Anne Frank Book vs Movie Research Paper

One story. Two different interpretations. One a diary and another a film.  Both telling the story of Anne Frank. One in her perspective and one in everyone's perspective. With similarities but yet so different. Their opinions changed so much about this story. They get the same gist or idea of life in hiding but each with its own way of interpreting this. This would lead to the composition of similarities and differences in the storyline, characters and scenes throughout. 

The novel and movie portrayed some different and similar scenes.  In Anne’s diary she was obviously talking from her perspective only, therefore changing some scenes or making it more dramatic as she wished. On the contrary the movie was taken from all members perspective, this describes what really happened with some added scenes that Anne would not know of. For instance the movie talks of Mr.Van Daan dropping his wallet in the warehouse (which was the reasoning for their discovery) when in the book we heard nothing of it because Anne was not not aware of this. As Anne was very dramatic and moody a  lot of the scenes in the book seemed much more emphasized than in the movie. The book seemed as if she described the scenes as more pronounced and longer. Her Mummy arguments seemed more violent where as in the movie the arguments seemed to be small. Anne’s argument with Dussel for the desk seemed to be quite short and dull in the movie  whereas the book made it seem violent and powerful. While Anne is the only opinion in the book and more opinions are met in the movie the scenes were slightly different. Anne could have skipped over some things in her diary or the movie could've left things out of some scenes. As an illustration when Mr and Mrs Van Daan were fighting in the book it was over just the fur coat whereas in the movie it was a fur coat and dress. In the breakin scene in the movie Peter decides to stay with the ladies upstairs where as in the book he goes down with the men to check the situation. On the contrary some were very similar such as the call up scene where they both seemed evenly dramatic and the events were the same. Anne also says in both that she does not want to be a housewife and wants to work. Furthermore in both the struggles of the Jews were portrayed evenly. The scenes were more so the same in both with some minor tweaks and changes. 

Names and relationships were somethings that saw a great difference. Frequently Anne had nicknames for those in the Annexe. In the published version, names were changed: The van Pelses are known as the Van Daans, and Fritz Pfeffer as Albert Dussel. These were nicknames given to them by Anne in her diary.They might have been used for personal and safety reasons.  Furthermore she kept some names the same such as Margot, her sister, her Dad Otto, Peter, Edith, her Mom, the workers and helpers of the building( Miep, Kraler ect.), Mouschi, the cat ect. The relationships between the people in the Annexe were also described differently. We can see that in the movie Peter and Mr. Van Daan have a worse relationship, Mr.Van Daan often hits Peter in the head. While in the book we did not hear much about this. Mr. Van Daan also seemed to be a  lot more mean to Anne and the others while in the book it was more Mrs.Van Daan being mean. In the meantime many of the other relationships were about the same. Margot and her mom, Anne and Margot, Anne and her dad, Peter and Anne ect. This comes to show how much someone's opinion has on what is said. Since it was only Anne talking we could see a  difference in the points of view of relationships but when we consider others' opinions like in the movie the point of view changes.

The storyline consists of differences and similarities throughout the two. The movie saw more of the before and after aspect of Anne’s life.  We see more of her friends, more of her life before the war, her boyfriend before hiding and her receiving and asking for the diary for her birthday. In both she got her diary on her birthday but in the book her birthday is where we start and the movie starts beforehand.  For this reason she could not have written before she got the diary; this is why we hear nothing of the events beforehand in the novel. Then we have the aftermath. Anne could not have just taken her diary to the concentration camps so the diary stops just before they get taken out of hiding. However the movie reenacted all that happened after they got taken away. There is a  passage in the back of the novel explaining these scenes written by her dad. They both explain how Anne and the other members of the Anexe get taken away by Nazis to concentration camps. They are transferred between à couple with the boys being separated from girls sick from healthy ect. They were trying to fight for their lives it was pure torture. Unfortunately Anne and her sister later die at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp from typhus just 2 weeks before they would get released. Sadly the only one to survive from the group was Otto Frank, Anne’s dad. Although sad Anne’s Diary and the story it told would go on to educate many. Her legacy is passed by generation to others like us. 

We can now see the impact of peoples opinion on scenes, characters, and storyline making them similar and different. Depending on the person you ask you may get a completely different answer, that is why we ask many when making big decisions. Therefore the movie comes out to be more realistic because of the fact that it was everybody’s opinion. Although it was the exact same idea there were some differences that may have made it more realistic. Some minor details that Anne did not know of made it just that much better. It was one storyline with two different interpretations.