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middlesex response paper

Thu, 04/30/2009 - 13:58 — Naomie Delone




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                It was a little harder for me  to write a response paper for this reading because of the diverse  themes explored in this book. Reading  the book itself is very entertaining especially with Cal’s personal narration of the story. Each event is narrated with a good sense of humor.  Our characters are very prude as it seems and delicate on what they do and what their actions mean to God and their society.  I found the scene where Moulton and Tessie are arguing about controlling their sexual intercourse so that they could have a girl instead of a boy very interesting. Although Tessie will ultimately follow along the idea but I was at first interested on how she rejected the idea even though she desperately wanted a girl because she thought it was simply not a good approach to the problem.

             In comparison to last week’s readings, we can compare her character to Joe’s  who was also fighting against his inner self in order to do what he considers to be the right thing to do morally.  Her mother will also support her in her decision by saying: “God decides what baby is. Not you…”.

             I think that one of the main points that  Eugenides wants to get across us as readers after reading this book is mainly how society, the law which is also influenced in some cases by religion has the power to dictate us what kind of relationships we are allowed to share and in what way we can share them. In the case of Desdemona and Lefty, although they don’t have a guard to tell them that they are not allowed to share an incestuous relationship, Desdemona feels cursed for sharing such relationship.

             Like Foucault says, there is this constant and omniscient surveillance that we have been subject to. Even when there are no actual eyes watching us, we are still on our guard. We are actually watching ourselves thinking that God is always watching us and sees all of our misdeeds. Desdemona doesn’t have the pressure of the society on her since no one besides Sourmelina knows and yet she feels guilty of her relationship and is afraid that God might punish her  one way or another.

 

Comments

Mon, 05/04/2009 - 15:26 — Lee Quinby

Naomie, your discussion of

Naomie, your discussion of internal and external surveillance is right on target.  As you say, drawing on Foucault, "there is this constant and omniscient surveillance that we have been subject to. Even when there are no actual eyes watching us, we are still on our guard. We are actually watching ourselves thinking that God is always watching us and sees all of our misdeeds."  I remarked on how this works with Desdemona in response to Marcella, and just want to underscore your point here regarding the way it also works with Cal/Caliope throughout the novel.  Cal's story is, in a sense, a story of struggling to counter that constant surveillance that we turn on ourselves.  I will be interested to see how you think it turns out in the end.