What would she do if at the age of fourteen she found out she is the opposite sex, a hermaphrodite? In the book Middlesex by “ Jeffrey Eugenides”, Jeffrey has a character name Cal Stephanides narrate a story about his life. Cal starts off the book with the present time of his Greek family predict the sex of him. As the book progress Cal goes back in time telling his family history. Cal was originally raised as a female named Calliope but at the age of fourteen, a tragic accident happen having him to discover that he was genetically a male. Throughout the book, Middlesex had a few minor characters who made a major impact on the story line. Jimmy Zismo is a minor character who had different personality traits, was the reason for Cal to be born and made a major impact in this story.
Jimmy Zizmo personality traits consistent of being an amateur herbalist, anti suffragist ,a ex- con, sneaky, big-game hunter, drug pusher , teetotaler and a compulsive liar. Jimmy Zismo had come to America in 1907 and portrayed a different quality in order to get Sourmelina. He had lied and made it seem as if he was a “tall, handsome man with a virile mustache,” ( Eugenides 86) but in reality he was “ short man who was clean-shaven” ( Eugenides 86). Jimmy Zizmo was also consider a law breaker . In book 2, Henry Ford’s English- Language Melting Pot, Jimmy
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Jimmy Zizmo made people believe he was dead but he began posing as a Master Fard Muhammad who he founded the Nation of Islam. Jimmy Zizmo made the people see the world as the devils being white people racism towards blacks. Jimmy Zizmo influence the story line because he made Desdemona question her life and whether the things he said was really true. This made Desdemona look at the world different and made her go to Dr.Phil to get her tubes tied . If Jimmy Zizmo was removed from the story, Tessie would have never been born and Desdemona would of never went and got her tubes tied
had to take a medical exam which stated her gender as a female. She went behind
The worker contacted Jimmy Stephens who is the father of Wanda Stephens. Mr. Stephen stated “Wanda is a very good mother, one of the best I’ve ever seen she keeps those children clean, her house clean, and my grandchildren are very well mannered and well behaved. “Wanda doesn’t do any drugs or drink, she doesn’t let that stuff around her and the kids. And my granddaughter Briana has never displayed to me she could or do anything inappropriate with other children and Briana has always been open to speak to Wanda about anything if something was wrong she would of talked to Wanda because that how close they are.”
obstacles along the course of her life that wouldn’t have happened if she was a male. Gentileschi
In the chapter “The Things They Carried” by Tim O'Brien. Leaders are known for their bravery, loyalty and commitment to their profession. Lieutenant jimmy cross on the other hand was fighting in the war physically but not mentally.Lieutenant jimmy cross was distracted, worried and these emotions would affect him and his team. There are circumstances where he encountered dangerous situations that could have killed him immediately, for these reasons i don’t believe he’s a suitable leader.
In this short story by Tim O’Brien, Lieutenant Jimmy cross leads a platoon of men in the Vietnam War. Unable to keep his thoughts from his unrequited love interested, Martha, Cross allowed his platoon to become lax in their duties and mentally removed from the war. The conflict arises when one of his men, Ted Lavender, is killed on a mission. The conflict is resolved when Lieutenant Cross abandons his youthful fantasy world for the reality of the war he is living in. Cross finds new purpose in the vigilant leadership of his men.
Jimmy Cross is the First Lieutenant who carries “the responsibility for the lives of his men” (O’Brien 429). Cross let his imagined love get in the way of his responsibilities and one of his men was killed. Cross carries the weight of Lavender’s death and adds that to the weight of his renewed responsibility to his men (427-437).
Daphne goes through a metamorphosis through her memoir. As a child she acts the way she feels so she is only doing what is natural to her. Because there is violence in her house she acts violent and because she feels like a boy she dresses like a boy. She viewed her as tough and that doesn’t change. However her thoughts of being an under achiever change after her self esteem is restored, which doesn’t fully happen until her stay at the Wilson Center. The Wilson Center is where she has the best perceptions of herself; she feels independent, smart, fun, and friendly. Daphne had a very hard time understanding her thoughts and feelings until the Wilson Center. The patients are who gave Daphne strength, the positive environment let Daphne explore who she was and relax and have fun. The Wilson center represents the adolescence that she should have had. The Dr.’s still make her feel uncomfortable when the gender issue arrises but Daphne can cop with it better because she likes where she is. Meeting Valerie led her to discover her homosexual feelings. It wasn’t the initial meeting of Valerie but later in Daphne’s life she released her true feelings towards women which is the biggest change of all.
Jimmy Cross is a protagonist because the story is about him dealing with the loss of his friend Tim Lavender. Cross is a lieutenant of the Alpha Company fighting the war in Vietnam. He does not care about the war and he does not want to be a leader . Jimmy is insecure about everything he does and he wonders if he makes the right decisions. His way of escaping is to day dream about Martha. She is an English major at Mount Sebastian, New Jersey and she sends him photos and letters regularly. She writes poetry letters and never mentions the war. Her letters are very friendly, full of all her activities and details of her life. She always signs her letters “Love Martha”(p.315), but she is not in love with him. He know this but dreams of her and him in a relationship. He carries Martha’s letters with him in a backpack and looks at them every night while dreaming about how his life could be with her intimately. He carries a
While at the hospital, she had flashbacks of the whole ordeal, and her professor asking her to have sex with him again. She also had sex with a guy name Toby. She met Toby at a party and they had sex the same night. Than one day when Toby came to visit Susanna at the hospital, they had sex and then she tried to have sex with a guy name John who works at the hospital. At times she felt guilty and regretful. At the hospital she met a girl name Lisa who was a sociopath. Lisa was a trouble maker, on numerous occasions she escaped and came back. So one time Lisa and Susanna decided to escape and met a girl name Daisy, who was a former patient at the hospital. While at Daisy’s place, Lisa was blunt about what she thought of Daisy, which caused Daisy to commit suicide. Susanna felt, she could have possibly saved Daisy’s life, if she had stopped Lisa from criticizing Daisy’s way of living. She tried to blame her self for the Daisy’s death.
The documentary Dr. Money and the Boy with No Penis depicts the tragic experience of a young boy and the psychologist who attempts to “treat” him after an unfortunate accident. In a time of little knowledge of sexual variation Dr. John Money proposed the theory that a boy could be raised as a girl, but after years of failed attempts this theory would be shattered. This story began when twins Bruce and Bryan went in to the hospital to have a routine circumcision operation at 7 months of age. On the 27th of April 1966 Bruce was the first of the two twins to be operated on, but the procedure would not go as planned. The boy’s parents were soon informed that their son’s penis had been fully burned off in a nontraditional attempt to burn the foreskin away from the penis. In a position of great confusion the Reimers became hopeful in light of such tragedy as they later became aware of the work of Dr. John Money, a man who was becoming a pioneer in the field of sex change surgery. In meeting with this man the Reimers were informed that their baby boy could live a normal life as a girl.
Trying to make ends meet, he turns to selling drugs. By the time Jimmy finds love ones more and decides to settle down tragedy occurs. Trying to escaping from a drug bust at a friend’s house his attempts end up with a conviction for murder. Due to his illiteracy, Jimmy couldn’t read the false accusations he never committed.
The young girl in the story is struggling with finding her own gender identity. She would much
Individuals are given the gift of life when they are born into this world. Many agree that everyone is blessed and should not take their lives for granted. To be truly alive, individuals must be overjoyed and pursue happiness. However, others would describe their lives as a joke. To be precise, many would be ashamed of who they are. A very strong example of an ashamed soul would be Calliope, the main protagonist of Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. In the story, Eugenides tells the tale of Callie, who is supposedly a monster because she is a hermaphrodite. Being a hermaphrodite indicates that someone has the sex organs associated with both genders. By definition, Callie is an abnormal freak. Eugenides
Bradley et al., also mention a similar case in which a 2-month year old male was injured during an electrocautery circumcision and his entire penile shaft was burned and the penis eventually sloughed off. At 7-months the rest of the penis and testes were removed and the parents made the decision to reassign their son to a female and to raise him as a girl. The patient was interviewed at two separate times. The first time was at age 16 and the patient stated that she had been living a female life and had no uncertainty about being a woman. The patient mentioned that during her childhood she viewed herself as a “tomboy” but she still maintained her circle of friends to mainly girls. She wanted to have sexual intercourse with males so she arranged a vaginoplasty. She was interviewed once more at age 26 and reported that she had been attracted to women in fantasy, and enjoyed experiences with both women and men. She now
Her problems start with her “cousin” Alec, who after seeing Tess’s beauty, tries to cohort her having sex, which she refuses. After she continued resistance for three months, Alec claims that she has “trifled with [his] feelings, eluded [him], and snubbed [him]” (Hardy 1891, p. 102) in regards to his advances. In the story, however, Tess has never accepted his advances, she has continued to tell him, no, but she always ends up apologising or it (which he gets angry from). Alec believes that she owes him something and Tess, in turn, feels bad for not accepting this because it makes him feel “hurt.” It is this set by society that the woman is meant to succumb to a man. Even when she marries when Tess tells her husband Angel that she had relations (though it is her being raped by Alec) in response to Angel telling her about his relations. She felt relieved saying to him, “now YOU can forgive ME!” (p. 331), which he denies her; Angel does not forgive her as she has forgiven him. She is held to a double standard because she is a woman. The males in her life dictate who she is and where her story goes; the men are free, but Tess is held in place. They are dominating in her society, a masculine trait, and one that leads to Tess killing