“Until we came to Baker &
Inglis my friends and I had always felt completely American. But now the
Bracelets’ upturned noses suggested that there was another American to which we
could never gain admittance. All of a sudden America wasn’t about hamburgers
and hot rods anymore. It was about the Mayflower and Plymouth Rock” (298).
When Cal
is enrolled into the all girls school, Baker & Inglis, which has a high
student body population of children from wealthy and well-established families,
she feels out of place. Although Cal and both of her parents have lived in
America for their whole life and consider themselves American, Cal is labeled as
“ethnic” by her peers at Baker & Inglis. Being labeled “ethnic”, Cal is at
the bottom of the school’s social hierarchy and is treated in such a way that,
even at a young age, she is able to understand that she will “never gain
admittance” into her peers’ social circles. This comes as surprise to Cal as
the society she believes she is a part of suddenly rejects her. The excerpt above
carries a surprised tone using phrases such as “all of a sudden” thereby
clearly highlighting the surprise Cal feels.
The idea
of society rejecting and alienating members who are deeply part of the
population is not limited to Cal and her family in Middlesex. Similar to Cal, African Americans in Detroit are labeled
as outsiders and placed at the bottom of the social hierarchy despite being a
major part of the community. They too understand that, although they have been
part of America for just as long as some of the wealthy families, they will
“never gain admittance” to the “other America”. This alienation of African
American results in the 1967 race riots, which Cal witnesses, adding to her
understanding of the exclusiveness of America.
In
addition to race, sex is also a basis of alienation that Cal must face. Being born
both male and female Cal has been an outsider from puberty to adulthood. Cal’s
alienation because of sex may be seen as even more severe than because of her
race since while Cal is cast off as low level being “ethnic”, she experience
full withdraw and awkward tension from the people that know her “secret”.
The
alienation Cal experiences while in America may explain her satisfaction with
living in Germany. Being an American in Germany, Cal is an official outsider to
the society. Being an official outsider may be comforting to Cal because while she
will still “never gain admission” to German society, she will not be isolated
by those who she considers to be her own kind.
Eugenides,
Jeffrey. Middlesex. New York:
Picador, 2002. Print.
