Middlesex (novel): Difference between revisions
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==Setting== |
==Setting== |
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The beginning of the novel is set in 1922 during the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)|war between Greece and Turkey]] in Bithynios, a small village on [[Mount Olympus]].<ref name="Connelly">{{cite news |title=A Tale of Two, Er... Jeffrey Eugenides' 'Middlesex' features a novel heroine/hero |author=Connelly, Sherryl |newspaper=[[New York Daily News]] |date=2002-09-15 |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/2002/09/15/2002-09-15_a_tale_of_two__er______jeffr.html |accessdate=2010-05-20 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/61c3AbBzU |archivedate=2011-09-11 }}</ref> For hundreds of years, the people of Bithynios have engaged in incestuous marriages.<ref name="Gelman265">{{Harvnb|Gelman|2004|p=265}}</ref> It is common for third cousins to marry; their offspring—siblings—also become cousins.<ref name="Bartkowski38">{{Harvnb|Bartkowski|2008|p=38}}</ref> In 1913, many people moved away from Bithynios because of the [[Balkan Wars]]. Thus, by 1922, approximately one hundred people live in the village with fewer than half being female.<ref name="Eugenides28">{{Harvnb|Eugenides|2002|p=28}}</ref> Due to this decline in Bithynios' population, there are few eligible girls that Lefty can marry.<ref name="Eugenides28"/> Lacking a post office, a bank, and shops, the village has only a church and a tavern.<ref name="Eugenides28–29">{{Harvnb|Eugenides|2002|pp=28–29}}</ref> |
The beginning of the novel is set in 1922 during the [[Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922)|war between Greece and Turkey]] in Bithynios, a small village on [[Mount Nif|Mount Olympus]].<ref name="Connelly">{{cite news |title=A Tale of Two, Er... Jeffrey Eugenides' 'Middlesex' features a novel heroine/hero |author=Connelly, Sherryl |newspaper=[[New York Daily News]] |date=2002-09-15 |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/2002/09/15/2002-09-15_a_tale_of_two__er______jeffr.html |accessdate=2010-05-20 |archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/61c3AbBzU |archivedate=2011-09-11 }}</ref> For hundreds of years, the people of Bithynios have engaged in incestuous marriages.<ref name="Gelman265">{{Harvnb|Gelman|2004|p=265}}</ref> It is common for third cousins to marry; their offspring—siblings—also become cousins.<ref name="Bartkowski38">{{Harvnb|Bartkowski|2008|p=38}}</ref> In 1913, many people moved away from Bithynios because of the [[Balkan Wars]]. Thus, by 1922, approximately one hundred people live in the village with fewer than half being female.<ref name="Eugenides28">{{Harvnb|Eugenides|2002|p=28}}</ref> Due to this decline in Bithynios' population, there are few eligible girls that Lefty can marry.<ref name="Eugenides28"/> Lacking a post office, a bank, and shops, the village has only a church and a tavern.<ref name="Eugenides28–29">{{Harvnb|Eugenides|2002|pp=28–29}}</ref> |
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Lefty and Desdemona move to Detroit, where the 1913 [[Ford Model T]] [[assembly line]] was in effect. Workers revolted by leaving the factories because they could not acclimate themselves to the new speed. By 1922, the new workers are able to match the pace of the assembly line. The work is divided among groups of unskilled workers—allowing the company to employ or dismiss anybody.<ref name="Eugenides95">{{Harvnb|Eugenides|2002|p=95}}</ref> At Detroit, Desdemona finds work as a supervisor of girls who make silk [[chador]]s for the [[Nation of Islam]], a religious organization founded in Detroit, Michigan, by [[Wallace Fard Muhammad|Wallace D. Fard Muhammad]] in the 1930s.<ref name="Griffith">{{cite journal |last1=Griffith |first1=Michael |authorlink=Michael Griffith (novelist) |year=2003 |title='Siblings of the Genus Erroneous': New Fiction in Review. |journal=[[The Southern Review]] |issn=00384534 |volume=39 |issue=1 |page=10 }}</ref> |
Lefty and Desdemona move to Detroit, where the 1913 [[Ford Model T]] [[assembly line]] was in effect. Workers revolted by leaving the factories because they could not acclimate themselves to the new speed. By 1922, the new workers are able to match the pace of the assembly line. The work is divided among groups of unskilled workers—allowing the company to employ or dismiss anybody.<ref name="Eugenides95">{{Harvnb|Eugenides|2002|p=95}}</ref> At Detroit, Desdemona finds work as a supervisor of girls who make silk [[chador]]s for the [[Nation of Islam]], a religious organization founded in Detroit, Michigan, by [[Wallace Fard Muhammad|Wallace D. Fard Muhammad]] in the 1930s.<ref name="Griffith">{{cite journal |last1=Griffith |first1=Michael |authorlink=Michael Griffith (novelist) |year=2003 |title='Siblings of the Genus Erroneous': New Fiction in Review. |journal=[[The Southern Review]] |issn=00384534 |volume=39 |issue=1 |page=10 }}</ref> |
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