Adolescence is a period in which adolescents learn to become more independent, become more understanding and, above all, discover themselves and who I am. But this is not always the case; when the adolescent's circumstances are abnormal, his experiences and maturational processes also become abnormal. With the examples of Elie Wiesel, Anne Frank and Jeanne Wakatsuki, we can see that growing up in a war environment plays a definite role in the process of maturing and becoming an adult. All these authors sooner or later become self-centered and this helps them discover themselves. They are also very lenient in terms of treatment, and at times, they might even feel that they deserve this kind of injustice. Finally, they also distance themselves from the people they adored and this makes them become very independent and isolated from the outside world as if they weren't already. We can already clearly see the differences between growing up in a safe environment and growing up with constant gunfire outside the window, but we can see the difference even more clearly by asking ourselves, “How different might these individuals have been if they had been raised without constant fear for their lives because of the hostility and bloodshed happening right before their eyes?” As demonstrated by Elie Wiesel's Night, Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston's Farewell to Manzanar, growing up in a war environment can influence a teenager by making him more likely to misunderstand. others, more self-centered, and both more enraged and more accustomed to this kind of harsh treatment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay During this time, all three teenagers (Anne Frank, Jeanne Wakatsuki, and Elie Wiesel) were self-centered, but not always selfish. An example that shows how a teenager can be self-centered and ultimately selfish is Elie, he took care of his father, despite knowing he wouldn't make it since he was so old and frail. “I shook my father's hand. The old, familiar fear: Don't lose him,” Elie writes (page 104) in his memoirs. When they arrive at Auschwitz they were left for dead, but they remained together despite the difficulties that came with it, but as the story progresses, Elie changes, but not for the good. He begins to resent having to take care of his dying old father and begins to wonder why he should suffer just to save his father who was already dead inside, and in the end, he basically sends his father whom he once loved, to his death: “I gave him given what was left of my soup. But my heart was heavy. I was aware that I was doing it reluctantly... The officer brandished his club and dealt him a violent blow to the head. I didn't move. I was afraid, my body was afraid of another blow, this time to the head." (page 107 and page 111) He begins to think more about himself, and the reader can't blame him, he has been through hell and back, and on that journey he learns the only way to save himself; be selfish. The other two were lucky enough not to be abused in this way physically, but mentally they suffered almost as much, but in very different ways. Jeanne probably suffered less, but that doesn't mean she didn't at all. Forced into internment, Jeanne learns to be her own counsel and guide because her parents were no longer the one for her. “Being his youngest child, I had grown up blessed with special attention. Now, I found myself more and more cut off from him,” (page 117) Jeanne writes, showing that not only does she feel as if her relationship with her father has changed, but is nowcompletely disappeared, they were nothing more than simple roommates, living in the same house with the same last name, but in reality they were not a family. This put a strain on Jeanne as she attempted to become an adult because she lacked the care she needed to feel wanted and feel like even if the rest of the world was against her, she still had the love and support of her parents. parents, but just when the world was against her and her family, her family simply cut her off. And like Anne, unlike the other two, she didn't become selfish or completely cut off from her family, and the reason is because she couldn't. She was forced into hiding, with no choice but to face her family for almost all of her time, she had no chance to walk away, unlike Jeanne who wanted to get closer to her family. As he wrote in his diary on August 21, 1942: “Mother sometimes treats me like a child, which I cannot bear” (page 24) and on November 7, 1942: “Dad doesn't understand that I need to sometimes vent my feelings for mom. He doesn't want to talk about it; just avoid anything that might lead to comments about mom's flaws. However, Mom and her failures are something I find harder to bear than anything else. (page 45) Annie constantly has problems with her family and, in most cases, it is her mother, but she has no one to vent to, she doesn't have the space to go away and give herself private space. She is self-centered, meaning she always feels like others are wrong or at fault for the way they treat her, and this has affected her growth. Instead of learning when to take a break, she learned a way to vent her feelings while in the same room with her mother, even if her mind was a million miles away; and this was his diary. For Elie, his father, in the beginning, was the only thing that stopped him from being selfish and completely independent, while with Jeanne she had to become independent, because she had no one to depend on, and as for Anne, she had her own diary ; her kitten. All three may have felt mistreated, less understood, or even intimidated by their parents, but their shared mindset was all due to their circumstances. Normal teenagers don't live in fear of the Gestapo getting them and because of that they get something that the three of them would have treasured; freedom. But even without freedom, they learned to discover themselves, both mentally and physically, but they were unable to try new things or "live" their lives as they were stuck in a hideout, internment camp, or prison. concentration camp. Wartime life offers no normal, safe opportunities for friendship and self-discovery, although improvised options are possible. Anne seeks comfort and discovers herself not only by writing her feelings in her diary but also by talking to Peter, as she writes on January 6, 1944: “My desire to talk to someone has become so intense that somehow or other l 'I took it into consideration. my head to choose Peter”. (page 131) If Anne had a choice, she would not have chosen Peter as a friend, but because she was confined, she had no other choice, as she said the day before, "If only I had a girlfriend!" (page 131) In other cases, Anne also discovers herself sexually by talking to Peter, but she discovers herself more emotionally and mentally by writing in her diary because, as she said, “Paper is more patient than man.” But since she was confined to the Secret Annex, she only had one friend, who was Peter, and unlike normal teenagers, she couldn't even choose that friend, which made her talk to the only other friend whoI had. he had to choose what his diary was. Elie hasn't had the chance to meet new friends, when you are on the brink of death, you slowly lean in and only barely hold on to the other side, making friends is not an option nor does it matter at all, the real importance is for survive and even though there were familiar faces here and there, he could barely remember them. Jeanne, on the other hand, could have made many friends, but instead in her entire memoir, she only befriends one person, and that person wasn't even her real friend. That friend was Radine, she was a beautiful blonde with sparkling blue eyes, everything Jeanne is not, but would like to be. As he writes: “Even today I have a recurring dream, which fills me every time with a terrible sense of loss and desolation. I see a young, beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed high school student moving through a room full of her peers, greatly admired by everyone, men and women, including me, as I look through a window. (page 171-172) Shows how even though Jeanne had the chance to choose a friend, she chose a friend who made her feel like total garbage and was constantly jealous of her, yet she couldn't admit it because she wanted to believe she deserved this, and it's This is where you're wrong. Growing up in a war environment made Jeanne, Anne and Elie overly understanding of their living conditions, making them more insensitive to the way others treated them and, in some cases, to believe that they deserved this kind of judgment and of religious segregation. Of the three, Jeanne felt it the most; he repeatedly talks about how he wanted to be invisible or how he didn't want to cause a burden to others: “But he was afraid to use me. He had to go and talk about it to the board and to some parents, to see if it was allowed for an Oriental to represent the high school in such a visible way. It had never happened before. I was told that this investigation was crazy and my reaction was the same as when I tried to think about the Girl Scouts. I apologized for imposing such a burden on those who had to decide." She was apologizing for something she couldn't change, that was what the internment camp had done to her. It made her believe that she was truly different and so different that she couldn't have the same opportunities, respect or even the same attitude, but in her mind all this was justified, she herself thinks that if she had been in the other person's shoes, she would have done the same. Unlike Jeanne, Anne was enraged by her situation, not understanding why because of her religion they had to hide, but this does not mean that she did not accept and understand her living conditions. Anne writes in her diary on November 19, 1942: “I too am frightened when I think of close friends who are now at the mercy of the cruelest monsters that have ever infested the earth. And all because they are Jews." (page 54) This shows that she understood the situation and the cause of it, which was the fact that they were Jews, but she was still unable to understand why the fact that they were Jews meant so much and made them enemies of the Germans. Instead of becoming more understanding by listening to others or opposing opinions as most other teenagers do, these teenagers have learned to be more understanding by accepting their terrible living conditions. They also begin to believe that they deserve this type of treatment. Elie, on the other hand, is not angry with the Nazis, with himself, with his father, with the people around him, with the bystanders, but with God. God was everything for Elie, before being sent to the concentration camps, he confided in his life with God, but as time goes by, he represses his anger and blames his situation on God, he didn't understand, and that's what made him still have hope. He still believed thatthat being Jewish was no excuse for having to be treated like slaves who suffered both mental and physical abuse every day for months and years, so he blamed it on God. “Blessed be the name of God? Why, but why should I bless him? Every fiber in me rebelled. Why did he burn thousands of children in his mass graves? Why did he operate six crematoria day and night, including Saturdays and holidays? Why in His great power had He created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna and so many other factories of death?” (page 67)That night, he began to question God, he began to question the only thing he believed in, and this anger in him was not caused by anything, by the fact that as a teenager he had to be caught in the middle of a tragic war. But what would have happened if it wasn't? Maybe, just maybe, if these poor kids hadn't had to suffer in concentration camps, endure the pain of discrimination in internment camps, and be forced into hiding, these individuals might have grown up very differently. For starters, Jeanne may have been more confident instead of being as she was, insecure, unassertive, and extremely uncertain about herself. Even though she was voted essentially the prettiest girl in her class, she still didn't and couldn't believe that she was good enough, but if she had been brought up and taught that it was okay to be Japanese, then maybe on that day, she she would be proud. He would not fear the judgment of others and instead simply accept victory. Maybe then Jeanne wouldn't have had recurring dreams of being someone different, and maybe she wouldn't have to make herself invisible. Maybe she could have dated the boys she liked, joined the fraternity the way she wanted, and most of all, lived life as it is. And as for Anne, she could have become what she dreamed of being, a writer, but just because she was Jewish she wasn't given the opportunity to do so. But what if Anne had never been captured or if the Holocaust had never happened? Anne probably could have followed her dreams and become a writer, she probably could have learned so much more that the world has to offer rather than just studying 5 irregular verbs a day due to the lack of resources in the secret annex. She could have made better friends, she wouldn't have to be confined to Peter. He wouldn't have to constantly deal with his mother's abuse, but he could learn to distance himself from others. And what about Elie? He wouldn't have had to suffer all that physical and mental abuse from the Nazis and the SS, he could have been a normal boy living in normal conditions. He could have stayed with his parents and not have to painfully watch his father collapse and slowly die in front of him. It could have been very different, he could have loved and believed in God fully without having the slightest doubt in his path. He could have pursued his religious dreams instead of being whipped simply for watching something he should have seen. The Holocaust did not just affect people in Germany or people in camps, but people all over the world, and the victims were not just Jews (although they were targeted more), other people were targeted in different ways. The Jews suffered, the Germans suffered, the Europeans suffered, the Japanese suffered, the Americans suffered, and, above all, the people suffered. In the end, they are all simply human beings, people who wanted to live. They spent years and years trying to stay alive, but inside they were already dead. Anne was unfortunate enough to see how bright her future could be. Like his writing.