Class 10 NCERT Solutions English Chapter 3: May 1944

On Saturday evening, Anne and Peter discussed their friendship with seriousness. Anne put her worries before Peter and asked him whether they must share a little about them with her father. For Anne keeping her father in confidence and knowing his opinion mattered a lot. So, she raised the question before Peter. She was extremely conscious of the direction that their relation was headed in and wanted to know what her father thought about it. When the question was raised and the two spoke about it, they agreed that it would be best to share a little about them with her father. Peter's agreement showed Anne that he was an honest boy and this made her glad.

Anne wanted to know what her father thought about her friendship with Peter. Since they had kissed a few times now, she thought she ought to confess their closeness to her father and find out his view. She introduced the topic while helping him carry water up the stairs. She began straight away by suggesting that she and Peter were not mere friends and that they did not exactly sit far apart when they spent time together. To these assertions, Anne's father replied that he thought their relation extended only to friendship. He believed that in such close confinement, one had no option but to get accustomed to the ones they lived with. This often led them to develop feelings of love, and at such times, it was up to the women to hold back. He did not think that Peter had a strong character and feared that he could be influenced in any direction. He thought that in normal circumstances Anne would have had the opportunity to meet other boys and girls of her age and get away from Peter when she felt the need for it. However, in present circumstances, letting feelings develop further was dangerous as there would be no turning back.

Almost everyone wondered about the use of war. Why couldn't people live peacefully together? And what was the cause of all the destruction? Anne felt that these questions were absolutely understandable. The fact was that a satisfactory answer to them had not yet been found. She too wondered why the major forces of the world were busy manufacturing gigantic planes and heavy bombs on one side and prefabricated houses on the other. She could not grasp the logic behind spending millions each day on war, while the medical services, artists and general population did not even have pennies. To add to this was the scarcity of food in most parts of the world, while surplus food rotted away in a few countries. Anne was of the opinion that not only the men in power but that every individual in the world was responsible for the war. It would have been easy for people to unite and rise in revolt against the forces fighting the war, but instead, people chose to remain passive witnesses of the war.

Anne had a different perspective on life. She mentioned in a previous entry that life was only as bad as we chose to make it. She chose not to be disheartened and to find something good in every situation she faced. She was an adventurous and imaginative girl. She viewed their days in hiding as an adventure. To her, they were days of danger which had to be overcome. Although she was downcast at times, she did not let it turn into hopelessness and despair. She relied on her books and diary to keep her positive. She noted everything happening around her in a comic tone. She had decided at a very early age that she would not live her life like the other girls and women of her time. She would do everything in her power to be free and independent, and she was consciously working towards achieving this goal. She knew herself to be a fighter, full of positivity. She identified and nurtured her own qualities. She viewed her situation in life with fascination and awed the progress made so far. She preferred to be thankful and appreciative of the good that she had in life as opposed to sulking over limitations. She thus wrote 'I have often been downcast but never in despair'.

Anne believed that her father expected her to follow his advice and refrain from visiting Peter in his room often. As she did not do so, she observed he was angry with her. However, she thought that she was justified in visiting Peter as he was her only source of happiness in those troubled times. She decided to write to him and explain her thoughts on the matter. She planned to sum up what he as a father must be expecting of her and in response write to him that she believed no one in the annex paid her due attention and care. No one even noticed the loneliness she felt. If they did, they would understand her need to visit Peter. She also decided to write to her father that she had learned to take care of herself and she owes this independence to no one but her own struggles. As an independent individual, she now neither felt responsible for nor answerable to any other individual. She says that when she was going through trying times, her behaviour was inconsiderately termed boisterous and no help was extended to her. She had been living under the facade of a jolly girl for almost a year and a half because no one cared for her true feelings. She now had won this lonely battle and had matured faster than other girls of her age. In conclusion, she did not need her parents to make her life's decisions for her.

Anne had slipped the letter she wrote into her father's pocket before dinner on the previous day. However, she was not there to see his reaction when he read it. According to her sister Margot, he had been very upset for the entire evening. Anne then realised that her frankness might have been a little too harsh for her sensitive father. She even warned Peter not to enquire about it.

In the meantime, prices of all sorts of goods were increasing. Black marketing was rampant. Everyone had something to offer at an unreasonably high price. She mentions half a pound of tea being sold at 350 florins, a pound of coffee at 80 florins, a pound of butter at 35 florins and an egg at 1.45 florins. While their baker's boy had sewing silk to sell, their milkman had clandestine ration cards and the undertaker had cheese.

Thefts and murders continued on a daily basis, and others too joined in theft and looting. Some policemen worked day and night to find missing girls and other valuables. Anne mentions that all the people wanted was a means to keep themselves fed, and as this was not possible while following the rules, everyone resorted to any means to reach this end.

On the day after he received the letter, Mr Frank and Anne had a long intense conversation. He told her that he had never in his life received a more undesirable letter. He reminded her how he and her mother had loved and cared for her. How they did all in their power to help and defend her. He could not believe that even after being such good parents, Anne felt no responsibility or gratitude towards them in these difficult circumstances. He told her that the severity with which she wrote about them in the letter was unjust. He knew for a fact that he and his wife did not deserve such rebuke. He urged her to understand that even if she had not meant to be so severe, the contents of the letter did convey it and it wounded him greatly. The conversation brought tears to both Anne's and her father's eyes.

Her father's response made Anne feel extremely ashamed of herself. In her urgent desire to be seen as a grownup, she ignored the feelings of her parents. She mistook her father's advice for a warning and did not consider the effect her response would have on him. She knew she had been unhappy, but it was unfair to blame it on her father who had done a lot for her and was always by her side. For a person as well read as Anne, she had stooped to a very low place. To add to this, her father readily forgave her and told her that he would throw the letter in the fire. He was even more kind and loving towards her as if it was he who had done something wrong. This conversation brought Anne down from her high pedestal and made her realise that she too was prone to follies. She still had a lot to learn in life and that being able to write was not an indication of being a grownup. She felt worse for once looking at the letter with pride while ignoring the load of unhappiness it would cause the people she loved. The inconsiderate tone of her letter itself highlighted that she lacked maturity and far sight. She decided to learn from her mistakes and from her father whom she looked up to as her role model and improve her character.

In this entry, Anne mentions a little about the riches which her parents had seen before the wars. She says that her grandparents on her father's side had been very rich. Her grandfather had worked hard to reach the position he was on. Her grandmother too came from a well-to-do family. Her father had seen all the perks of coming from such a family. In his childhood and youth, he had attended many grand dinners, parties and celebrations. He lived in a large house and had acquaintances with many rich men and beautiful ladies. However, all this was lost during the wars, and therefore, he laughed aloud when he had to for the first time in his life scrape out the frying pan one night at dinner. Anne mentions that her mother too came from a rich family and had seen her share of engagement parties, private balls and dinners.

Although her mother, sister and everyone else had accepted the reality of their situation, Anne was not willing to accept it. She could not live in such limited conditions. She wanted to be free again and then establish an image of herself in the world. She did not like the thought of being confined in a home and in the role of a wife and a mother for the rest of her life. She had a great interest in learning and wanted to travel the world. She hoped to live in Paris for a year and later on in London for another year. She had great confidence in her potential and wanted to nurture her talents there. She planned to learn new languages and the history of art while in London. Anne could not understand the significance of Margot's dream of becoming a midwife in Palestine. Anne cherished and appreciated 'beauty' of all kinds. Her goal was to live an exciting life around the world. She also wished for a little bit of money along with all the fun and excitement as she had seen what poverty and scarcity of resources felt like.

Miep had been to the engagement party of a wealthy couple and came back with tales of grandeur and abundance. She told Anne and everyone else what she saw there. It had been a grand celebration. The main attraction of the party was the abundant supply of food, wine and cigarettes. Miep told them that there was vegetable soup with minced meat balls, cheese rolls, hors d'oeuvre with eggs and roast beef, and finally, fancy cakes, cigarettes and wine. Everyone could have as much as they wanted. Even Miep who normally refrained from consuming alcohol had had ten drinks. The people who attended the party made the best of the opportunity and ate and drank to their heart's content. Miep's descriptions brought water to Margot's and Anne's mouths. They who had nothing but little rotten vegetables to keep them fed kept urging Miep to go on. Anne found it funny that the granddaughters of a millionaire could only hear about good food and imagine how it felt like. She could not believe how the tables had turned in one generation and so she wrote 'The world is a queer place'.

On the afternoon of 9^th May 1944, Mr Kraler brought up the news of a new change which had taken place in the office below. According to what he said, Mrs B, a former demonstrator for the business, had decided to have her box lunch at two o'clock every afternoon in the office. This was a difficult situation for everyone. The new development meant that they had to vacate the area at the specified time for Mrs B. Also, as their residence was not known to anyone but their close associates, they could not risk their presence being noticed by her. None of their normal activities could be continued while Mrs B had her lunch. They could neither get potatoes from their supplier nor use the stairs or water closet when she was in the room. They could not even speak or move for fear of being caught. This small wish seemingly put forth by Mrs B put them all in a very difficult situation, and everyone tried to come up with an idea to make her change her mind.

Mouschi was Peter's tomcat. On one particular day when Anne and Peter had been working on their French in the attic, Anne heard the sound of water trickling down. When she drew Peter's notice to it, he immediately dashed up to the loft and found his cat doing its business next to the wet earth box. He shooed it away and examined the damage. Since the wooden floor of the loft was not waterproof, the water trickled down and reached the attic right into the barrel of potatoes. The water went lower still into the dining room and damaged a pile of stockings and books lying on the table. The cat's little business got everyone to work and caused the family to lose a whole stock of potatoes. While Peter and Anne's father tried their best to minimise the damage, Anne doubled up with laughter at Mouschi and everyone else who got worked up over such a small incident.

In the postscript, Anne mentions rather critically the vacation which their queen took to prepare herself for her return to Holland. Anne's critical tone reflects that she notices the humour of the situation. While the people were struggling for morsels of food and for their very lives, the queen thought that her vacation was more urgently needed. Anne also mentions that the queen used words such as 'soon', 'when I am back', 'speedy liberation', 'heroism' and 'heavy burdens', indicating that the queen had nothing but plain words of comfort for the suffering people. Although most people relied on these speeches for courage and hope, Anne saw this as merely a political move to keep people depending on the people in power.

Anne begins her entry dated 11 May 1944 with the line 'I am frightfully busy at the moment'. This entry describes the manner in which she prepared herself to achieve her goal of becoming a journalist and a writer some day. For this, she worked day in and day out reading books on a wide range of subjects and making notes on them. To add to this, she held herself up to high standards and pushed herself to do a great deal of more work than the average girl of her age. She read books on History, mythology and the Bible. While reading, she took down notes and later made charts and diagrams to memorise them. Next, she tried to learn different languages by making notes, finding meanings and by memorising. She also constructed tree diagrams to understand the relation between people she read about. While doing all this, she made time for her hobbies such as collecting photos of film stars and arranging them. She mentions wanting to go back to what she had read and noted in order to arrange them so that she could understand and remember things better. This tells us that she was not only dedicated to her work but also deeply interested in it.

The people in the annex celebrated Mr Otto Frank's birthday on 12 May 1944. The day began with bright sunlight warming their quarters. Their horse chestnut tree was also in full bloom.

In a previous entry, Anne mentions writing a story for him and knowing that her mother and Margot too had written poems for him. Apart from the story, Anne gave him some roses which she says smelled lovely. Her father received beautiful carnations from Miep and Ellis. Koophius gave him a biography on the life of Linnaeus, Kraler gave him a book on nature and Dussel gave him a book on the canals of Amsterdam. His biggest gift was a huge box decorated from the outside almost professionally and containing three eggs, a beer bottle, a bottle of yoghurt and some green tea. They also received fifty fancy pastries.

In this entry, Anne manages to paint a picture of Mr and Mrs van Daan's relation. She highlights their personalities by narrating a specimen of their conversation. Mr and Mrs van Daan were people of contradicting characters. The two were at odds with each other on most occasions in their thinking pattern. Mrs van Daan was not easily hopeful or encouraged and she expressed this in her observations of the war. She always had something negative to say even when things were going in their favour. Mr van Daan did not agree with her and he too made it a point to make his contradiction of thought known while speaking to her. Mrs Van Daan observes that Mr van Daan made it a point to contradict whatever she said. They both had strong opinions, and they held these opinions very dear and advocated them with vigour. They both made predictions of the war and claimed them to be coming true. They disagreed with each other on principal and ended up fighting each time they spoke.

Anne begins this entry by describing her health. She mentions that she had been unwell with an aching stomach and other illnesses for a while, but her health has now improved. She also mentions Peter and observes that among the two of them, he is the one who needs more emotional attachment and care. She writes that she is content with giving him the love which he has become so used to and come to depend on. She understands this need as she herself has been brought up with a lot of love. Anne sometimes believes that Peter's lack of self-confidence stems from (among other things) the lack of a strong bond within his family. She takes it upon herself to make Peter believe that he is capable of achieving great things in life. Anne does not want Peter to be an easy recipient of her love. She writes that the care she gave him was only out of friendly love and concern for him. If he wished to gain her as a romantic lover, then he would have to work harder and win her love.

One evening when Anne came down from the attic, she found the case of carnations lying on the floor and its water spilt all over the place. On inspection, she realised that all her books and written work including her portfolios of family trees had been soaked in water. The damage brought tears to her eyes. It broke her heart to see all her efforts get wasted. The scene before her disturbed her so much that she could not think of anything or say anything logical. Later, Margot told her that she had mumbled words such as 'incalculable loss', 'frightful', 'terrible', 'can never be repaired' etc. Anne did not have any memory of what she had said at that time. However, when the first wave of shock had passed, she realised that the damage was not as unrepairable as she thought it to be. She managed to separate the pages and carefully got them dried. Her family knew that this could be done, so they found the whole scene funny.

In this entry, Anne writes about the long awaited freedom. She writes without exaggeration that the whole west coast of Europe is waiting for the invasion and talking about it day in and day out. Everyone had set their hopes on the English and were waiting for them to take some steps leading to them being freed. Here, Anne wondered about the basis on which people put such trust and hope in the English. Why did everyone feel that it was the responsibility of the English to take matters in their hands and fight for the freedom of some other state? Anne thinks that this ought not to be the case. She thinks that the English have as much right to their own safety as any other country. They did not owe anything to any other country and if they chose to stay out of the war to protect their men and ammunition, then their judgement was understandable. If occupied countries chose to blame the English for their sufferings, then they should also not forget other free countries which chose not to react to the injustice in the world. According to Anne, no country in its right mind would sacrifice its men and spend its weapons for the sake of another country, and those who blindly expected such generosity were fools. However, now the situation had become so grave that no longer could the free countries ignore it. They would, sooner or later, have to get involved. However, it was not up to the occupied countries to decide the date and time of the invasion. This would still be decided by countries such as England and America.

Anne writes that the news of growing anti-Semitism among the people had been making the rounds. This news filled their hearts with horror and regrets. It caused them great pain to know that the people they lived and worked with had suddenly turned their backs on them despising and hating them in extreme cases. Anne understood the cause of such hatred. It was known that the Jews had been giving out secrets about the Christians to the Germans. Here Anne interjects that though what some Jews did was wrong, they did not do it for personal gain. The Germans had means to make people talk, and when they employed them, there was no one who could stand against it. The Jews were only trying to save themselves from inhuman treatment by the Germans. Anne wondered why the other people could not understand this simple fact and forgive the Jews.

To add to anti-Semitism was the news that the German Jews who had immigrated to Holland and then moved to Poland during the war would not be allowed to return to Holland. They had lost their asylum in Holland and would have to return to Germany after the war. Here Anne felt that the Jews were once again being reduced to less than humans. It was always said that everyone was fighting for freedom, truth and for what was right. However, this was not visible in their attitude towards each other. She could not understand what kind of freedom entailed treating other humans as lower to oneself. There was discrimination and discord all around. Anne was of the opinion that fighting to achieve freedom while discriminating among each other would lead nowhere. Anne wished and hoped that this discrimination was a passing unrest. She realised that if this frame of mind did not change, then the few Jews who were left would also have to flee for their lives and seek asylum somewhere else. Despite all odds, Anne had faith in the good Dutch folk.

In this entry, Anne mentions the arrest of their vegetable man for giving refuge to two Jews in his house. She then goes on to write about the chaos and falsehood in the world. She finally explains the direct implications of their vegetable man's arrest to them in the annex.

Anne, like the others, was disturbed by the disorder and selfishness in the world. Everyone was out to save their own skins at the cost of another's life. People were being arrested and sent off to concentration camps and prisons in false cases. No one had any surety of his own life. Now, it did not matter if they were Jews or Dutch, young or old. Good people were caught and imprisoned, while the corrupt and shrewd minded men governed the land. For the people in the Annexe, the loss of their vegetable man meant more work and less food. As the women were not allowed to carry the load of the potatoes up to the annex, they had to make do with the little that the men managed to carry up. They had to skip their breakfast altogether. They now had porridge and bread for lunch and fried potatoes for supper. Once or twice a week, they managed to get some vegetables or lettuce for dinner. Although they had only a bare minimum to eat, they consoled themselves thinking this was better than being found and arrested.

Anne was now beginning to feel worse than ever. She was downcast that the freedom for which they had been waiting since the past two years was not even near. Their condition had begun to worsen. There were things needing repair. The loss of their vegetable man, growing anti-Semitism and lack of food and its bad quality were some of the many problems which were beginning to overshadow the little hope that they had. To add to this was the contrast between their lives and the lives of the people helping them. Although the people in the annex loved and cared for their helpers, they could not help despising their freedom at times. The people in the annex counted on their helpers to do their work which needed going out. The helpers were not bound to them by duty. They reached out to them out of their own free will. However, the people in the annex had begun to count on them for different jobs and did not cope well when they were forgotten. Anne too felt the same about their helpers, especially on occasions like Elli's approaching engagement. They all felt left out when Elli got busy with the preparations of her wedding and upset when Miep baked them a cake with the words 'Happy Whitsun' on it. They felt like they were being mocked at with the word 'Happy' where celebration was a concept they had long forgotten. Stories of break-ins and discoveries of Jews in hiding kept reaching the annex. Everyone was constantly worried and jittery. Anne recollects an instance when she was gripped with fear at the thought of visiting the lavatory downstairs all alone. Anne and everyone in the annex could not bear the fear anymore. On one occasion, Anne wonders if it would be better to be found and dead once and for all instead of having to go through all this. It would bring a quick end to their misery and save their helpers from suffering the same fate as the other helpers who had been caught so far.

Although the helpers did not have to live in hiding, they had their own worries. While Miep was burdened by the biggest load of work to be done, Kraler was burdened by other responsibilities put on him. Nevertheless, they tried to be of as much assistance as they could. They even tried to add a little bit of happiness to their lives whenever they could. For instance, Miep baked a cake for everyone on special occasions like birthdays and on Whitsun day. Though the Dutch helpers had their own share of troubles and worries, they at least had freedom, which was a greater wealth than anything else. They could move around on the streets and visit their friends and relatives and have little celebrations like normal people in any part of the world. One example of this is Elli, who in the midst of all the worries was preparing for her wedding. Everyone was going through difficult times, but people like the Dutch at least had the freedom to dream of a future. They could still celebrate festivals and laugh and joke at times while forgetting the war for a short while.

The weather had changed since the past four days. It had begun to get hot and the closed windows only added to the heat inside. In this entry, Anne narrates the change in the people's response to the heat. As the heat increased and extended for days, the people in the annex became restless and agitated. Anne notes that there had never been such a beautiful and yet so hot Whitsun before. This was also the opinion of everyone in the annex on Saturday. They called it 'lovely' and 'a perfect weather'. Although they felt the heat when the windows were closed in the afternoon, they did not give much thought to it. When the heat did not reduce on the next day, their opinion changed and they called it 'positively unbearable'. The rapidly heating atmosphere also affected their food. Their butter melted, the milk got sour and their bread dried up. There was a little breeze on Monday, but the heat continued. Mrs van Daan complained that her feet were hurting, she could not wash vessels in such heat and she had no thin clothes to wear. The Jews could not even celebrate the Whitsun holidays out in the open like the others did. The times were so bad that even a single wave of fresh air seemed like a blessing to them.