How the Issue of Discrimination Effects the Protagonists in The Diary of Anne Frank - Essay Example

? s How the issue of discrimination effects the protagonists in The Diary of Anne Frank and If this is a Man of Primo Levi The Diary of Anne Frank is an autobiography of the girl mentioned in the name of the book itself. She is gifted a diary on her thirteenth birthday and decided to call it Kitty and write her innermost thoughts as well as her life’s daily happenings in it. She writes of her love for her father Otto and how she dislikes her mother Edith at times. She talks about her sister Margot and her friends and how the political conditions in Holland were in 1942. The conditions around the world, particularly in Germany and all those places which were taken over by Hitler – one of them being Holland, were quite bad especially for the Jews. The Frank family were Jews and so they had their own fair share of things to suffer through because of their choice of religion. Everything was separate and divided according to the religion one followed. The “Jews were required to wear a yellow star” (Frank 7) so there was a distinction between them and the Christians and, thus, the different ways in which either were treated. Even the schools were separate for the Jews and Christians, they “were required to frequent only Jewish-owned barbershops and beauty parlors”; contact between the two was frowned upon enough that people followed the government’s ideals or just hid their relationship – if any – with the Jews (Frank 7). The prices of things and even the quantity made available to the Jews and Christians was different. There were a specific set of timings which had to be followed if the Jews wanted to go to a particular place, they were “forbidden to use street-cars”, had “to turn in their bicycles”, could not “ride in cars” so on (Frank 7). Under Hitler’s rules, the Jews were not human beings but things who had committed a crime by following the religion they had been brought up with and/or believed in. As Anne’s friend Jacque said, “I don't dare do anything anymore, 'cause I'm afraid it's not allowed" (Frank 7). Anne writes about all this in the beginning of the diary and how her father advices her to “just enjoy your (her) carefree life while you (she) can” until the time comes when they have to move out of their house (Frank 12). Margot is called for by the authorities and the family realizes that their turn has now come. Their various relations and friends – the Jewish ones – had been pulling a disappearing act one by one, going in hiding to keep themselves safe for as long as possible. The Frank family had not followed in their footsteps but once Margot receives a formal letter, they make a united decision of escaping and going into hiding. With the help of their friends – Christian friends like Miep and Jan Gies who are not prejudiced against a particular set of people just because they are Jews – they shift their most important belongings into a part of Otto’s office. They “just wanted to get out of there, to get away and reach our (their) destination in safety. Nothing else mattered” (Frank 14). There was a section in the office that was walled off which was covered by a swinging bookshelf, it is behind this that the family ends of living for around two years. They try to make it as habitable as possible. The new accommodation is referred to as the Secret Annex in the Diary. There is even a rough map of sorts given. However, even if they are safe for a particular time being, they are sad for leaving their home behind with all their things and memories and a life which they lived out there no matter how stifling and full of rules and regulations. Just because of one man’s desire of riding the world of a particular set of who he kept forgetting were human beings, they had to change everything, leave their regular lifestyle behind. Soon after the Frank family settle in, they are joined by another family. Mr and Mrs van Daan enter the picture with their son Peter who is a few years older than Anne. The woman annoys Anne though she becomes infatuated with the boy. It is no surprise either since the age that she was going through and considering the fact that she had only limited people – limited boys, only one boy – around her, which was yet another effect of the move. The next person to move in is an elderly dentist called Mr Dussel. There is not enough space so Anne has to share her room with him no matter how annoying his habits. There was still a limited space available and they had to give shelter to whoever they could. Anne, on the other hand, has to get along with more people, share her space, her things with them, and have more people to boss her around. She has to share the rations which were already sparse and often go to bed with just the bare minimum of food. During the time of life when she should have been outside, socializing with her friends, she was hiding from the world inside a very small space with limited things to entertain her. Her education is cut short due to the inability to attend school even though she continues her studies in whatever manner possible. She has to spend her days quiet and tiptoeing around for fear of someone overhearing them and giving them. Her life revolves around listening to the radio for good news, and hearing the bombs going off or shots being fired. All this because of the World War II which was started due to Hitler’s mindset about the Jews. The Diary ends informing how the two families and Mr Dussel were caught and sent to the respective camps where they died after a period of time. Only Otto survived who managed to publish his daughter’s diary after some necessary editions. The book If this is a Man was originally written in Italian by Primo Levi though his work was translated in various languages as it became more well known. This is also an autobiography of a Jew who writes about everything that he had to suffer during the period when World War II was taking place. It starts off with informing the reader of how he was captured by the soldiers in fascist Italy. Admitting to being a Jew but having no other crime results in a few days being spent at a detention camp and then he is sent to the labor camp. To stop them from escaping, a warning is given that “for every person missing at the roll-call, ten would be shot” (Levi 5). It is here where he has to suffer so badly. The scars are not only emotional and mental, but also physical. His head is shorn free of his hair, there is not a single piece of cloth covering any part of his body and his forearm now has a tattoo which is his camp identity number. This is what is most humiliating, that he is treated not as a human being but as an animal. He is a Jew so he is clumped together with other thousands of those. His name and personality do not count anymore; instead, he has a number which distinguishes him from the other prisoners. All this because he is a Jew, as he writes in the book, “what had we to repent, for what crime did we need pardon?” (Levi 5). If that was not enough, Levi and the other inmates are given backbreaking work which they have to carry out even if their bodies were bruised and battered of all the beatings that they had received, even if they had no strength or energy which they most often did not because of the minimum amount of food that was provided and which, sometimes, was not given at all due to the scarcity of rations. This leads to him becoming obsessed with food. As mentioned before, they are treated worse than animals as whatever livestock or pet one may keep, one does remember to feed it otherwise there is no use of it. Over here, the men were working for their lives and food was the next priority. Those who are unfit are made to breathe in poisoned gas which leads to their demise. Basically, Levi and all the other Jews were considered replaceable, even if they would get rid of one – or more as was the case – there were always the others to take up the slot, not surprisingly since the Jews are referred to as “pieces” (Levi 7) by a soldier and Levi himself writes about them being treated “like cheap merchandise” (Levi 8). The months during imprisonment have Levi cold, exhausted and absolutely starving. He only manages to survive because of a friend Alberto who gives him hope. After a series of incidents in which he turns lucky – more so than the others anyway, he does end up not dead after all – he is finally liberated in early 1945. Whereas Anne Frank’s words allow one an insight to what the Jews may have suffered in those tough times and that also due to no fault of their own. Her Diary shows what the thoughts of those in hiding might have been and all that they suffered through, the problems they faced, etc. On the other hand, Primo Levi’s account of all that he went through, what he suffered as a prisoner during the war seems like a continuation of sorts. One discovered what happened when the Jews went into hiding first, and then one read about what happened at the camps and how awful life was. How much of a miracle it was for Levi to have survived through all that torture and actually be able to write a book over it as well. Both ways, all that they had to suffer was so bad that one may wonder whether death would be preferable than the uncertainty of what was a poor excuse of a life or the tortures during imprisonment. However, if one is desperate to search for a good outcome out of the whole mess, Anne Frank’s Diary is still widely read and her childhood dream – which even she must not have taken too seriously – of publishing it came true. It was even better for Primo Levi as he actually managed to survive and continue on with his life and was brave enough to pen down all that happened to him. Both writers, both Jews, both discriminated against because of the religion they followed and yet both of them are such famous personalities. Bibliography Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. Ed. Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler. Trans. Susan Massotty. Reprint edition. Everyman's Library, 2010. Levi, Primo. If This Is a Man. Trans. Stuart Woolf. Little, Brown Book Group, 1991. Read More