Question 8

5e.) How do the events following Anne's nightmare reveal tensions between Anne and two other members of the household?

When Anne had a nightmare in the middle of the night, she has a dream about how the Green Police, or the Nazis come for her and are taking her away. Since she is terrified in her sleep, she starts screaming and screaming. This wakes almost everyone in the Secret Annex, and though Mr. Dussel is excessively annoyed by this waking him, Mrs. Frank is the first to come to Anne. On page 398, Mrs. Frank tries to console her and comfort her, "Would you like some water? Was it a very bad dream? Perhaps if you told me..." However, Anne replies, "I'd rather not talk about it." This probably hurts Mrs. Frank a little bit, but when Mrs. Frank offers to stay with Anne until she falls asleep, Anne does not want her to stay, "I'd rather you didn't." Then, when Mrs. Frank tries to kiss her, Anne doesn't allow her to, and tries to avoid it. Instead, Anne asks her mother to get Mr. Frank. This hurts Mrs. Frank even deeper, but Mrs. Frank still goes to get her husband. Mrs. Frank tells Mr. Frank to go to Anne, but Mr. Frank thinks that Mrs. Frank should still stay with Anne, but Mrs. Frank keeps urging him to talk to her. I think that at this point, Mrs. Frank is really doing this out of love for Anne. Margot tries to comfort Mrs. Frank, but Mrs. Frank can't help crying. She thinks that Anne doesn't want her mother in her life, and wants to shut her out. Mrs. Frank thinks that Anne loves her father more than her mother. Instead of telling her mother about her dream, she tells her father, and this makes Mrs. Frank feel terrible. There could be some sort of tension between Mrs. Frank and Mr. Frank, because Mrs. Frank thinks that Anne loves her father more than her mother. I know exactly how Mrs. Frank feels, and I know exactly how Anne feels also. My sister used to side with either my mother or my father, and the other sometimes felt left out. I hated it when there was this kind of problem at home, because I would feel horrible, and probably all the others, too. There was this one time when my dad wasn't in the best mood, and he started critisizing my sister and I. At that point, we hated him. We wanted him to go away. Even my mother felt like it wasn't the right thing to do for him. At that time, I only thought about my feelings. However, when I look back at that time, I can't imagine how my dad could have felt. I can't imagine all of my family members hating me and wanting me to leave. I think that Mrs. Frank felt just horrible. Anne should have been more sensitive to her mother's feelings.

Theme: No matter what condition you are in, and how you feel, you should always think about other people's feelings too, and not only worry about yourself but others around you as well.