“Joe Gould’s Secret” by Joseph Mitchell is a profile about Joe Gould and Joseph Mitchell. The plot centers around Joe Gould and Mitchell’s journey of trying to figure out who Gould really is and if his Oral History truly exists. Mitchell’s record of how he goes about it says a lot about Mitchell. You can almost say it’s autobiographical. In learning about Joe Gould, Joseph Mitchell learns that he is not much different in that he too has a secret from the world. He is certain that the Oral History is not real, but he lets the committee of people searching for it believe in it. Joe Gould made strangers and those close to him believe that the Oral History was real. Joseph Mitchell almost becomes obsessed with Joe Gould when he was writing the first profile, “Professor Sea Gull.” He spent countless hours (and dollars) with Gould. “Joe Gould’s Secret” reveals that after Mitchell’s first profile on Gould was published, his obsession with Gould turned into irritation. Mitchell tries avoiding Gould and yet when Gould is very ill and eventually dies, Mitchell returns to the saga of discovering Joe Gould.
Gould is obsessed with himself. The Oral History and the attention he received from it (or what people knew of it) fueled him. That’s why he keeps the secret to himself. Without the Oral History then Gould has nothing. Without the Oral History, Mitchell really wouldn’t have much either. It is the Oral History that gives Mitchell’s profile edge. The discovery of its nonexistence gave Mitchell an edge for his second profile. Joe Gould’s secret became Joseph Mitchell’s secret when Gould died. After “Joe Gould’s Secret” was published, Mitchell’s secret was no more and the obsession of Joe Gould ended.
The two profiles also gave a good example of journalistic writing and ethics. The tone of the first one is much lighter than the second and I think that’s because Joe Gould was alive to read the first one. Once he died, the second profile was a little more grave and definitely biased in that it was written in first-person. The first profile gave Joseph Mitchell credibility to write the second one.