Characters Portrayals In The Diary Of Anne Frank And The Boy At The Top Of The Mountain
In the play, The Diary of Anne Frank, and the novel, The Boy at The Top of The Mountain, characters undergo many changes throughout their stories. Anne from the play The Diary of Anne Frank and Pierrot from The Boy at The Top of The Mountain are both dynamic and round characters. A dynamic character undergoes a change throughout literature a round character is well developed and typically a main character. In the play, Anne undergoes the change of being childish to being kind-hearted, and in The Boy at The Top of The Mountain Pierrot undergoes the change of being Tolerant to disrespectful.
In the play, The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne is a dynamic character who is childish in the beginning of the play. Shortly after going into hiding in the Secret Annex, Anne dresses up in Peter’s clothes to annoy him; Peter is furious. Anne says, “‘Good evening, everyone. Forgive me if I don’t stay. I have a friend waiting for me in there. My friend tom. Tom Cat. Some people say that we look alike. But tom has the most beautiful whiskers, and I only have little fuzz. I am hoping . . . in time . . .”’ (Goodrich, Hackett 383). Anne’s words and actions demonstrate she is childish because she neither respects Peter’s personal space or feelings. In the end of the play, Anne shows she is a dynamic character by displaying the character trait kind-hearted. Two years after being in hiding, Anne and Peter are in his room having a discussion. Anne says that other traces have suffered just like the Jews, but Peter does not care. Anne states, “‘I know it’s terrible, trying to have any faith . . . 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 someday . . . I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are really good at heart’” (Goodrich, Hackett 431). Anne’s words show kind heartedness becuase, even after the nazi’s atrocoties twords the Jew’s she still sees good in humanity. While Anne is a dynamic character in the play, The Diary of Anne Frank, Pierrot is also a dynamic character in the novel, The Boy at The Top of The Mountain.
In the novel, The Boy at The Top of The Mountain, Pierrot is also a dynamic character who is tolerant in the beginning. After Pierrots parents pass away he moved into his friend Anshel’s house, Anshel and his mother are Jewish while Pierrot is German, even though they have very large different they are still friends. Pierrot says in a letter he sent to Anshel, ‘“We can’t allow our correspondence to fall into enemy hands! So from now on, Anshel, we won’t ever write our names at the end of our letters. Instead, we’ll use the names we gave each other when we lived together in Paris. You must use the sign of the fox, and I will use the sign of the dog”’ (Boyne 120). This letter to Anshel shows that Pierrot doesn’t want to lose contact with him because they are such good friends and care about each other very greatly even though their religious beliefs are different. In the end of the novel, The Boy at The Top of The Mountain shows they are a dynamic character by displaying the character trait disrespectful. A few years after Pierrot moved into Hitlers home with his aunt Beatrix he was hungry so asked the cook Emma if there was any food for him to eat. Pierrot then demanded her to make him a sandwich and when he got it he threw it in the garbage and yelled at Emma. Pierrot says to Emma ‘“Now you make a sandwich when I require it!’”. (Boyne, 204). Pierrots actions show that he has no respect for people and doesn’t care about respecting anyone either. Both characters Anne from the play The Diary of Anne Frank, and Pierrot from the novel, The Boy at The Top of The Mountain, are dynamic because they change over the course of the story.
In The Boy at The Top of The Mountain Pierrot undergoes the change of being forgiving to impolite and in the play, Anne undergoes the change of being foolish to being considerate. Anne and Pierrot both changed throughout the story but Anne became good and Pierrot became bad. They both were around the same age and valued some of the same things like they both loved to read and they both loved animals, but Anne loved to right while Pierrot didn’t and Anne didn’t have any pets to play with. Anne knew that she was going to go into hiding and didn’t know when she might be found or if she might ever be found. Pierrot had no clue what was going to happen to him his parents died and he had to move into Hitlers home and eventually became a follower of Hitler and became extremely rude to others.
