Anne's diary in itself is a symbol of comfort. It was a gift from her last birthday before she had to go into hiding, making it something she can cling to from her former life. It also enables her to maintain some privacy as she is living in a small space with seven other people and sharing a bedroom with a middle-aged man. Anne writes, I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support. The diary becomes even more than that when, after a break-in, the diary becomes a real threat to their existence if the police find it, yet Anne is willing to sacrifice her life to keep it.
One cannot read Anne Frank's work without realizing that the girl was born to write. Her descriptions of people and places are full of personality and creative vocabulary. As an elementary school student, she describes a classmate as "a detetestable, sneaky, stuck-up, two-faced gossip who thinks she's so grown-up" and mentions that she herself has "a throng of admirers who can't keep their adoring eyes off me."As Ann gets older, in the hiding place, her descriptions become more mature and thoughtful. She will later observe of herself: "I was born happy, I love people, I have a trusting nature, and I'd like everyone else to be happy too.’’ And as the gravity of the situation becomes increasingly apparent to a maturing Anne, her comments become more serious, albeit still artistic; of the situation she and her family and their friends are facing in hiding from the Nazis, she says:
"I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. . . . [They loom] before us like an impenetrable wall, trying to crush us, but not yet able to."
