Anne Frank certainly approaches life with energy and personality. Not only is Anne sensitive and bold, but she is also not afraid to laugh. She's clever, too. Before going into hiding, and before Jews were not allowed to ride bicycles, she loved to ride her bike. At this point in time, she is interested in boys as well, but she seems to be overwhelmed with the amount of boys who are also interested in her. Apparently, boys ask to ride their bikes next to her on the way home after school. She allows them to ride with her sometimes, but she is always nervous that they will fall in love with her. She gets away from some of the boys by riding away from them. However, if a boy starts to talk about approaching her father about dating her, she takes care of the situation in a humorous way. For example, in the entry dated Saturday, 20 June, 1942, Anne says the following about boys who start to show too much interest in her while riding bicycles home after school:
"I swerve slightly on my bicycle, my satchel falls, the young man is bound to get off and hand it to me, by which time I have introduced a new topic of conversation" (5).
Thus, Anne responds to life and boys by cleverly avoiding the topic of conversation by creating a humorous distraction.
Another way in which Anne responds to life with humor is when her teacher, Mr. Keptor, punishes her for talking too much by assigning her a composition entitled, "Quack, quack, quack, says Mrs. Natterbeak" (7). She refuses to be made the fool by this, and with the help of a friend, a poem is written about three baby ducks whose father bites them to death for talking too much. Mr. Keptor appreciates her joke and takes it with a good sense of humor, just as intended. Anne does become offended sometimes, but for the most part, she is full of enthusiasm for life, which helps her to respond to it with energy.
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