Middlesex: #3: B

Once reaching Greece with the French ship, the three passengers were given vaccinations and visas. Although the Greek government knew of their little scheme, they agreed to allow the visa as long as they left the country immediately. Once arriving on the ship, the siblings had to act as if they didn’t know each other. But surely as the days went by they acted out a flirtatious romance; It turned into the ship’s daily soap opera. After a week Lefty proposed to Desdemona in front of the whole ship, she said yes. They then immediately got married and spent their first night together as brother-sister-husband-wife. “(Why did they do it? Why did they go to all that trouble? Couldn’t they have said they were already engaged? Or that their marriage had been arranged years earlier? Yes, of course they could have. But it wasn’t the other travelers they were trying to fool: it was themselves.)” (68) After conquering the systems of Ellis Island, the married couple departed on a train. Their destination was to be Detroit. Once arriving at the station they met with their cousin. And because of the cousin’s lesbian past, she was able to keep her mouth shut when she found out her cousins got married. Once returning to her home, they met her controlling husband. He then tried to give Lefty a job at the Ford factory, through his known connections.

Middlesex: #3: A

::VOCAB::

Aphrodisiac (72)- an agent (as a food or drug) that arouses or is held to arouse sexual desire

Hypochondria (68)- extreme depression of mind or spirits often centered on imaginary physical ailments

::ANALYSIS::

“millinery girls as fan dancers”(68) This is an example of figurative language because it is a simile. The author shows the millinery girls similarities to that of fan dancers.

“Europe and Asia Minor were dead” (68) This is an example of personification, because it gives the areas, Europe and Asia Minor, the ability to die. This description showed how to Desdemona, her past (Europe and Asia Minor) were behind her.

“To my grandparents Detroit was like one big Koza Han during cocoon season.”(88)This example of figurative language showed how Lefty and Desdemona saw some aspects of their past in their future.

::QUOTE::

“According to Dr. Luce, the gene first appeared in my bloodline sometime around 1750, in the body of one Penelope Evangelatos, my great-grandmother to the ninth power.”(71) This quote from Middlesex shows the randomness of her/his disorder. I found it amazing that over those hundreds of years that only the speaker caught this genetic disorder.

Middlesex: #2: B

“As far as the doctor re concerned, I’m better than Gottlieb… I’ve got a male brain.” (19) In this section of Middlesex we learn about how her hermaphrodite self came to be. The author brought the readers all the way back to the Greek and Turkish war with her Grandmother Desdemona and Lefty. “You’re not only my sister. You’re my third cousin, too. Third cousins can marry,” “You’re crazy, Lefty.” “This way will be easier. We won’t have to rearrange the house.” (39) Lefty after many adventures with other women had only found one love in his life, and that was Desdemona, his sister. But once after a peaceful period, when their town was under control by the Greeks, the Turkish soldiers had returned once again to take over. In evacuation, the family fled to the port city. When scrounging for food, Lefty met Dr. Nishan Philobosian. He patched up Lefty’s new wound. Lefty and his sister barely made it by through the times before the Turkish soldiers arrived. The army closed in the city and started sacking home and burning them. When Dr. P, heard a neighbor’s scream, he rushed over leaving his family in his home. After trying to save his neighbor’s life, but her murderer had done her in, he rushed back to find his family murdered. His two daughters both raped and decapitated. Meanwhile, the French boat came to the island to free all French citizens. Once Desdemona agreed to marry her brother he lied to the man to get his wife, the suicide doctor, and himself on the boat.

Middlesex: #2: A

::VOCAB::
Aquiline(47)- curving like an eagle's beak
Quay(47)- a structure built parallel to the bank of a waterway for use as a landing place

::Analysis::

“leap nimbly up onto a laundry line, and tightrope-walks across to the house behind.”(56) This is an example of personification because it is taking an object, fire, and giving it human characteristics. A fire cannot technically leap nimbly or tightrope.

“the ripples of light reflecting on his cabin walls were the pyrotechnics of heaven.”(44) This is an example of figurative language because it is a metaphor. It compared the reflected light to the god-like pyrotechnics of heaven.

“your legs were made of glass,”(44) This is figurative language for it is a comparison, without the use of “as” or “like”. The soldier compared his general’s legs to glass and their similarities.

::Quote::

“The smell of things burning that aren’t meant to burn wafts across the city: shoe polish, rat poison… And hair and skin.”(57) This quotation from Middlesex illustrates the pain and suffering with occurred at the port. After fleeing their respective towns, the refugees were plied up and captured in a burning barricaded city. The suffering was tremendous and as the couple/family fled from the city they smelt it tragedy.

Middlesex: #1: A

::VOCAB::

Heredity(3)- the sum of the characteristics and potentialities genetically derived from one's ancestors

Endocrinology(3)- a branch of medicine concerned with the structure, function, and disorders of the endocrine glands

::ANALYSIS::

“Began their slow collision into each other.”(11)This is an example of a metaphor because it shows a comparison of the act of forgiveness and reproduction to a collision. Because the couple had a fight earlier they gradually warmed up to each other as time pasted, similar to a slow crash.

“Only yesterday was Chapter Eleven finally allowed to dye his own eggs,” (15) The speaker is using a metaphor to compare an unidentified person as Chapter Eleven. This comparision shows that this person most not seem that important to the author or speaker or that in the past the two have not gotten along.

“her insides as a vast computer code, all 1s and 0s, an infinity of sequences, any one of which might contain a bug.” (37) This is a simile because it is using as to compare the grandma’s inside to a computer code. This comparison was used to illustrate how easily someone’s gene’s genes (1s and 0s) can get mixed.

::QUOTE::

“Our religion’s adherence to the Julian calendar has once again left us out of sync with the neighborhood.”(15) This is an important quote relating to the novel, Middlesex, because it shows the speaker’s mood and relationship to the outside world. The main character obviously feels isolated and distant from her neighborhood and society because of her religious beliefs. This may show a future change in beliefs as she grows older and has more control over her own life.

Middlesex: #1: B

In this section of Middlesex we are introduced to the main characters. First the speaker, also the main character, introduced herself as a normal field hockey playing, lab guinea-pig. “I was first one thing and then the other.” (3) From the beginning of the first section, the narrator projects herself as an insecure, violated, and ever changing individual. The beginning of the novel we meet an eager couple who are ready to have a second child. Because of a vision that the father had received during a dream he was pulling for a girl. So in turn he consulted the neighborhood doctor to see what could make this more likely.. As a family tradition the grandmother predicts the sex of the baby inside, with a silver spoon. As the homeland driven woman eager watch the spoon swing next to the mother’s stomach, the spoon did not move. This was extremely unusual from the normal swing. But as some time past, the spoon swung to show the prediction of a boy. But finally when the baby came, the grandmother’s traditionally correct prediction was proved false. The couple had a girl but there was a shocking future surprise in store for all. This in some way would prove god fearing grandmother to be amazingly and incredibly correct. “They wrapped me in a blanket and put me on display among six other infants, four boys, two girls, all of them, unlike me, correctly tagged.” (18) But before the speaker could tell more about her life, she started to rewind her past all the way back to where her problem started, Greece.

"Like A Boy"

Penelope, wife to Odysseus, had been faithful for twenty lonely years. This was very admirable of her considering that every man in her country was trying to marry her and she had not seen or heard from her husband. Odysseus was also being disloyal and adulterous with a goddess, Calypso. Penelope was securely faithful and continued with her marriage even though her man was untrue.

Penelope’s resilience in her marriage was incredible. Every man in this queen’s country was constantly trying to court her. Her suitors were constantly at her home and destroying the property. “down to the last man the court my mother, they lay waste my house! And mother… she neither rejects a marriage she despises nor can she bear to bring the courting to an end-“(Book 1, 288-2991)The bachelors were desperate and resilient but once again Penelope proved her love for her husband but still kept her suitors around. “She fell to weeping for Odysseus… But the suitors broke into… prayers to lie beside her, share her bed,” (Book 1, 418-421) While she wept longing for Odysseus, her husband was with Calypso. For seven years he stayed on her island, while taking advantage of his loving wife. “In the nights, true, he’d sleep with her in the arching cave-“(Book 5, 170-171) Penelope is an amazing character in that she never gave up on someone, while in the same situation others would lose faith.

“Like a Boy” by Ciara, is from a viewpoint of a lover with a disloyal and absent partner. In many ways this song reminded me of Penelope. One is how both the singer and Penelope are both faithful and devoted to an adulterous man, while both being limited by society and its expectations. “What if I?/Had a thing on the side?/Made ya cry?/Would the rules change up?/Or would they still apply?/If I played you like a toy?/Sometimes I wish I could act like a boy” Another similarity between theses two speakers are also their absent lovers. “If I was always gone/With the sun get'n home/(Would Ya Like That?)/Told you I was with my crew/When I knew it wasn't true” Penelope saw that even if her husband was supposedly dead, she still was true. “Like a Boy” reminded me of Penelope because of both of their unfaithful and absent men.