Jill

//Middlesex// by Jeffrey Eugenides Pages Read: 1-80
 * Wiki Post #1:

Title created for this section:** The Elusive 5th Chromosone


 * Date: 4/28/10

Significant Quote:** "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. Specialized readers may have come across me in Dr. Peter Luce's study, "Gender Identity in 5-Alpha-Pseudohermaphrodites," published in the //Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology// in 1975. Or maybe you've seen my photograph in chapter sixteen of the now sadly //outdated Genetics and Heredity//. That's me on page 578, standing naked beside a height chart with a black box covering my eyes. My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's licence (from the Federal Republic of Germany) records my name simply as Cal." (Page 1)

This blunt opening paragraph is significant to the reading because it sets up the reader to sympathize with the narrator’s complicated and extraordinary childhood. From the quote, you can tell that this hermaphrodite has suffered a great deal of embarrassment through his youth. Anybody who as child, was subjected to photo shoots as nothing more than a specimen would surely be troubled if not scarred. The narrator, as he introduces himself to the reader, references the specialty genetic disorder books his body is featured in. Undoubtedly, there are some underlying mournful emotions possessed by the narrator. It is important to have a clear understanding of the narrator’s childhood pain because those pains could later shape his character and explain his actions and choices as an adult male.
 * Explanation:**

What limitations or challanges might the narrator face as an adult as a result of his complicated and indigant childhood?
 * HOT Q:**

As an adult, the narrator may lack the confidence to go out live his life to the fullest as an upshot of the abnormality and the difficulty of his early years. As a child, a person’s personality often develops along with their comfort zone. If a youth learns early to shy away from people for fear of being rejected, he may not develop the necessary social skills to be an active member of society. People often change and grow most as teenagers, and if you’re dealing with a sex change as 14 year old, perhaps you wouldn’t.
 * Answer:**

I can connect to the narrator's resentment of his face being hidden by a black box, his identity being taken from him. As a dancer, whenever I attend an audition I'm given a number to pin to my leotard and instructed to wait in line with the other numbers. When the judge watches me audition, my name and personality don't matter. It's only my body their interested in, not me. Therefore, I feel similar emotions to the narrator's, such as bitterness and confusion for being looked at only with my body in mind, not the person underneath it.
 * Connection:**