I heard an academic give the thought that Anne Frank’s diary was nothing but childish musings today. This idea was made inside the larger context of the diary being literature, and this thought (or point) implied that a young girl’s diary could not be considered a masterwork of literature.

I neither agree nor disagree with this thought. Some of the diary may be viewed as the musings of a young girl because . . . well, Anne was a young girl. She was writing inside this context, but she also wrote inside one much larger than that of a young girl; this context was the human experience and cannot be categorized as simple feelings.

Although writing evolves in the writer, meaning—given the proper nourishment and development—it reaches maturity, there is a foundation for masterful writing that comes with the expression of the human experience in a way that not only evokes deep feeling in the reader but touches a cord of truth that every reader comprehends. Anne Frank** may not have been an old woman, but she expressed the human condition in a way that everyone understands.

This discussion about Anne Frank brings to mind the two types of critic. The first is the critic who believes that age, maturity, and longevity bring about experience in writing and the creation of great literature. The second type of critic believes that writing is an innate art form; it’s not something that’s developed but something that one is born with. Whether or not we agree completely with these critics, most of us still sway toward one of their viewpoints.

The truth about “literature” resides where there is emotional depth, where the writer has touched the reader deep enough to mark them. This isn’t just for a single reader; it is for the many readers. By touching on the human condition, a good piece of writing carries itself through time because it is able to reach a depth of truth that everyone knows, a constant of the human experience that we feel connected to.

Anne was a young girl, but she carried a voice that resonates today. Her diary is imbued with reflections, but it contains sublime understanding that reaches into the hearts of those who read her words in a sometimes simple but definitively profound diary.

Copyright © Tyler Gant 2009
[ad#Adbrite]