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Marc Griffin Short Story Analysis

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Griffin’s story mainly involves specific figures in history, but some stories involve members of her own family interacting with her. This happens due to the fact that during some events mentioned, like Himmler’s participation in the Holocaust, Griffin was not old enough or even alive. Thus she has to use some of her family’s opinions and existence during the time period to show more era-related secrets. For example, both the story with her grandfather and the story with her mother’s mother are technically not her own; however, she uses her role in the stories to interact with the culture at that time. Griffin’s personal story interacts with cultural stories because she effectively manages to connect two or more experiences that seem completely and utterly different while drawing parallels. …show more content…

This may seem completely different from stories like the one with her grandmother, but Griffin manages to compare them and uncover their similar characteristics. For instance, Griffin’s maternal grandmother used to bring the whole family together, and when they were together they would take “photographs [that] were posed” (Griffin 389). The secrets behind these posed photos lay in Griffin’s mother and father’s faces as there can be so much hidden behind a fake smile. Griffin compares this action to Himmler writing in a “polite manner” (Griffin 388) within his diaries. In particular, Himmler had numerous more thoughts existing in his head while writing in these diaries that were never expressed. A random reader would never be able to uncover his true nature by reading his diary, just like a random onlooker would never assume that there was more to Griffin’s family than what met the

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