`` Our Secret `` By Susan Griffin

Griffin's grandfather is an anti-Semite and looks at crime magazines. She describes his ignorance on page 361. "His eyes, no longer looking at me, blazed with a kind of blindness" (Griffin 361). Her grandfather takes the easy way out and reveals his ignorance through his stories and opinions of others. The point that she is trying to make is

In today’s American society, lying has become something that we are accustomed to using almost every day without even realizing it. In “The Ways We Lie”, Stephanie Ericsson, screenwriter, advertising copywriter, and writer, elaborates on the act of lying and how it is used by everyone on a daily basis. She comes up with a list of the common, different kinds of lies that we all have told. Furthermore, the text goes in depth about the significance of lying and how it is an essential part of every human’s life. Ericsson’s essay effectively conveys this idea through the use of pathos, logos, ethos, personal examples, rhetorical questions, and analogies which helps the reader better understand the reasoning behind lies and how it affects our

The increase in world population, has resulted in many area’s referring back to the population law. Among the hidden, By Margaret Peterson Haddix tells a story about an illegal third named Luke. In the beginning, Luke is clueless about why he’s the only kid in his family that has to hide, he just goes by his parents orders. In the middle, Luke meets another illegal child named jen who feels differently about hiding and shows Luke the world he has been missing out on for twelve years. In the end, Luke get’s a fake I-D in the name of Lee Grant and attends private school.

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.

People may say that those deep, dark secrets we all try to keep hidden are just thoughts and have nothing

¨There was a law against luke. Not him personally everyone like him, kids who were born after their parents already had two babies (pg 6)¨. Would you like a law against you? Among the hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix clearly shows that dictatorship is horrible. In this novel Luke is not allowed to leave the house or be seen. Luke leaves the house in cover and meets a girl the same as him she can't go anywhere so she tries to convince luke to rebel to be like regular people with her but he is to nervous. Luke shows the character traits of brave, jealousy and adventurous as he hides in the shadows.

The people we see every day are not always who they appear to be. Our family, friends, peers, work associates, and even our own self’s change who we are sometimes to cope or to seem better off than we are. We put on “Mask” to show the person we want to be seen as and often times people wear more than just one. In Flannery O’ Connor’s, “Good Country People” many of her main characters wore mask. They each had their own reasons that they chose to conceal their real identity. Nevertheless, the characters in O’Connor’s short story wanted to hide their true persona’s or deceive other people. Sometimes it was merely done to cope with their tragic pain and in other cases it was done to deliberately take advantage

Griffin’s family was not involved in the Holocaust; however, she feels that she is still connected to the time and has still been affected by those involved and those who were killed. Like other characters Griffin uses in her piece, she herself had an irregular life. Her family was not accepting that they were related to one another, they never discussed their issues even though they were undoubtedly there. Griffin’s mother was often drunk and her family only kept up with their appearances and behavior because of her grandmother’s coaching. Another thing Griffin does in her piece is compare her lives to those involved in the Holocaust. For example, a character named Heinrich Himmler, who played an excessive part in the Holocaust, had similar life. Griffin states that “just as in my family, the Himmlers’ gentility was a thinly laid surface, maintained no doubt only with great effort”(389). I believe Griffin uses this point to show that even though she also had a rough life, she did not retaliate and partake in something like the Holocaust. Instead she attempted to better her life. She uses this point to show that Himmler had other options and his family was not to blame for his actions.

They hold all of our thoughts that we don’t want to reveal to anyone else, and also they hold really personal things between you and other people. They shouldn’t be broken, but when they are you can easily face the consequences. I selected this because secrets can hold fears, and this is a great example of it. No one could know you have a fear, and that is your secret. My reaction to this quote is that the world “also” means with someone else. This shares a connection with another person, and this is when a relationship bond starts to form. I thought this was important to note because even though it seems so simple it holds a lot of meaning to it. A few words could actually be a whole essay depending on what point you’re trying to prove. Secrets are hard to uncover, unless you can’t keep them. Other than that, this short and simple quote has a huge meaning to

Susan Griffin's "Our Secret" is a study in psychology. It is a look into the human mind to see what makes people do the things they do and in particular what makes people commit acts of violence. She isolates the first half of the twentieth century and in particular the era of the Second World War as a basis for her study. The essay discusses a number of people but they all tie in to Heinrich Himmler. He is the extreme case, he who can be linked directly to every single death in the concentration camps. Griffin seeks to examine Himmler because if she can discern a monster like Himmler than everyone else simply falls into place. The essay also tries to deduce why something like the Holocaust, although never mentioned directly, can

In today’s society masks are used depending on the specific social group we interact with. Most people tend to have various masks or personalities when they are with specific people; such as with their friends, family, and during work. In Kenneth Gergen’s essay “In Defense of Masks,” he claims that people are not apt to find a specific mask to which they can be true too however, having various masks could be important because it allows people to adapt to various social groups . I disagree with Gergen’s claim and counter argue that utilizing only one specific mask with whomever we interact with will help anyone live a genuine lifestyle. There are various categories that fall into masks; for instance, makeup, clothing, religion, and appearance. Many individuals acquire masks because they seek approval from others or simply because they are mimicking someone. Once someone adapts to having multiple masks, it is difficult to figure out our true identity due to the variety of personalities that are being portrayed.

“We all have a social mask, right? We put it on, we go out, put our best foot forward, our best image. But behind that social mask is a personal truth, what we really, really believe about who we are and what we're capable of.” Sometimes people can use mask’s to change how they look, feel, and what they think. Everyone has their own mask that they use so that other people do not judge them on who they are. People also mask themselves if they do not think they meet any standards that other people have. It is more beneficial than harmful to mask yourself.

These themes of hope and identity refer to the topic secret histories through the secret inner personal lives that people still manage to maintain despite this scrutiny.

“Understanding a secret” A secret can be confessing a lie WITHOUT PROMPTING or a sharing misdeed they have done in the past. The confession must be said on their own volition and out of regret”.

He then has his misconception that he is the only boy who has the complexity to wear a mask. Instead, he comes to believe that their appearance and action perfectly conformed to what they really are. While his peers "could be their natural selves," he must put on a mask and "gain control over [his] consciousness." And thus he comes to realize that the difference that separates him from his peers, other than his sexual orientation, is the mask and the secret, "shameful portion of [his] mind" that hides behind it.