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Paradox
Definition of Personification
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down on the wedding guests, indifferent... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the sentence, "The rain poured down... read full definition
Personification is a type of figurative language in which non-human things are described as having human attributes, as in the... read full definition
Book 1: The Silver Spoon
Explanation and Analysis—Military Genes:
Throughout Middlesex, Cal/lie often refers to genes in military terms, as soldiers who either obey or refuse to fall in line. This emerges as one of the novel's important motifs. Note the following example below, from Chapter 1:
Arrayed in their regiments, my genes carry out their orders. All except two, a pair of miscreants—or revolutionaries, depending on your view—hiding out on chromosome number 5. Together, they siphon off an enzyme, which stops the production of a certain hormone, which complicates my life.
The motif reemerges in Chapter 2, in the following passage:
And this can be extrapolated backward in time, so that when I speak, Desdemona speaks, too. She’s writing these words now. Desdemona, who had no idea of the army inside her, carrying out its million orders, or of the one soldier who disobeyed, going AWOL…
Cal/lie's choice of figurative language in both passages is telling. They have a combative relationship with their own genetic code, often feeling at odds with themselves as an intersex person in a society that only recognizes binary sex categories. When Cal/lie imagines a gene as a rogue soldier, it is clear that they imagine their own recessive gene—the one that has caused them so much strife and discord. Cal/lie clearly imagines themselves as an erstwhile sergeant barking orders to a body that won't listen. Only once Cal/lie accepts themself do they drop this combativeness.
Book 1: Matchmaking
Explanation and Analysis—Military Genes:
Throughout Middlesex, Cal/lie often refers to genes in military terms, as soldiers who either obey or refuse to fall in line. This emerges as one of the novel's important motifs. Note the following example below, from Chapter 1:
Arrayed in their regiments, my genes carry out their orders. All except two, a pair of miscreants—or revolutionaries, depending on your view—hiding out on chromosome number 5. Together, they siphon off an enzyme, which stops the production of a certain hormone, which complicates my life.
The motif reemerges in Chapter 2, in the following passage:
And this can be extrapolated backward in time, so that when I speak, Desdemona speaks, too. She’s writing these words now. Desdemona, who had no idea of the army inside her, carrying out its million orders, or of the one soldier who disobeyed, going AWOL…
Cal/lie's choice of figurative language in both passages is telling. They have a combative relationship with their own genetic code, often feeling at odds with themselves as an intersex person in a society that only recognizes binary sex categories. When Cal/lie imagines a gene as a rogue soldier, it is clear that they imagine their own recessive gene—the one that has caused them so much strife and discord. Cal/lie clearly imagines themselves as an erstwhile sergeant barking orders to a body that won't listen. Only once Cal/lie accepts themself do they drop this combativeness.
