Our Secret by Susan Griffin - Essay Example

English 28 October Our Secret by Susan Griffin It is necessary to stress that Susan Griffin resorts to the use of quite an unusual way of narration in her Our Secret. Thus, this writer gives interesting and unexpected connections between human beings, nucleus cells and rockets. She starts doing that from the very beginning of her writing. This helps her to conduct a research in order to find the connections between childhood and human fate. As for me, it is a really important topic because I also feel the influence of parental upbringing during all my life. Practically every day I notice some characteristic in myself that actually belong to my parents. So, the research conducted by Susan Griffin is relevant to the contemporary life and should be applied by educators in order to achieve better results. Each word and phrase in Our Secret and its unusual structure help the writer to prove that people reflect the things they see during their childhood. When Griffin describes one of the characters of the book, she inserts the sentences that seem to have nothing in common with Laura. The text itself starts with a rather strange passage that makes the readers think that it is some article for scientific journal. It is the following phrase: “the nucleus of the cell derives its name from the Latin nux, meaning nut. Like the stone in the cherry, it is found in the center of the cell, and like this stone, keeps its precious kernel in a shell” (Bartholomae 340). However, a bit later the reader may see that this type of scientific insertions is an integral part of Our Secret. The analysis of scientific data helps Griffin to learn more about the characters and their fate; it becomes the major method of her research that helps to look at life and people from a new perspective. Even the first phrase written by Susan Griffin has deep sense. It helps to demonstrate that human life depends greatly upon parents and the way they educate. Heinrich’s life is the most vivid example of this. In fact, he had no childhood. His father made him older much earlier. So, the boy became an adult when he was only ten years old and had to follow the lifestyle indicated by his father. This seed had a huge impact upon Heinrich during all his life. The things started by father’s upbringing were finished by military service. From very childhood he is taught to establish friendly relations only for benefit and with those who are worth this. When Heinrich enters a new school, his father prepares the list of his would-be classmates. Thus, “he writes the child’s father’s name, what his father does for a living, and his social position. Heinrich must be careful to choose whom he befriends” (Bartholomae 367). There is one more character in Our Secret who suffered unhappy childhood. It is Leo. This person came under his older brother’s influence and became a killer in some time. This happened because of improper attitude towards his brother. He seemed to be an ideal person for Leo; that is why the latter did everything possible in order to look like him. However, all his attempts became fatal for Leo. It can be easily proved with the help of the following quotation: “While he was in the campus, he began to worship the uniformed members of the SS and the SA, just as he had loved his brother” (Bartholomae 345). In fact, Leo became one more victim of the wrong seed sowed into a person during the childhood period. To my mind, Griffin does not only describe the lives of several characters in her story. She tries to conduct a research in order to find out the reasons for people’s behavior and miserable life. According to her point of view a lot of things are closely connected with one’s childhood, parental influence, DNA and all the seeds that were put into the person. It is the main reason why the writer uses numerous “scientific” insertions in her story. They seem to be her own considerations of every character and situation described in the text. They are very important and useful for education and upbringing children. So, it will be great to take into consideration Griffin’s story and conclusions made by this author. Moreover, it is possible to adopt the methods of research applied by Susan Griffin in everyday life. It is my firm belief that people would have fewer problems in families and at work if they could analyze information and every complicated situation the way Susan does it in her story. It is possible to adopt all the methods applied by Griffin into one of the strategies to conduct a research and draw a conclusion. It may look the following way: 1) get the basic information about the object or subject of research, 2) find out its connections with another object or subject of research, 3) learn more about the origin of the object under consideration, 4) analyze the previous points and draw conclusion. This very strategy seems to be applied by the author of Our Secret. For instance, when Griffin introduces Leo to the readers, she firstly gives only basic information about this character. Then, she demonstrates Leo’s dependence upon his older brother. The next step is to find out the reason of Leo’s misfortune. At last, the author analyzes all the information she has received with the help of her research and explains the factors that influence Leo’s life and behavior. When Susan introduces Laura to the readers she uses the rocket for comparison. It is necessary to do a lot of things before creating a rocket. One should imagine it, prepare a plan, instruments, materials and a lot of other things. Only then it is time to start working at the rocket. The same happens to Laura. Various events from her life look like the steps necessary to make a rocket. They put together her personality and understanding of life. It is necessary to stress that Susan Griffin’s prose may be treated as experimental. It is also deliberate and crafted. The writer makes an attempt to do something that she is not able to do by means of a traditional essay form. Susan Griffin is eager to make a different type of argument and capture the readers’ attention in quite a different manner. That is why this author decides to mix two different styles in Our Secret. They are: academic and personal writing. Sometimes she tries to resort to the use of seemingly unrelated material and this makes her writing interesting and creative. This makes the reader become a part of Griffin’s research and observation. The audience also starts searching for various connections between scientific terminology and characters’ actions. This involves every reader in the process of research. Moreover, there are several examples that prove Susan’s attempts to address her readers. It is easily seen in the following quotation taken from the text: “I’m looking now at the etching called Poverty, made in 1897. Near the center, calling my attention, a woman holds her head in her hands” (Bartholomae 367). This is one of the ways to share knowledge with the audience in order to involve each reader into the process of research. Susan Griffin behaves like an observer and researcher in this part of her story. This helps her to find out a lot of things about the characters of the text and share this date with the audience. The author of Our Secret organizes her material in an unusual way. She does not resort to the use of the traditional mode of thesis-sample-conclusion. Moreover, Griffin’s prose should be considered as the enactment of a method and as a way to get findings due to a certain type of intellectual work. This writer seems to do a lot of the things performed by the scholars. She studies old materials, travels and interviews subjects, learns and writes history. However, Our Secret does not refer to any type of prose that is found in text-books for a history prose. This fact proves that Griffin is a careful researcher and knows what she is doing. Every comparison and scientific insertion is meaningful in her text. It is applied in order to tell something to the readers of the story. It should be noted that Susan Griffin is a perfect researcher and writer as she knows how to involve the audience in her research and considerations. As a rule, this purpose is achieved with the help of a topical theme. Griffin entitled her story Our Secret and this hints at the issue of truth. There are too much lies in the world; they always influence children and their development. For instance, Laura has problems with her speech because of the lies that occurred in her past. It is necessary to stress that Susan Griffin tries to prove the influence of environment upon people throughout her writing. There are people affected by unhappy childhood and there are ones who was influenced by the war. The environment where one lives turns to be very important and sometimes it even makes a person live according to certain principles. When the author of Our Secret describes cells, she writes the information about then way how RNA behave as messengers. This influences all people, because even if one has never participated in war he/she is already influenced by it due to the information he/she hears from others. Not by chance Griffin explains here that all people are just a part of some complex web that is full of various connections and numerous relationships. There always will be somebody who carries the information that may affect others negatively. So, here Susan Griffin tries to research how the environment may influence people living in it. According to Susan Griffin’s perspective, the only one possible way to get more information about people and environment is to compare cellular life and weaponry. That is why the author begins the process of writing her essay with the elementary level. She uses the description of a cell’s life and Vergeltungswaffe missile. However, this data is just a starting point for a thorough research. A bit later the Susan demonstrates how the above-mentioned notions progress. This way of writing a story seems to be the same as the introduction of the characters to the readers. Firstly, Griffin gives some basic information about them and then starts her research and mentions significant details. In fact, Susan Griffin’s attempt to get more information about the root of unhappiness experienced by her characters makes her a researcher. She tries to do her best in order to find out as much information about the seeds that have influenced her characters’ lives as possible. However, it would be rather difficult to do that without the use of certain research methods. So, Griffin applies three major research methods in order to render her story in Our Secret. They are data analysis, observation and comparison. As a perfect researcher Susan Griffin finds the things that affect human life. She draws a conclusion that there are two major factors that influence human fate. They are: The environment where an individual lives The seeds given to him/her by the parents This conclusion proves that Susan Griffin had no other way to conduct her research except of combining personal and academic writing. The only way to prove the readers her point of view was to prepare a story with the insertions of scientific information. This was the best method of her research that gives the readers an opportunity to become researches themselves and look at their lives from quite a new point of view. Susan Griffin’s Our Secret is both an interesting story and didactic writing that involves the readers into a process of writer’s intellectual work proving the fact that everything is interconnected and interdependent in human life on our Planet. Works Cited Bartholomae, David and Petrovsky, Anthony. Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers. 9th ed. Brigham Young University, 2006. Print. Read More