SUNY Geneseo Department of Computer Science

Enigma Wrap-Up

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Questions?

First-Person Primary Sources

How to write an essay that depends on them (e.g., “what was daily life like at Bletchley Park?”)

Use lots of first-person sources so you can check the plausibility of each against the others (e.g., interview collections in books or on web)

Characters in Enigma

Jericho

• Not really a hero: the mystery would have been solved without him, he’s sometimes kind of inept, but at other times pretty action-oriented (e.g., in fleeing police car)
• Kind of sleazy/creepy sometimes, e.g., in breaking into Claire’s cottage or otherwise “stalking” her
• But ends up more sympathetic than not for most readers

Claire

• Is she a spoiled rich girl, or a hard-edged counter-intelligence agent, or both?
• Is there really any way to know?

Hester

• In many ways more heroic than Jericho. Often the one who takes action, stands up to police, etc.
• Is she in love with Claire? Probably

Who Are Enigma’s Cryptanalysts?

Always very smart

People with language skills, e.g., crossword winners

Historians (e.g., Atwood)

Mathematicians (e.g., Jericho, Puck)

This makeup reflects a real change in cryptography and cryptanalysis that was happening at about this time, namely they stopped being mainly word games and became mathematical sciences

Alan Turing (a real person) was part of this

Next

Alan Turing’s life

Read 8-part biography at http://www.turing.org.uk/bio/part1.html (skip final “oration” if you want)