"our secret"

1. What do you make of "Our Secret"?

When I first started to read “Our Secret,” I didn’t understand the relevance of what was in front of me. I didn’t understand the words she was using, or why she was using little quotes throughout the beginning of her essay. But as I continued reading, I came to understand that she was using quotes to not only relate her story to something else, but to also show the progression in realization that she had throughout the paper. What I also make of this essay is that it was made to put into words what everyone goes through. Obviously the way I experience things is different from Griffin, but the general idea of the way our world is made up is relatively the same. I think that by including different examples and relating them all together, it helped me to understand the reading better.

2. How do you (did you) make something out of "Our Secret"?

You make something out of “Our Secret” by writing in the margins while reading the essay. I think this would help because it helps you to go back and read the important things so you don’t have to go through the entire essay again. I made something out of it by doing that, but also reading certain sentences that seem important to what she is trying to get across, and it made me think of my own life and think of an example for how that is relevant to me.

3. What was your reading strategy for this essay, and how did it differ (or not) from the reading strategy that you usually employ?

For this essay, being so long, I strategized to break it up into sections so that I wouldn’t have to sit forever reading the essay. This also helped me to read one section, and think about it, and then continue later. While going through the essay, I highlighted the things that I thought were important and that I could use later when I was writing my essay. When I saw a common theme to a certain paragraph, I wrote in the margins a point that I could come back to and think about when I needed to. This was different to how I usually read in that I had to break it up into sections because of the length. In all the other texts that I have read I have highlighted important sentences and wrote in the margins, so I didn’t really see a difference in reading strategies.

4. I asked you to read the assignment for Essay Two before you read "Our Secret." How did this affect your reading?

By doing this, it helped me to read the essay with the idea of the essay that I will have to right in the back of my mind. So, therefore while reading the essay, I looked for the format of what Griffin used, how she used it, and I looked for sentences that I could quote in my essay. I also found myself thinking of ideas for what my essay could be about. I thought that by reading it like this, I would have a better understanding of what I was going to do with my essay.

5. What might Rodriguez (and Freire and Appiah) have to say about this essay?

I think that what Freire would say about this essay is that the Banking Concept of education was at play throughout this essay and that in some ways, it hurt the characters. Appiah would say that this essay did a good job of talking about values and identity of the characters that she talked about. There are some examples that she used that talked about the identity that they wanted, but never showed, like the boys who beat the other. Lastly, Rodriquez I think would disagree with this essay because he Griffin seems to have a different approach on life, other than Rodriquez who thought that his story what everyone else’s. Even thought Griffin does bring in things that make you think that her story is everyone’s story, that is not the case because she thinks that everyone has their own stories.

6. What do you make of the title?

I think the title fits the essay well because I got the impressions that the essay was talking about how everyone has secrets, and she uses examples of some of them. She also brings in the emotion with secrets because she talks about how people don’t want to tell others about their secrets, but when they do, they feel uncomfortable and vulnerable. I also like the title because she talks about the events and hardships that these people go through due to their secrets.

7. Answer the following in a few words: what is this essay about?

This essay is about showing an individual’s life “makeup.”

8. Answer the following in a few words as well: what are Griffin's "methods"?

Her methods were comparison, examples, and realization.

9. In the essay, Griffin writes: "The telling and the hearing of a story is not a simple act." How does "Our Secret" (and your experience with it so far) enact this--or not? I think that Griffin’s essay does enact this because throughout her essay, she tells the story of different people and the things they have to go through, but then she hears what they are saying, and relates it back to herself, and almost has a realization of her own life. The way she said things seemed to be complex and very insightful, and by saying this, I think that it wasn’t a simple act. I think that I still need to go back through this essay and re-read the essay to get a better understanding of what is trying to be said. The first time, I think I got the main ideas down