The Diary of Anne Frank
by Anne Frank
ANNE
Look, Peter, the sky. (She looks up through skylight.) What a lovely, lovely day! Aren’t the clouds beautiful? You know what I do when it seems as if I couldn’t stand being cooped up for one more minute? I think myself out. I think myself on a walk in the park where I used to go with Pim. Where the jonquils and the crocus and the violets grow down the slopes. You know the most wonderful thing about thinking yourself out? You can have it any way you like. You can have roses and violets and chrysanthemums all blooming at the same time…it’s funny…I used to take it all for granted…and now I’ve gone crazy about everything to do with nature. Haven’t you?
(Softly.) I wish you had a religion, Peter.
Oh, I don’t mean you have to be Orthodox…or believe in heaven and hell and purgatory and things…I just mean some religion…it doesn’t matter what. Just to believe in something! When I think of all that’s out there…the trees…and flowers…and seagulls…When I think of the dearness of you, Peter…and the goodness of the people we know…Mr. Kraler, Miep, Dirk, the vegetable man, all risking their lives for us every day….When I think of these good things, I’m not afraid any more…I find myself, and God, and I….
We’re not the only people that’ve had to suffer. There’ve always been people that’ve had to…sometimes one race…sometimes another…and yet…
I know it’s terrible, trying to have any fait…when people are doing such horrible…but you know what I sometimes think? I think the world may be going through a phase, the way I was with Mother, It’ll pass, maybe not for hundreds of years, but some day…I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are really good at heart.
Peter, if you’d only look at it as part of a great patter…that we’re just a little minute in life…(She breaks off.) Listen to us, going at each other like a couple of stupid grownups! Look at the sky now, Isn’t it lovely? (She holds out her hand to him.)