List of Middlesex characters

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This is a list of characters from Middlesex , a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides published in 2002.

Family relations between the main characters in the novel Middelsex Middlesex (novel) family tree.png
Family relations between the main characters in the novel Middelsex

Characters

The two escape Smyrna by boarding a boat for America. They profess their love for each other and marry on the boat. They immigrate to Detroit and are sponsored by their cousin, Sourmelina, and her husband Jimmy Zizmo. Lefty and Desdemona have two children together, Milton and Zoe. Lefty works for a production plant at the Ford Motor Company. He is fired after Ford's inspectors visit his home and discover that Zizmo is selling contraband. Following his dismissal, Lefty becomes a gangster for a short period of time before later managing a bar which he names the Zebra Room. [3] [6]
In his later life, on the day Cal is born, Lefty has a stroke, losing his ability to speak. Lefty communicates with his family by writing messages on a chalkboard. To pass time, he translates Sappho's works every day. He smokes hashish and listens to rebetika albums. [1] [2] [6]
Years later, with her silver spoon, she predicts that Calliope will be a boy. She had never been wrong before. Twenty-three prior guesses were correct. This time, however, she is considered wrong because the doctor thought that Calliope was a female. [6]
In one of the central scenes in the novel pertaining to black-white relations, Marius reveals that Callie's father is fearful of African Americans and pays money to the police to protect himself against them. [8] This belief is confirmed when Milton, after seeing Marius talking to Callie, tells her to "stay away from people like that". [8] Callie sees him for the last time during the 1967 Detroit riot. Marius sets on fire a rag suspended from the aperture of a Molotov cocktail and hurls it into the Zebra Room, a bar owned by Milton.

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References

Notes
  1. 1 2 O'Hehir, Andrew (2002-09-05). ""Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides". Salon.com . Archived from the original on 2010-11-20. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Bedell, Geraldine (2002-10-06). "He's not like other girls". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 2009-11-25. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Wheelwright, Julie (2002-10-19). "Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides". The Independent . Archived from the original on 2010-05-13. Retrieved 2010-02-15.
  4. "Q&A with Jeffery Eugenides: What does Chapter Eleven mean?". Oprah's Book Club . 2006-01-01. Archived from the original on 2010-08-02. Retrieved 2010-02-01.
  5. "What you missed at last night's Jeffrey Eugenides reading". The A.V. Club . 2011-10-25. Archived from the original on 2012-06-03. Retrieved 2011-10-25.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Mendelsohn, Daniel (2002-11-07). "Mighty Hermaphrodite". The New York Times Book Review . Archived from the original on 2009-06-12. Retrieved 2010-02-10.
  7. 1 2 Freeman, John (2002-09-29). "'Middlesex' plumbs depth of displacement". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . Archived from the original on 2009-11-25. Retrieved 2010-02-15.
  8. 1 2 Götje 2007 , p. 52
  9. Miller, Laura (2002-09-15). "'Middlesex': My Big Fat Greek Gender Identity Crisis". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2010-03-02.
Bibliography