Secrets are sometimes necessary to keep, and sometimes necessary to expose

Secrets are sometimes necessary to keep, and sometimes necessary to expose, Jonathan Franzen argues in his novel “Purity.” Secrets are kept for different reasons, but just because something is a secret doesn’t give another the right to expose it. Pip initially believes that all secrets should be exposed, but comes to change her mind by the end of the novel.

Andreas Wolf contends that all secrets (except his own) should be exposed. That Andreas will do whatever it takes to expose all secrets in the world while doing whatever it takes to protect can be considered both ironic and hypocritical. Andreas is only right to an extent. Some secrets absolutely should be exposed. These include the illegal actions of the bank in Oakland to repossess houses of customers; and the truth behind how a nuclear...