Susan Griffin

Susan Griffin compares and contrasts cellular life and weaponry as she writes her essay, Our Secret. She uses these ideas together with characters and events, to help explain causes and effects in the essay. She alternates from the cell's function to the history of weaponry throughout the essay. With both these ideas, she starts at the elementary level, with a cell's life and with the Vergeltungswaffe missile, and tells how they progress. In this essay, I will describe how Griffin uses cellular life and weaponry to tie together the lives of the characters. Griffin starts "Our Secret" by describing how the nucleus of a cell is derived and the meaning of it. She states that "like the stone in a cherry, it is found in the center of the cell, and like this stone, keeps its precious kernel in a shell" (Our Secret 404). This statement marks the basis of cellular structure. These italicized fragments are used throughout the essay, although cellular function statements alternate with weaponry statements. Susan Griffin relates these concepts to the relationships that are found in "Our Secret". "The nucleus of every cell in the human body contains the genetic plan for the whole organism"� (Our Secret 441). This idea refers to how people base their actions on what they have strong emotions for. Susan Griffin relates cell functions and its growth stages with Himmler and his life developments. "The shell surrounding the nucleus is not hard and rigid, it is a porous membrane. These pores allow only some substances to pass through them, mediating the movement of materials in and out of the nucleus"� (Our Secret 404). This is associated with the way people remember only certain things they want to remember but they can never get the full images or memory out of their mind. All their experiences will always be a part of them no matter how hard they try to forget them. Another idea that deals with this statement is how cellular function and weaponry growth contrast. Again, no matter