Summary Of Our Secret By Susan Griffin

Secrets are powerful forms of speech and concept. They hold the power to build a nation- or to destroy one. Secrets conceal and destroy, the block others from fully knowing who you are. Truth-truth is possibly one of the most powerful forces in humanity. Truth has the power to set people free, to change lives- and to end them. The truth is typically feared and often concealed. In Susan Griffin’s “Our Secret”, the concealment of truth becomes a major theme in the advancement of the plot. It holds close the meaning of the title “Our Secrets”- referring to the truths the Characters concealed. Through examining others, Griffin comes to terms with her own feelings, secrets, and fears. The characters she uses represent humans and human emotion. She

“I think of it now as a kind of mask, not an animated mask that expresses the essence of an inner truth, but a mask that falls like dead weight over the human face...” (Griffin 349). This quote directs our attention to how Griffon feels about the “mask” and begins to allow us to look at secrets from another perspective. A “Mask”, in Griffon’s example, is a barrier of secrets and lies concealing the truth of a person. Griffin talks about Heinrich Himmler and the secrets that he hides within himself. Throughout his childhood Himmler’s life was hidden, overshadowed by a mask or barrier formed by his upbringing and culture, his perspective of himself was skewed as he takes who he is and puts it deep away within himself. Hiding in fear and guilt- he told no one until the voice he heard from his father became the one he used on himself- chastising him until his being was at war with itself. Griffon discusses how Heinrich causes an emotional build up that results in the loss of his own emotions or a “void”, because of his secrets that have formed a barrier between him and the outside world, as a result of his upbringing and ideals. Griffon relates with him on an almost emotional level- or rather the lack thereof. “But at this moment in his life Heinrich is facing a void. I remember a similar void, when a long and intimate

Heinz knew that he would be killed if anyone found out about his truth, and hence told no one of his secret aside from his mother. However, the Nazis discovered a picture of Heinz with his lover, and sent him to a Concentration Camp to be killed. Heinz is only one of many characters she uses to bring her point to light. That individuals who are being forced to conceal their lives are, in a way, being forced to conceal who they truly are. Keeping secrets from others, means that they have not come fully to terms with who you are, with your