Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Middlesex, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Rebirth vs. Continuity
Ancestry, Inheritance, and Fate
False Binaries
Migration, Ethnicity, and the American Dream
Secrets
Summary
Analysis
Cal explains how everyone in his immediate family is related to each other in complicated ways. Cal’s brother, Chapter Eleven, is also his third cousin; Milton is the nephew as well as the son of both his parents, and so on. Back in eighth grade English class, Callie translates a line from Ovid, Ex ovo omnia, which means “Everything comes out of an egg.” Cal imagines himself and Chapter Eleven existing as eggs before they were conceived and born. After Milton graduates from the Naval Academy in 1949, he and Tessie live at Pearl Harbor for a while. In 1951 Milton is transferred to Norfolk, Virginia. During this time, he develops racist and anti-communist ideas.
The idea that Cal/lie and Chapter Eleven existed in egg form before being born emphasizes the sense of predetermined fate. It also fuses biological and spiritual determinism by using a biological marker (the egg) for a rather mythical concept, that the spirits of unborn babies wait and watch the events of the world before they arrive.
Themes
Father Mike proposes to Zoë three times, and in 1949 she eventually agrees and marries him. In 1950 the Black Bottom ghetto is bulldozed. Back in Detroit, Milton tells Lefty that he wants to run a chain of restaurants, starting with the Zebra Room. This chain, which will be called Hercules Hot Dogs, will eventually have 66 locations across the country. Milton uses his G.I. business loan to start it up, decorating the space with a “hodgepodge” of Greek kitsch items. The opening is a success; business booms, and soon Milton and Tessie are able to buy a large house in Indian Village, which is near Lefty and Desdemona’s old neighborhood of Hurlbut, though much more affluent.
This passage perfectly exemplifies how the Stephanides family end up living the stereotypical American Dream. Part of this dream is the idea that the first generation of immigrants work hard and make sacrifices in order to allow the second generation to have more options. In turn, the second generation uses these expanded opportunities to become prosperous and rise through the class hierarchy.
Themes
Showing Lefty around the house, Milton points out that there is a library where Lefty can work on his translations. At 54, Lefty has been “pushed out” of his old role running the Zebra Room, and in a moment of despair about growing older, visits a casino hidden inside a pharmacist, which is frequented almost exclusively by poor black people. Lefty starts with small bets, but things quickly escalate. Cal speculates that part of the reason that Lefty was drawn to gambling was “survivor’s guilt,” which led him to be reckless and self-destructive. Everyone in the family is too preoccupied to notice Lefty’s gambling. Milton is busy with the diners, Tessie is caring for baby Chapter Eleven, and Sourmelina has moved to the Southwest with her girlfriend, Mrs. Evelyn Watson.
Although the overall story of the Stephanides family during this period is one of rising prosperity and success, this does not apply to all the family members individually. Without the sense of dignity and purpose stimulated by running the Zebra Room and providing for his family, Lefty’s traumas and vices resurface. As the (former) patriarch, he is in a strangely vulnerable position precisely because no one in the family sees him as vulnerable and thus thinks to check in on him.
Themes
Desdemona is going through a fairly happy stage in life. She is daydreaming about moving to Florida after hearing about a place called New Smyrna Beach. After 26 months, Lefty realizes with a start that he has spent all his money—he only has $13 left in his account. On hearing this news, Desdemona shrieks and falls to the floor, ripping her clothes. She and Lefty move into Milton and Tessie’s house, living in the attic for maximum privacy. Cal believes that Desdemona liked living there because it reminded her of living back in Bithynios on Mount Olympus.
In Greek tragedy (as well as other ancient cultural traditions), women ripping their own clothes is a sign of grief and lament. It can be interpreted as both a sign of mourning and of rage at one’s own powerlessness. Without much control over her and Lefty’s life, Desdemona resorts to turning her anger inward on her own body.
Themes
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The narrative now returns to the same time at which the novel began, on the day Cal is conceived. Cal explains that 250 years ago, the “biology gods” planted a mutated gene in one of his ancestors. The gene was passed down through the family to his grandparents, who then passed it on to Milton and Tessie. When Chapter Eleven was conceived, the biology gods decided that he would not inherit the gene. However, when Cal is conceived, the recessive gene finally meets its “twin.” The rather clinical manner in which Milton and Tessie have sex leads Tessie to apologize to her “baby girl,” saying she wishes it could have been more romantic. Milton replies, “Where’s my clarinet?”
This passage once again reflects on the idea of fate while comparing scientific and mythical interpretations of the world. Cal opts to present his inheritance of the gene that made him intersex as something that was determined by the “biology gods,” thereby fusing a scientific and mythical understanding of his own fate.
Themes
