Discussing Family Trees in School Can Be Dangerous
Sir 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 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, 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.
Analyzing the Writer’s Technique
After watching Discussing Family Trees in School Can Be Dangerous, consider the questions below. Then submit your responses.
Question
12.75
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Possible Answer: Nurse uses the first-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 did—by surprise. Your answer may differ from this one in the way it is written or in the examples you use.
6
Question
12.76
4PAzCjYOVO5IUTxcH93QWUJjoQwZFnT9I4UKNImr69X925hjTWWP64qfJndGaBhcRDnRyTvuVI0ptzxgLvOcvMjGZwhHOsikRaAQQ6UGc/g6/cVspNTGtE3bOEIIY5JrUvbwIHFC8YFKsUyyhKNFJF3q98/EFhMjso7vDFSBviVvkVsMjcr8yr+Onpx9YTPK8DPhKKlhVzGPrEMxv6BK8jeG3OFtcXu2SafZbRujzlmLf5L0lwgtIDutUyCqp/Jy7nMNrgsPJi9JywbONtqhJDE2K8YBzgR1sworwAM8vrn33Qb/D95RHa4Vbrn+IYT9//8Ynh9r7zGoRTlQUznJAn17YUAdsrip+B7MrgpOimpfrJIe+YmzeejGvwzMi6jLlsjFsRm0f0YmDMAzeUtaq+iMyaOZ64V+ffymhQZuuPUIq2D+W0ar8UxAThis2aX3FQyAF8bRMDJ/4AGzFBJMWytAknrVK/hWZjRHp0Nnl6MTfsYYLPwAt7DWn7SM1cbNeztCBYmTmBb1QU7ZzkHEFGW2iVP+THADnHepwtnFIKPKs7AyNOxMNOouMToFYOzdem6HZoF7qfhM1nq9OKSW3ckOPfGMj19BzAAS6WDBIF5ioWv2
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
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Question
12.77
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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.
Question
12.78
YSKNgnVUmKo2icSqfa8sQs7v+LzHaivrz/PdK7ZABHGgetj0+3mmTEe+F0eYYGufSnNRmYpbnFhCa3vuJ1wuTMhbhUJU72GQHSoOcqgPK6vRScR96ZEb6XdIKZtUwAKKLf7Q68fpRCEIct7Hn+zP43wFvD5TlnrRrcXYMyN3pHJkRNghE+VQE90iKEZt8p5CvXnzSHkt/j/CmqthBb4hB04yBYS5f8/HLqA1AoZU+NpkuECD7Oy1bTrhS4uO4J8t
Possible Answer: English society probably had a negative attitude toward illegitimate children. This would explain 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.