Middlesex Section 1 Reflection (Pages 3–105)

To me, the beginning of any novel is as important as one’s first impression upon meeting someone, as it gives one an idea of what the rest of the novel will be like. In Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex, the first sentence, “I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974,” (3) introduces the narrator, theme, and setting all at the same time. The narrator, who soon introduces himself as Cal, says that he was “born twice,” catching the reader’s attention and emphasizing the importance of his coming to terms with his gender identity after being raised as a girl, which I believe will be the theme of the novel. Because he provides dates indicating that he was fourteen years old when he presumably received surgery to become biologically male, I speculate that puberty caused him to realize that he is intersex, although after reading the first part, this has not been confirmed. He then writes that he “feel[s] another birth coming on,” (3) referring to his newfound desire to explore his family’s history in depth. This is the first mention of his “inbred family” and “recessive mutation on [his] fifth chromosome” (4), the reasons for his hermaphroditism. The fifth chromosome mutation is repeated numerous times throughout the first section of the novel, most notably on page 81, where Cal notes that, among other medical ailments marked by immigration officials at Ellis Island, “medical eyes couldn’t spot a recessive mutation hiding out on a fifth chromosome,” allowing his grandparents to carry the mutation into the U.S. The repeated mentions of the mutation make me wonder if Cal blames his grandparents for causing him to be born intersex. Given that the condition makes him unable to reproduce and complicated his childhood, it is entirely feasible that he could be harboring anger about it, although he is now 41 years old and has had many years to come to terms with it. However, it is entirely possible that he is delving into his family history as a way to cope with it.

After discussing the circumstances of his birth, Cal tells the story of his grandparents’ journey to America. Despite the mention of his “inbred family” on page 4, I was not expecting his grandparents to be brother and sister. When Lefty went to the church and prayed, saying “I don’t know why I feel this way, it’s not natural” and “don’t let me be this way, if she even knew,” (31) I began to wonder if he was gay, but by the next page, when he slept with a girl in Bursa and called her Desdemona, I realized that he had feelings for his sister. Later, when they make it to Detroit and meet up with Sourmelina, it is revealed that she has a big secret as well. Technically, it is only said that she “like[s] girls” and “was one of those women they named the island after” (86); however, the allusion to the Greek island of Lesbos on which the famed lesbian poet Sappho lived and from which the word “lesbian” was derived makes it clear that she is a lesbian who married Zizmo only to get out of the village. Although it is unfortunate that she was unable to marry someone she actually loved, that was the reality of the 1920s, and at least she got to live in the city as she wished, even if it meant marrying a man who is involved in crime. Between hermaphroditism, incest, lesbianism, and crime, it seems that every member of the Stephanides family has a secret, and I wonder if Cal’s parents are hiding something as well.

The first section of Middlesex ends with a clear indication of what the next section will bring as Sourmelina breaks the news that both she and Desdemona are pregnant just after Lefty is fired.

Word Count: 669