Our Secret by Susan Griffin Essay

The book is called Secrets in the Shadows by the author Anne Schraff. Anne grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. She got a bachelor's and master’s degree from California State University. Since college she has been writing many books including one of the most famous written series called the Bluford Series. Her stories are written basically on her background and how she grew up as a child. A middle class neighborhood including African Americans, Mexicans, Arab, and Filipino’s. From reading some of her books her stories are from a real person’s point of view and the struggles they really go through. Some of her lessons in many of her books are topics such as finding love, value education, respect towards others, and the importance of family.

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

I am writing to you about your actions in the book The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart. You made a couple really interesting decisions and I was wondering about why you made them. Your main problem throughout the book was trying to find the other watch. Your solution was to take control of the city that it was in, New Umbra, and have your servants search for. I thought that it was a good idea, but you ended up losing your watch so it obviously wasn’t the best idea. When you heard anything about the other watch you became extremely gullible, which made it possible for Reuben and Jack to trick you. I also have a couple questions for you. Why did you devote your entire life to searching for the other watch? Was it really worth it to live

According to Corrie & Betsie Ten Boom, life was a faith-building experience. Those two women were faced with one of the toughest experiences of their lives. Each day, Corrie and Betsie had to persuade each other that everything was going to be okay, once they were free from the “hell”, or the concentration camp they were placed in. And, yet, Corrie and Betsie somehow managed to keep in mind that God was with them.

was the step-mother’s interest to make sure that his children were gotten rid of, for she wanted

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.

In “Hungry” and “On Becoming Educated” by Joy Castro as well as “Our Secret” by Susan Griffin, personal and political history work in similar ways to uncover the magnitude of similarities everyone contains. Castro uses her personal stories to emphasize societal norms, in relation to feminism, and how they affect and have affected learning similarly in history and modern times. Griffin takes on a similar task, but she relates her childhood interactions with family to those affected by the Holocaust, particularly Heinrich Himmler. Both writers identify sections in which they utilize elements of autobiography to connect individual life to the larger cultural and political implications by placing similar stories in order and broadening their choice of words and phrases. Castro and Griffin portray exactly how similar actions and occurrences can be due to the way society influences people and their ignorance, deception, and hidden intentions.

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.

Everyone has experienced a dark moment in their lives. It is in these dark moments that turn out to be the most profound. In the story “Our Secret” by Susan Griffin, it talks about the connection of the past lives of those in Nazi Germany and about Griffin’s own family. Griffin has also talked about an artist named Kathe Kollwitz. Kathe Kollwitz has created many self portraits relating and expressing the emotions of the people of Nazi Germany. During this time, many people have gone through hardships such as poverty and war. Through poverty some may have experience or gone through some emotional situations. During war, people may have lost someone close to them or even the peace they had before the chaos have occurred. Griffin has related a painting by Kollwitz with her personal life. In the story, Griffin is trying to portray through this connection how people feel emotionally and physically in the midst of war and violence.

The Holocaust can be seen as one of the most devastating genocide that occurred in history and that is well known in many places worldwide. One may assume that those who played a part in the acts done by the Nazis in Germany may have been mentally disturbed and/or sick, evil people. However, the novel Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland by Christopher R. Browning provides another alternative to this statement. Browning provides the reader with the idea that anyone is capable of becoming a murderer, especially when the opportunity presents itself. In his book he attempts to prove this statement through multiple ideas and theories and also provides events which took place to analyze some of those ideas.

Conrad applies an apparently crystal clear literary narrative technique in the tradition of conventional realism, a narrative method that appears deceptively simple. The Secret Agent holds great deal of the social concerns. It is considered supreme masterpieces, it is a brilliantly depicting an ironic narrative of London's seedy and dispossessed underworld of revolutionist and anarchists.

One of Hitler’s many ambitions for Germany was to achieve total Aryan supremacy. Hitler wanted to make all Germans perfect physical specimens. All of them tall and strong with blue eyes and blond hair though he himself was short, with brown eyes and hair. Hitler claimed that the Germans were the purest Aryans and therefore superior to all other peoples. Hitler made sure that all Germans knew this, he told the German people what they wanted to hear, that they were in fact the master race and that they were superior to any other persons. Although many were opposed to Hitler’s idea of Aryan supremacy the German people supported him enthusiastically regardless.

In Christopher Browning’s book, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland tells the story of Battalion 101, a group of 500 policemen in their 30’s and 40’s who were sent into Poland to participate in a ‘special action’ without being told exactly what they are doing. Overtime they realized their mission is to Kill Jews and racially purify Europe. Most of the killing during this period of mass murder took place in Poland. Battalion 101 together with other Order Police battalions contributed to the manpower needed to carry out this enormous task. Browning comments that these men all went through their developmental period before the Nazis came into power. These were men who had known political standards and moral norms other than those of the Nazis. Most men came from Hamburg; one of the least ‘nazified’ cities in Germany and the majority came from a social class that had been anti-Nazi in its political culture. In seems this would not seem to have been a very promising group from which to recruit mass murderers on behalf on the Nazi vision of a racial utopia free of Jews. However, their actions helps us understand not only what they did to make the Holocaust happen, but also how they were transformed psychologically from the ordinary men into active participants in the most horrific offence in human history. In doing so, it aims on the human capacity for extreme evil and leaves this subject matter with the shock of knowledge and the

First of all, Hitler strongly believed Himmler held an important role in pursuing Hitler's dreams for the war. Himmler's respect from Hitler showed through the nickname that Hitler gave Himmler, "der treue Heinrich," meaning "loyal Heinrich," (Fest, 4).Also, Himmler was very protective of Hitler, being the head of the S.S. Himmler had over 5,000 people arrested and 4,900 people killed after an attempt to kill Hitler (Historpedia, 12). Later, after Himmler attempted to offer a surrender to the Allies, Hitler's trust with Himmler was broken. Hitler took away all of Heinrich Himmler's jobs under his control because of this secret offer (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 24). Adolph Hitler and Heinrich Himmler had a strong relationship in

They stepped off a train into an unknown place, separated from loved ones, belongings taken away, feeling confused and targeted, and their only lasting comfort in this world is the hand gripping theirs tighter and tighter as they are “selected” by a sinister and mysterious man. This scenario, is a makeshift glimpse into the milieu and context of what many twins experienced when they arrived at Auschwitz, the home to Nazi research disasters in the 1940s. This one incident truly outlines the overall theme of how important research ethics are to the overall field of psychology. Moreover, the idea that Jews, as well as other groups, could so easily be targeted and dehumanized shines a light on the need for critical steps, or guidelines when conducting research. On that note, the studies of Mengele, relatively, broke every ethical barrier present in today’s research. Coupled with this was the aftermath of the war and the need for the Nuremberg code which was put into place in 1947 with the intention of adding protection to the authenticity of studies and increasing safety of everyone involved on various levels. In sum, the Nazi twin studies are a perfect example of what disastrous research looks like, and because of it the Nuremberg code was developed.