Greekness
"I'm not sure, with a grandmother like mine, if you can ever become a true American in the sense of believing that life is about the pursuit of happiness. The lesson of Desdemona's suffering and rejection of life insisted that old age would not continue the manifold pleasures of youth but would instead be a long trial that slowly robbed life of even its smallest, simplest joys."
Finally finished middlesex, four months after I started it. The above quote hit closest to home. Being "Greek" is allot of things, one of them being the above.
My neighbor was asking me "what I am" earlier tonight. Greek or American? I've always said "neither," or in my more upbeat days, "the best of both worlds." Neither implies no concrete identity when in fact I have a very distinct one. I guess I'm what you might call a 'first generation' immigrant. Born to parents of the same ethnic identity, and parents who were intent on preserving that identity. Into a community where the majority of people were not of that identity.
Back to the above.. it's most definitely true, and it's of course manifested itself in rather unique ways in me. But how do people carry on if they aren't fighting for happiness? What drives them? In middlesex, the above grandmother in fact wanted nothng more than to die after her husband's death, but stayed alive for 6 years afterwards.
Finally finished middlesex, four months after I started it. The above quote hit closest to home. Being "Greek" is allot of things, one of them being the above.
My neighbor was asking me "what I am" earlier tonight. Greek or American? I've always said "neither," or in my more upbeat days, "the best of both worlds." Neither implies no concrete identity when in fact I have a very distinct one. I guess I'm what you might call a 'first generation' immigrant. Born to parents of the same ethnic identity, and parents who were intent on preserving that identity. Into a community where the majority of people were not of that identity.
Back to the above.. it's most definitely true, and it's of course manifested itself in rather unique ways in me. But how do people carry on if they aren't fighting for happiness? What drives them? In middlesex, the above grandmother in fact wanted nothng more than to die after her husband's death, but stayed alive for 6 years afterwards.