Middlesex: Assimilation Throughout Generations: Character Analysis

Middlesex: Assimilation Throughout Generations In Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, the protagonist and narrator, Cal, takes the reader through the generations of his family’s rich immigrant tale. Cal’s grandparents, Lefty and Desdemona, are Greek refugees who came to America during the Turkish invasion. Cal tells his family’s story through three generations, tracking the evolution of a mutant gene that ended up in his being a hermaphrodite. Aside from Cal’s search for true self, Eugenides creates a riveting story with each generation of the Stephanides family assimilating to the norm of their time and environments. For example, Lefty represents the classic American immigrant, striving to achieve success and capture the American Dream with
Milton is often too busy with his very successful chain of Hercules Hot Dog’s stands, to deal with the changes and issues facing his family. Milton, prior to becoming this wealthy upper-class business owner, was his father’s son, and his wife’s husband; he was focused on building a family. Milton’s assimilation of American business and culture, as the first generation of his family in The United States, comes much more naturally than seen in the case of his father. The influence of American culture on the Milton family is to the disdain of his mother, Desdemona. When Tessie, Milton’s wife, is pregnant, Milton uses modern methods to ensure his child is a girl. Desdemona, when Milton is proven right, realizes that her Greek culture and beliefs are outdated in her family. Cal explains, “Desdemona became grim. Her American born son had been proven right and, with this fresh defeat, the old country, in which she still tried to live despite its being four thousand miles and thirty-eight years away, receded one more notch. My arrival marked the end of her baby-guessing” (17). Milton continues his father’s incorporation and pursuit of the American Dream, and takes it to the next level, reaching for an even higher level of social success and acceptance than Lefty did. Once Milton becomes wealthy, and is able to buy
Causing issues for Calliope, Milton enrolls her into a private all girls’ school, where she realizes that she in fact isn’t the all American girl she felt she was. Calliope expresses, “Until we came to Baker & Inglis my friends and I had always felt completely American. But now the Bracelets’ upturned noses suggested that there was another America to which we could never gain admittance”(298). However, this cultural exclusion is just the beginning of Calliope’s problems. Calliope also has to deal with the loneliness and isolation she feels from her genetic irregularity. Calliope, also while attending Baker & Ingris, begins pubescent changes, but not the same changes as other girls. Eugenides shows all the signs to imply that Calliope is indeed a hermaphrodite, with her deepening voice, bushy facial hair, bulky features, and even the mention of testicles. Calliope spends her teenage years assimilating the ‘Bracelets’ and the other teenage girls in her school. However, do to a freak accident, Calliope ends up in the hands of Dr. Luce, a specialist in sexual disorders and gender identity. When Calliope finds out that she is a hermaphrodite, she thinks she is, based on the dictionary’s definition of hermaphrodite, a “Monster.” Now perceptive to the fact that her genetic makeup is that of a male, ‘Cal’ is now forced to adopt the life of a young