction in spontaneous movements and expressive gestures” (9). Anne has this symptom at the very beginning of her hiding life; she notes, “There’s something happening every day, but I’m too tired and lazy to write it all down” (38). Accordingly, her symptom of “psychomotor retardation” is not very strong; she is just a little bit upset; what discriminates whether she is depressed or not is this evidence:

No matter what I’m doing, I can’t help thinking about whose who are gone. I catch myself laughing and remember that it’s a disgrace to be so cheerful. But am I supposed to spend the whole day crying? No, I can’t do that. This gloom will pass. (Frank 69)

Rowe clarifies the differences between being depressed and being unhappy, “When you are unhappy, even if you have suffered the most grievous blow, you are able to seek comfort and let that comfort come through to you to ease the pain” (1). Therefore, Anne is just unhappy, not enough to be depressed. However, she is still from the terror of being arrested; more things happen in her life, which cause her moodier and moodier.

The effective symptom, which is stated in “Personality and Depression Models,” clarifies the main problem of causing the Annex melancholy; that is, “tempestuous relationships” (Schad-Somers 14). Since Anne cannot go out side, her relationships are very limited, and all of the people in the Annex influence her very much. Anne says, “The house is still trembling from the aftereffects of the quarrels. Everyone is mad at everyone else: Mother and I, Mr. van Daan and Father, Mother and Mrs. Van D. Terrific atmosphere, don’t you think?” (95) This evidence is obvious that not only Anne’s relationships but also everyone’s relationships are “terrific.” It is a very awkward situation especially they cannot get rid of the others; furthermore, there is no place to be along and breathe fresh air. Continuously, Anne has several quarrels with Mrs. van Daan, Mr. Dussel, and Mother. Their relationships do not become better but head toward to a deadlock. No doubt Anne indicates, “Relationships here in the Annex are getting worse all the time…Everyone here is dreading the great terror known as winter” (132). It seems that there is no way out for Anne. Everyone else influences everyone else, and it is going to explore. I think all these awful relationships, in addition to the war, cause Anne’s depression the most.

“I’ve been taking valerian every day to fight the anxiety and depression, but is doesn’t stop me from being even more miserable the next day” (Frank 132). Anne herself notices one of the symptoms of depression – anxiety; in other words, her mental pressure is getting more and more sever. “Although sadness is the central mood disturbance, many depressed patients also complain of features of anxiety or other neurotic states” (Mendels 11). Obviously, the awful relationships in the Annex cause “anxiety” the most. Everything is going worse and worse and there seems to be no opportunity to make it better. “All the conflicts about our upbringing, about not pampering children, about the food – about everything, absolutely everything – might have taken a different turn if we’d remained open and on friendly terms instead of always seeing the worst side” (Frank 169). They seem to be more than “anxious” and turn into “agitated” (Mendels 10), and become pickier and pickier since there is nothing to distract their mind. Therefore, Anne is very depressed. “I have an intense need to be alone. Father has noticed I’m not my usual self, but I can’t tell him what’s bothering me. All I want to do is scream, ‘Let me be, leave me alone!’” Here Anne’s symptom is quite serious, and is even hysterical, feeling she is not herself. All this evidence echoes back what Mendels states at the beginning, “‘The pleasure has gone out of life,’ is at the center of the depressed patient’s pervasive feeling of worthlessness, emptiness, and futility” (6). Their start is “nothing”; they can only focus on trifle things, becoming pickier and pickier, and finally break out.

On the one hand, Anne lives with the great anxiety; on the other hand, she suffers horror and fear, which cause her to have nightmares. “[H]er fear,” which is different from teenagers in a normal condition, “is not simply a fear of death encoded as a fear of the unknown (as Freud might suggest) but a thinly disguised fear of what, by this stage, she know could happen” (Stewart106). Being hiding is much better than being arrested and sent to the concentration camp. She feels nervous and is mentally tortured under the great pressure.

Nevertheless, Anne is reborn, and she discovers her Jewishness and Jewish tradition. Larson indicates that Anne regards herself as Jewish Suffering (46); that is the turning point of her discovering Jewish Identity. Since hiding in the Annex is regarded as “a form of internal exile” (Stewart 104), Anne’ Jewish identity must be enough strong. “God has never deserted our people. Through the ages Jews have had to suffer, but through the ages they’ve gone on living, and the centuries of suffering have only made them stronger. The weak shall fall and the strong shall survive and not be defeated!” (Frank 259). This is the religious feature of the Jew, and it can be traced back to the terms – Diaspora and exile. Diaspora is not the same as “traditional Hebrew equivalent;” it is a “political notion,” and “it suggests geopolitical dispersion” (Wettstein 47). Exile is a “religious notion,” which from the concept of “dislocation, a sense of being uprooted, being somehow in the wrong place” (Wettstein 47). They are the roots of the Jew; moreover, believing in Diaspora and exile is not a temporary phenomena but a steady image of Jewish identity throughout the history (Wettstein 18), and it still has a significant impact in the modern Jewish society (Goodman 378). Identity is the leitmotif of Jewish cultures no matter how diverse and different they are (Goodman 378); therefore, Anne learned it consciously or unconsciously from her family and living situation.

Certainly, Anne believes in her religion as the same of the other Jews.

Who has inflicted this on us? Who has set up apart from all the rest? Who has put us through such suffering? It’s God who has made us the way we are, but it’s also God who will lift us up again…God has never deserted our people. Through the ages Hews have had to suffer, but through the ages they’ve gone on living, and the centuries of suffering have only made them stronger. The weak shall fall and the strong shall survive and not be defeated! (Frank 258-9)

It is their religious thought of Jewish nature to believe in God’s plan, which is ethically significant and existentially meaningful, and they will survive and not be defeated by the strong if they can endure suffering (Goodman 764). Additionally, there are a lot of good things happened, their relationships are not awful as before, the food is quite enough, and their sunshine, Mr. Kleiman comes to see them frequently with good news. Thus, Anne, like other Jews, is hopeful that the bright future is approaching.

However, the most amazing is not Anne’s discovery of her Jewish identity; it is their Jewish nature (Wettstein 2). The most prodigious is her avant-garde trend of feministic awakening.

I don’t want to live like Mother, Mrs Van Daan and all the other women who simply do their work and are then forgotten. I need to have something besides a husband and children to devote myself to! I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death! (Frank 247)

If Anne awakened to new thought in a normal condition, she might be just early mature. However, the first-wave feminism began after the Second World (Goodman 770); Anne is dead before Hitler lost. Furthermore, Anne keeps hiding in the isolated condition; in other words, she receives less information than the others outside. It is so difficult that a teen-age girl can be aware of women’s labels, but she does it successfully.

In biblical and patriarchal society, people have special value on women; women are ribs of men, and they can only depend on men and have no capacity. (Goodman 773). “I’ve made up my mind to lead a different life from other girls, and not to become an ordinary housewife later on” (Frank 278). What Anne challenges is actually the social, historical, traditional, and religious boundary and values which have been accepted by people for hundreds of years; however, she “trumpets the cause of women’s liberation!” (Larson 51). In other words, feminism is a totally new field for Anne. She must be courageous and thoughtful in order to question the unfair situation for Jewish women.

Anne’s psychology can be divided into four periods. First, as she just comes to the Annex, she feels interesting, but she gradually becomes unhappy because of boredom. Second, since there is nothing new and things are going worse, she turns into depression. Third, she begins to discover her Jewish tradition and identity, and becomes more faithful and thoughtful than before. Meanwhile, her though trend of feminism is awakened. Fourth, things are going better later, and it is possible that freedom is approaching them. She believes that God is carrying out his final plan. She suffers mentally; therefore, she shakes off the old and is reborn. As a result, Anne became a super icon of the Holocaust. She represents the Jew as a persecuted animal, who progressively identifies her Jewishness from history, culture, and religion. She is more than a victim of Hitler – she is “a self-consciously Jewish subject in history” (Pollock 129). In the end of the diary, Anne looks quite hopeful because the war is going to stop; she is not very sad until August 4, 1994, the last day she hides in the Secret Annex and is arrested by the police.

Works Cited:

Frank, Anne. Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. Ed. Frank, Otto H., and Mirjam Pressler. New York: Bantam Books, 1997.

Goodman, Martin, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002.

Larson, Thomas. “In Spite of Everything”: The Definitive Indefinite Anne Frank.” The Antioch Review 58.1 (Winter 2000): 40-54. Ebsco. 20 Nov. 2008. .

Mendels, Joseph. Concepts of Depression. Ed. Maher, Brendan. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1970.

Pollock, Griselda. “Stilled Life: Traumatic Knowing, Political Violence, and the Dying of Anne Frank.” Mortality 12.2 (May 2007): 124-41. Ebsco. 20 Nov. 2008. .

Rowe, Dorothy. Depression: The Way out of Your Prison. Britain: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983.

Schad-Somers, Susanne P. “How the Diagnosis of Depression is Made.” On Mood Swings: The Psychology of Elation and Depression. New York: Plenum Press, 1990.

Stewart, Victoria. “Anne Frank and the Uncanny.” Paragraph 24.1 (March 2001): 99-113. Ebsco. 20 Nov. 2008. .

Wettstein, Howard K., ed. Diasporas and Exiles: Varieties of Jewish Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.