The Meaning Of The Title “Our Secret”, A Chapter From “A Chorus Of Stones” by Susan Griffin
Truth is possibly one of the most powerful forces in humanity. Truth has the power to set people free, change lives and end them. Because of this, the truth is usually feared and often concealed. In Susan Griffin’s “Our Secret”, the concealing of the truth become a major theme in the advancement of the plot, and also carries the meaning to the work’s title. The title of “Our Secret” refers to the secrets that the individual characters in the story keep from others reference to the fact that humanity is keeping secrets from itself. As the story opens, already the reader is confronted with the topic of concealing the truth. The narrator speaks
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A German boy in the time of Concentration Camps in WWII, Heinz was a homosexual who knew to conceal his secret. Heinz knew that he would be killed if anyone found out about his lifestyle, and told no one about his secret besides his mother. However, the Nazis eventually discovered a picture of Heinz with his lover, and sent him to a Concentration Camp to be killed. These individuals being forced to conceal their lifestyles is, in a way, forcing them to conceal who they truly are. Keeping secrets from others, in a way, means that they have not fully come to terms with who they are. Griffin also uses examples from her own family to expand upon the title’s meaning. Griffin claims her family was constantly pretending to be happy, perfect or aristocratic. In family photos, everyone smiled together and attempted to make it seem like nothing was wrong. The author claims that looking back on these pictures, this was clearly not true, as she can see the pain her father his hiding in one picture, or signs of trauma in another. The real conflict underneath was never truly revealed. The family also made attempts to appear aristocratic and high class when they really were not. Griffin claims that the family was aware that this was not true, but still attempted to keep up the ruse. Griffin writes: “But when certain visitors came, we were as if driven by an inward, secret panic that who we really were might be discovered. Inadvertently, by some careless gesture, we might
Throughout "Our Secret" Griffin explores the different characters' fears and secrets and she gives specific insights into these "secrets". Through examining others Griffin comes to terms with her own feelings, secrets, and fears. She relates to Himmler, Leo, Helene, and everyone else even though she is different than all of them. One fact that can be made about all of these characters is that they all represent humans and human emotion
Our terror could no longer be contained. Our nerves reached a breaking point. Our very skin was aching. It was as though madness had infected us all.” (Page 26) Effect/purpose:
Throughout this essay Griffin uses many different patterns through her many unusual writing techniques. By using these types of writing techniques, Griffin is conducting her argument. She compares her life to those of Himmler, Helene, and many others throughout the story. She
What she was trying to portray, is that our secrets are a blockade to our own emotions and feelings. We may seem ordinary but really it’s not,just a arrangement of illustrations we keep curtained behind this word. GriffIn used Heinrich Himmler as an example of our concealed secrets as well as how
In the short story “From Behind the Veil,” written by Dhu’l Nun Ayyoub, the author changes how we feel about the main character throughout the sequencing of the plot. We as the readers learn more about how the protagonist really thinks coupled with what her motives are. The author also presents language that clearly expresses how the protagonist feels and uses examples to show an overall theme in the story.
A particular question that is seldom pondered over and yet is capable of carrying so many doubts within it: who are we? Who are we as a society who can do the things we do? Who are we who can suffer from them? Award winning poet and essayist Susan Griffin confronts these distinct questions in her work titled, “Our Secret”. Griffin believes that a basic understanding of the things that play a part in the growth of an individual is essential to understanding who we are. The way a child is raised dictates how that child is going to become later on in life. One of the distinct highlights of Griffin’s essay was her use of describing the progress of the V1 rockets in World War II. Griffin studies the aspects of human nature by using these missile developments as a metaphor to symbolize the raising of children and the factors that can influence a growing individual. One of the prime figures that Griffin uses pertaining to these growing individuals was Heinrich Himmler, leader of the Nazi secret police. Griffin uses Himmler as an example to demonstrate how big of a role a parental figure can play in the development of a person.
People usually move to the United States in order to get a better education than their home country can provide. Some people will proceed to the extreme of crossing the border illegally in order to find a better life. Even though the process is extremely long and enduring, most people abide the process of gaining citizenship in America. Although these people carry on through great lengths to achieve this they may not get what they had expected. This is the case in the poem “The Secret,” by Pablo Medina, in which the narrator describes his new life in the USA not to be as he had expected. Expecting to find a better life he left his home country, excited about the newfound opportunity to learn and more freedom than he had his home
Moreover, the fake identity and lifestyle that the wealthy portray capture the reaction to knowing the truth and using it to dismiss it; this is necessary for the process of the characters to come to terms with accepting the truth and as a result having a new beginning captured by windows. Likewise,
Non-fiction can be a misleading genre for many because at a young age students are taught that this word relates solely to biographies, historical events or nature; however, this is very untrue. A vast variety of prose writings that can be about nearly anything as long as the events, people and facts are authentic would be considered as non-fiction. Two pieces of writing that effectively prove this claim are “Our Secret” by Susan Griffin and “Our Time” by John Edgar Wideman. Each of these essays take a unique path to emphasize their points whilst keeping their audience on the edge of their seats. Comparison: While the authors cause confusion for the readers by switching between viewpoints, they still create an intimate connection between reader
Susan Griffin uses a passage in her essay “Our Secret” to describe the experiences of a woman who survived the Holocaust. She writes that at the time, World War II had not yet started, nor the mass arrests or many of the other events that led to the outbreak of persecution of the Jewish peoples. She writes that this woman, then just a girl, found herself in a group of children who were tormenting her young friend for being Jewish. She joined them, afraid to be isolated, and her mother immediately caught her and reprimanded her. In a way, this single story represents both metaphors that Griffin used in her essay to describe human interaction—the connectedness of the biological cellular system, and German guided missiles and their vicious, pitiless destruction of their victims.
The protagonists in each novel conceal the truth as a way to get what they want. In
Whether intentional or not, keeping secrets is part of human nature. Be it a small and embarrassing habit, or even a brief moment of breaking the law, some things find it best to leave personal acts that they deem deviant out of day to day conversation. For some, keeping these secrets may be no problem, but for others it can be agonizing. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, multiple perspectives show the differing ways in which people deal with their “secret sins.” The calm, accepting manner of Hester Prynne juxtaposed with the debilitated Arthur Dimmesdale work to demonstrate the effects of secrets on the psyche; the longer one tries to conceal a dastardly secret, the faster it will diminish them from the
"Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix," President Harry Truman once said. Harry Truman understood the importance of an open government in a free society. Unfortunately, George W. Bush has a different outlook. From the first days of his administration, President Bush has taken steps to tighten the government's hold on information and limit public scrutiny of its activities. Expansive assertions of executive privilege, restrictive views of the Freedom of Information Act, increasing use of national security classification, stonewalling in response to congressional request for information all these were evident even before the September 11 attacks (At Issue: Has the Bush administration misused government
What if message was told that the CIA have been hiding secrets that can marred the human race? The cia’s secrets have been leaked which shows documents and other things that show the history of the CIA and some of their inhuman experiments. While some may argue that the CIA is good and act for the best of humanity and humans, through the use of research, it is clear that, that is false because of the secret human experiments that the CIA have been doing to humans and top secret of has come out of secrecy; therefore, the monitoring of all CIA experiments by any form of *super* high authority should happen.