Discussing Family Trees in School Can Be Dangerous
Sir Paul Nurse <<pop: http://royalsociety.org/people/paul-nurse/>> was raised in a working-class home in rural England, but despite his humble beginnings, he went on to win a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2001 for his work as a geneticist <<pop: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2001/>>; he was knighted by the Queen of England and served as the president of Rockefeller University and later as president of The Royal Society of London and chief executive director of the Francis Crick Institute. In 2013, Nurse told a story at an event held by The Moth <<pop: http://themoth.org>>, an organization that gives storytellers an opportunity to tell their story to a live audience; the stories are also replayed on radio. Watch the following video in which Nurse narrates the story of his discovery of a family secret.
Courtesy of the Moth. Videography by Joe Del Senno.
<<embed BIM 12_Paul Nurse_FamilyTrees1 from \\Fozzie\newmedia\@Drop_Box\Content_English\McWhorter, Successful College Writing, 6e\BIM Files >>
Download transcript. <<pop: 12_Paul Nurse_Transcript.pdf>>
Analyzing the Writer’s Technique
After watching Discussing Family Trees in School Can Be Dangerous <<pop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Jktke38I8&feature=youtu.be>>, consider the questions below. Then submit your responses.
5. Which point of view does Nurse’s story use? Do you think that was the best choice for this story? Why or why not?
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Possible Answer: Nurse uses the firs
t-person point of view to tell his story. This point of view is a good choice because it allows him to adopt a personal tone and to share his interpretations of his memories, like how he thinks he caused the table holding his mother’s wedding cake to collapse because he knew that she was going away. It also limits the audience’s knowledge to what Nurse knew and allows them to discover the details of Nurse’s origins like he di
d—by surprise.
Nurse tells his story in the first-person, but your answer may differ from this one in the way it is written or in the examples you use.
6. Nurse begins his narrative talking about his daughter’s family tree project and getting his green card, but it soon becomes clear that the story is more about long past events than these recent ones. Describe how Nurse sequences the events in his narrative: Does he present the story in chronological order or use flashback and foreshadowing? Use specific examples from the story to explain how and why Nurse sequences his story the way he does.
Possible Answer: Nurse sequences his story in chronological order, as a series of secret revelations. His daughter’s family tree project reveals the first secret—that his grandparents were both illegitimate; his attempt to get a green card reveals the second secret—that the woman he believed to be his sister was actually his mother. Nurse then uses flashback to talk about the memory of his real mother’s wedding, which he now realizes has greater significance because “this was her leaving me.”
Thinking Critically about Narration
After watching Discussing Family Trees in School Can Be Dangerous <<pop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Jktke38I8&feature=youtu.be>>, consider the questions below. Then submit your responses.
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7. What tone does Nurse set as he’s telling his story? Does it change from beginning to end? Think about how his word choices, the sound of his voice, and his appearance and mannerisms all affect the tone of his story, and choose one or two examples to support your answer.
8. Possible Answer: Nurse’s tone is informal throughout his narrative, and this tone is emphasized by his appearance: he is wearing a T-shirt under a sports coat and uses familiar hand gestures to tell his story. Nurse’s informality is emphasized by the use of phrases like “And, um” and “you know” as he speaks. In the beginning, his tone is lighthearted, as revealed by jokes such as “You can probably tell I’m English” and by referring to his impressive achievements as “all hunky dory.” But the tone changes as he reveals his deepened understanding of why he may have knocked over the table holding his mother’s wedding cake and why his sister had his photo along with those of the children she had by marriage.
What can you infer about cultural attitudes toward women and illegitimate children in England around the time that Nurse was born? Include details to support your answer.
Possible Answer: English society probably had a negative attitude toward illegitimate children. This would explain why Nurse’s grandmother/mother had never told him until recently that both she and her husband were illegitimate. It also explains why Nurse’s mother/sister was sent away to give birth to him when she was seventeen, why she never told her husband that Paul was actually her son, and why her mother pretended to have had the baby herself.
- Point per question: 10pts
- number of attempts on quiz as a whole: 1 or unlimited?
- ability to edit and re-submit (i.e. subsequent attempts use prior attempt as a starting point): yes or no?
- view all questions at once, or one at a time?
-
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view feedback during, or after submitting, or only visible to instructors
- word count requirement: no or yes, if so provide number
- set which score reports to Gradebook: first, most recent, highest, or average
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