SUNY Geneseo Department of Computer Science

Credibility of Sources

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Midterms are graded

Get me topics and sources for Enigma essay (if you haven’t already)

Questions?

Source Credibility

Portrayals of Bletchley Park in Enigma vs “The Bletchley Circle.” Both are fictitious, but which do you think most accurately portrays Bletchley Park as it really was? Why?

• Paragraphs
  • The role that the women played at Bletchley Park in Enigma was strikingly different from the role they played in “The Bletchley Circle.” In Enigma, women were very rarely entrusted with the position of cryptanalyst. Instead, they were more like secretaries that did the busy work while the men actually dealt with decrypting the encoded messages. In “The Bletchley Circle” however, the woman were so involved in decryption that they detected important facts that could influence the actions of the British forces. In our opinion, Enigma is a more credible and reliable source because it aligns with our background knowledge of these times when women were not granted the same privileges as men. Also, Robert Harris has a lot of background information on Bletchley Park. According to the Acknowledgments in Enigma, he has interviewed former workers, visited the place itself, and read many book sources on the subject.
  • The portrayal of Bletchley Park in Enigma and in “The Bletchley Circle” differ greatly from each other. In the book the women of Bletchley didn’t seem to have any information about the code breaking process. Hester Wallace says “Everything interesting seems to be done by men.  Women do the rest.” The only thing that women were used for was the clerical work needed in the park. Whereas in the show, the women seem to be actually part of the code breaking process, trying to figure out the ciphers. Also in the book it made Bletchley seem like a bleak and very stressful atmosphere. The show paints the park as almost calm and comfortable, no one seems to be rushed or stressed at all. Enigma seems like it gives a more realistic portrayal of the park overall.
  • Enigma likely gives a more realistic portrayal of what Bletchley Park was like. Much of the novel is based in Bletchley Park while only the opening scene of the television show is based in that setting. Bletchley’s heavy involvement in Enigma likely would require a deeper knowledge of the setting, while its appearance in the show is only used to set up future events and doesn’t require as much depth. One of the major differences was that the show made Bletchley seem like a very comfortable place, while in Enigma it had more of a serious feel. The rooms in the show were decorated with flowery wallpaper, and the main characters were busy curling their hair at times. In Enigma time was of the essence and Tom Jericho was portrayed as a Bletchley worker who would not have had any time for these leisurely activities or the rest that these women were afforded. Jericho did not even have time to shower or sleep on many days due to the high intensity of his work at Bletchley Park. These are just a few reasons why Enigma would give a more likely description of Bletchley Park.
  • The portrayal of Bletchley Park is slightly different between Enigma and “The Bletchley Circle.” In Enigma, Bletchley is usually described as a hectic place to work—there were always tasks that needed to get done with quick pace. For example, when Hester reports to work, she is immediately thrown a variety of tasks to complete. Additionally, women were usually given secretary work, and were never actually given the job of breaking the German codes. The men worked with the codes and worked with the bombes, but the women did not. In Enigma, the decoded messages were also recorded on paper, instead on the actual code itself, which is seen when Jericho says that he would need the paper and pencils to get a reminder on how to break the code. In “The Bletchley Circle,” men did not even appear in the first scene where the women were decoding the messages. The women were usually described as younger as well, perhaps in their early twenties. Enigma is most likely more reliable, because television shows tend to dramatize situations in order to gain the attention of an audience, while the book tends to provide more evidence of historical accuracy.
  • The depiction of Bletchley Park in “The Bletchley Circle,” was extremely different from Enigma. One key difference is that “The Bletchley Circle” seemed to lack the stress and pressures portrayed by the book. The women seemed to be more relaxed and content in the television show. Another major difference was the gender roles within these works. We noticed that the women’s roles and duties seemed to be more skilled in the TV show than in the novel. The women in Enigma were required to record intercepts and other similar documents. They seemed to play no role in actually deciphering the codes. For example, in the novel Jericho was shocked that Claire seemed to be interpreting the messages. She wasn’t supposed to be knowledgeable about any of the messages. Also, Hester had won a crossword puzzle competition, which many others also participated. After the competition, the other competitors received more highly skilled jobs because of their gender. Hester had been trying to transfer into a similar field, but was not able to because she was a woman. We believe that the concepts in the novel were more accurate than the television show. Considering the time period, it is logical that the women were not able to receive the same education as men, making it more challenging to get more complex jobs. It is also more realistic that stress would be at high levels in Bletchley Park. With many lives in danger, it makes sense that they would feel extremely pressured.
• Things that contribute to credibility
  • Credits / sources
  • Consistency with
    • Own knowledge
    • Other sources
    • Self (internal)
  • Context: who is a document for, what publication pressures was it produced under, author’s goals/intent
  • Author’s credentials/expertise

Participant primary sources

• Participants are often stakeholders, have an interest in portraying events favorable to themselves
• Participants may forget things over time
• Participants can be too close to events to understand their full significance
• But participants were there and saw what really happened

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Wrap up Enigma (technology? discussion of novel? other?)