Anne's account of her feelings is extremely, almost achingly, honest in the entry for December 24, 1943, when she writes at length about her longing to go outside, to walk about freely, to do the things that young people all over the world do and, above all, to simply "have fun." This futile wish leads her once again to the sad topic of what she considers to be the inadequacies of her mother, and Anne vows to behave differently when she has children of her own. Anne seems to have expected too much of her mother, who would probably have functioned well enough in normal circumstances, but here — in this horrible situation — Mrs. Frank appears to be almost unable to under-stand her mercurial daughter, a girl of high intelligence and sensitivity. Remember that these are exceptional and dangerous conditions in which the Franks are trying to survive, and Mrs. Frank is just an ordinary, middle-class person with, perhaps, a limited imagination.
Anne mentions the fact that the mere act of writing her thoughts down in her diary has improved her mood a little. She also refers to her father's phrase "the love of his youth" (December 25, 1943), realizing that her father had confided in her concerning this person the previous year, but then she had not been able to understand "the meaning of his words" because he had to "express his own feelings for once" rather than coping with those of others. Anne adds that her father "has become very tolerant. I hope that I shall grow a bit like him, without having to go through all that [suffering]." This entry reveals Anne's sensitive awareness of her own faults and her desire to improve herself, as well as showing us Anne's acute consciousness of the feelings of others.
