Narrator and point of view

The first-person narrator

Anne Frank narrates her diary throughout from the first-person perspective. She writes her diary mainly to process her personal thoughts and feelings: 

[…] it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I feel like writing, and I have an even greater need to get all kinds of things off my chest. (1%).

At the beginning of her diary, Anne makes it clear that its reading is intended only for herself or for a future true friend. Therefore, readers know immediately that in the diary entries they will be introduced to Anne's thoughts and feelings that were never originally meant for their eyes. The reader inevitably takes on the role of Anne's diary friend Kitty and gains a detailed insight into Anne's life and world.

The reader has a clear picture of Anne's development from a rather carefree schoolgirl, who describes her classmates with humor and sharpness, to a brooding and reflective thinker (cf. Themes, Growing up). Although Anne reports that she is perceived by the others in hiding rather as a cheeky, carefree, and rude teenager, she reveals her true self to her diary, and thus also to the reader: 

I know exactly how I’d like to be, how I am . . . on the inside. But unfortunately I’m only like that with myself...