Secrets
Aia Shalan
Professor Rzonca
4 December 2012
Writing 1
Final Essay- Draft # 1
The Secret in the Texts We all have our secrets- secrets we wish to keep to ourselves and no one else. Sometimes, these secrets are motivated by dark thoughts and hatreds for others. The hatred grows and festers until it swallows us, making it almost impossible to return to our natural normal state. The same idea goes for pain. What is pain really? Sometimes pain is extreme that we get used to it. The feeling of pain grows and dominates our bodies that we cannot imagine our bodies without pain. At that point, you cannot tell the difference because you are unsure if you are really feeling pain. These two examples have a common underlying theme- Losing control over our own souls and ideas as a result of something dominating our lives. In the essays, “Our Secrets” and “The Pain Scale”, both Susan Griffin and Eula Bliss use hybrids of memoirs, stories and examples to illustrate the dominance of secrets and pain in ways that they affect us. However, this theme doesn’t only apply to our secrets and pains, but the way in which our education system works and the expectations that society limits us with. Childhood memories are an essential component where most things are learned and practiced. In Griffin’s essay, Heinrich Himmler, a violent cruel leader, grew up to command Nazi rocketry and became the key architect of Jewish genocide. Griffin explores the life of Heinrich Himmler. Throughout his childhood, Himmler’s secrets and thoughts were hidden and overshadowed by a mask or a barrier formed by his upbringing and culture. His father, Gebhard, was a school master who controlled every single aspect of his son’s life. At a young age, Himmler was asked to keep a journal, but it was no ordinary journal. His father controlled the way he wrote in his diary “like the words of a schoolboy commanded to write what the teacher requires of him” (Griffin 339). Furthermore,
Professor Rzonca
4 December 2012
Writing 1
Final Essay- Draft # 1
The Secret in the Texts We all have our secrets- secrets we wish to keep to ourselves and no one else. Sometimes, these secrets are motivated by dark thoughts and hatreds for others. The hatred grows and festers until it swallows us, making it almost impossible to return to our natural normal state. The same idea goes for pain. What is pain really? Sometimes pain is extreme that we get used to it. The feeling of pain grows and dominates our bodies that we cannot imagine our bodies without pain. At that point, you cannot tell the difference because you are unsure if you are really feeling pain. These two examples have a common underlying theme- Losing control over our own souls and ideas as a result of something dominating our lives. In the essays, “Our Secrets” and “The Pain Scale”, both Susan Griffin and Eula Bliss use hybrids of memoirs, stories and examples to illustrate the dominance of secrets and pain in ways that they affect us. However, this theme doesn’t only apply to our secrets and pains, but the way in which our education system works and the expectations that society limits us with. Childhood memories are an essential component where most things are learned and practiced. In Griffin’s essay, Heinrich Himmler, a violent cruel leader, grew up to command Nazi rocketry and became the key architect of Jewish genocide. Griffin explores the life of Heinrich Himmler. Throughout his childhood, Himmler’s secrets and thoughts were hidden and overshadowed by a mask or a barrier formed by his upbringing and culture. His father, Gebhard, was a school master who controlled every single aspect of his son’s life. At a young age, Himmler was asked to keep a journal, but it was no ordinary journal. His father controlled the way he wrote in his diary “like the words of a schoolboy commanded to write what the teacher requires of him” (Griffin 339). Furthermore,