Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews February 14, 2023 February 7, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
The residents of the annex use too much electricity and exceed their ration. Anne begins to feel that Mr. Dussel is a strict disciplinarian and has too many opinions about etiquette. She writes that it is very difficult being “the badly brought-up center of attention in a family of nitpickers.” Hanukkah and St. Nicholas Day come on almost the same day, so the annex holds two celebrations. They light the Hanukkah candles for only ten minutes, since candles are in short supply. For St. Nicholas Day, Father hides a basket filled with presents and a mask of Black Peter in a cabinet.
Mr. van Daan makes sausages to preserve the meat they have bought. Mr. Dussel opens a pretend dental practice in the annex and comically attempts to fix Mrs. van Daan’s cavities. Anne tires of Mrs. van Daan’s incessant complaints and is annoyed that Mr. Dussel constantly tells her to be quiet at night but then wakes her up when he does his exercises at dawn. Anne marvels at how diplomatic she has become while living in the annex. Mr. Kugler brings the residents gravy packets to fill because he can find no one else to do the job. According to Anne, however, it is a prisoner’s job.
Anne writes more about the terrible events that are happening outside. Jews are being taken from their homes and separated from their families, and non-Jewish children are wandering the streets in hunger. Anne writes that both Christians and Jews want the war to end, and she believes that her family is better off than people outside the annex.
Anne seethes that everyone is always yelling at her and calling her “exasperating,” and she wishes she had a personality that did not antagonize everyone. Mr. Frank thinks the war will end soon, but the level of anxiety in the annex increases. Anne is frightened by the sound of gunfire one night, so she crawls into her father’s bed for comfort. Another night, Peter climbs up into the loft and a rat bites his arm. Mr. Dussel often writes letters to his wife and to others outside, and Mr. Frank demands that he stop. The residents have another scare when they think they hear burglars in the building. After that incident, the clock suddenly stops chiming, which also upsets Anne. Later, the residents hear a radio announcement that all Jews must be deported from Utrecht and the other provinces of the Netherlands by the beginning of July.
Mr. Dussel’s wife sends him a package for his birthday. Anne notes that Mr. Dussel does not share his sizable stash of personal food with the other residents or their Dutch helpers. Although Anne knows that her family is better off than the vast majority of Jews, she predicts that they will look back and wonder how they lived for so long under such difficult conditions. Mr. van Daan says he believes that the war will end in 1943. When Anne reaches her fourteenth birthday, her father writes her a poem, and Margot translates it from German into Dutch.
In this section Anne vents her frustrations at living in the annex and dealing with the adults. Anne realizes that the general unpleasantness of the annex and the van Daans’ and Mr. Dussel’s stinginess pale in comparison to the horrors others are enduring outside the annex. Nonetheless, Anne is frustrated at the adults and does not think their behavior is warranted. She does not seem to make much effort to understand why the adults are acting the way they are. This oversight reminds us that although Anne has grown up considerably since moving into the annex, she is a young girl and still emotionally immature in certain ways. She never takes a step back to try to understand the different pressures facing the adults. At her age, she is still struggling to understand her own nature and motivations, and she is not yet able to expand her focus to include the adults and their behavior. Reading her diary, we realize that Anne does not bear the burden of trying to protect an entire family from the inexplicable evils of the war. On the one hand, Anne has the perspective to realize that her situation within the annex is not as dire as the situation outside; however, she does not yet have the empathy to understand the cause of the adults’ tensions.
Please wait while we process your payment