This blog was created to discuss and analyze a graphic novel called Anne Frank: The Anne Frank House Authorized Graphic Biography. Being not only a graphic novel but a graphic biography, it aims to give a deep insight into Anne's life, from beginning to end and even after her death as her legacy continued through her father. Through this graphic biography of Anne Frank's life, Anne develops from an innocent and happy young girl who is new to Amsterdam to a teenager living in a secret annex in this city whose relationships with family members and overall emotions become strained due to the stress of hiding from the Nazis.
First, it is important to give a brief overview of the book before analyzing more about Anne's life, relationships, and emotions in this book. This graphic biography takes place in the 1920's, 30's and 40's with much of the book and events in it taking place during World War II and The Holocaust. It focuses on Anne Frank, a young, Jewish girl born in Germany whose family is forced to flee to Amsterdam in an effort to elude the Nazis. Anne's father, Otto, moves his family, along with two other Jewish families, into a secret annex in Amsterdam behind his place of business, where they are not allowed to venture into the streets at any point, instead essentially being trapped inside each day they are hiding. Despite their efforts, Anne and her family are eventually captured by the Nazis, where they endure working in concentration camps until they reach death, except for Anne's father Otto, who is the only survivor of his family.
When looking at strained relationships with family members, Anne's relationship with her mother is one that evolves from a loving, trusting relationship to a hateful, resentful one. On page 50, Anne's parents are discussing that a Jewish couple committed suicide to escape the era of Nazi Occupation. Anne asks them what is going on, they reply that it was nothing, and she skips away happily, going on with her day. Her innocence coupled with her trust and respect for her mother leads her to not question or get angry at her mother for hiding information from her but to simply keep walking down the hallway. Even on page 62, Anne's mother instructs her daughter to sew a Jewish Star on all her shirts, and she responds with"Yes, mummy." Again, she does not argue or lash out at her mother; she listens and obeys to what was asked of her and has a positive, happy attitude about it, as if it is another daily task her mother asks her to complete.
Even when Anne first begins her time hiding in the secret annex, she tries to bring joy through placing pictures and postcards on her small wall next to her bed, stating that it makes the room more cheerful, found on page 75. However, when looking closely at her face as she is putting up these pictures, we can see a worrisome look on her face--her innocence and happiness is starting to disappear as she becomes aware of the dangers her family is facing. Now that her family has actually relocated to a hidden room in an effort to stay safe, the reality of the fear her family faces becomes evident to Anne, and she starts to feel it, too, which is why she tries to bring joy into this dismal location.
The beginning of her shift in emotions from the stress of hiding also impacts her relationship with her mother; Anne's loving and respectful relationship with her mother is replaced with a more angry and hateful one as the Nazi reign becomes more powerful and her family feels less safe and more fearful. While Anne begins her time in hiding, she receives news of a former classmate being deported while in hiding on page 82, and she runs to her father, proclaiming that she cannot stand her mother. By looking on page 91, we see this strained relationship again. Anne's mother asks if she can tuck her in and tries to joke around with her, to which Anne responds no; Anne's mother even admits she is hurt that Anne's feelings towards her have changed and that she cannot make her daughter love her.
It seems as if her mother's coping mechanism of making jokes to deal with the stress and fear present in the secret annex do not mix well with Anne's own worries while in hiding. Her mother's coping behaviors only make Anne more angry at her mother and the situation they are in, hiding from the outside world. Anne new, negative feelings towards her mother fuel the fact that she feels she no longer needs to listen to or obey her mother anymore.
When examining Anne's shift in overall emotions from her time as a positive young girl to a worried, angry teenager, the colors in the book as Anne's life progresses reinforces this change in attitude and emotion. On pages 36 and 37 when Anne is at school, the sky is bright blue, the colors of Anne and her friends' clothes are bright, and even the grass appears bright green, indicating a happy, positive theme on these pages as the children play on the playground without thinking about the Nazis increasing their power as days go on. However, on page 82, the same page where Anne receives news in hiding about a former classmate being deported and where she later exclaims that she cannot stand her mother (discussed in a previous paragraph), all the clothes of Anne and her family appear dismal. As her emotions and words become more negative and darker, more darkness appears on the page in forms of clothes, shadows, and wrinkles and lines on faces.
Continuing to analyze the color scheme and how it relates to Anne's changing emotions, on page 114 and 115, Anne's family's location is given away through a telephone call to the Office of the Security Service by an anonymous source. On these pages where Anne's family's lives are about to drastically change, one of the panels on page 115 is completely black, white, and gray--there are also prominent black figures and shadows in this panel as well as in the panels below, where officers are making their way to the secret annex. These men appear to have black and dark clothes, and on one panel on the right side, half of the panel is completely black behind one of these officers. Again, as Anne's emotions become more strained and she yells at her mother while losing her happiness in hiding, the panels appear darker and darker until their final capture, where darkness in the panels takes over the colors.
To go back to my claim that through this graphic biography of Anne Frank's life, Anne develops from an innocent and happy young girl who is new to Amsterdam to a teenager living in a secret annex in this city whose relationships with family members and overall emotions become strained due to the stress of hiding from the Nazis, we can look at her relationship with her mother as the basis for these overall emotions and specific attitudes towards her mother. Living in a cramped space with two other families for more than two years definitely causes Anne's emotions to become heightened--dealing with the stress and fear of being caught and sent away only leads to more negative emotions towards Anne's mother, who is trying to provide comfort for Anne who pushes it away, as she does not want to be comforted or joked around with as she has changed from a young, innocent girl into a teenager who fears for her life, her family's lives, and sadness for not having any connections to the outside world. Anne's change in emotions and the relationship with her mother is a good example for what happens when fear takes over--people can become more emotional, and some, like Anne, get more angry because they are confused and just want to feel safe and happy again. Anne Frank's story is not one of complete happiness and a good ending; this graphic biography details all the major events in her life and addresses and brings to light the obstacles and eventual torture her family endures simply for being Jewish. As it even discusses her death in a concentration camp and her struggle to live as a young Jewish girl in an anti-Jewish time, we see that this daily struggle impacts not only those around her but her own inner struggles and fears.
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