More than Something Gone Wrong
More Than Something Gone Wrong: A Life Born of Fate
Calliope Stephanides (of Middlesex) is much like Humbert (of Lolita) in his belief in fate.
In both cases the narrators outline a series of events, down to small details, and highlight the fact that if any one of these things had happened differently their stories would cease to exist. With both Humbert and Cal, the event supported by fate is not supported by society, not applauded or “supposed to” happen. Yet fate comes together and it does happen.
For Humbert fate intervenes so that his affair with Lolita is possible. Certain things fall into place, such as: Humbert moves into Lolita’s home, Humbert marries her mother Charlotte to be closer to Lolita, Charlotte gets hit by a car when she finds out the truth, Humbert is able to have custody of his “daughter” without anyone suspecting his true motives… An affair with a 12 year old should not exist, but everything in Humbert’s life lines up to make it possible for him to fulfill his desires.
In a similar way, Cal’s gene mutation is not a mistake or a product of chance. It is known that sexual relationships between family members may result in biological deformity. A sexual identity of a hermaphrodite is not the norm in the didactic gender roles defined by society. Yet Cal outlines his family history to show that his existence is more than a random occurance . This is seen in a beautiful light at the close of Book 2 when Cal describes the journey of the mutation from the escape of a burning village, to the voyage and romance on a ship, to a speak-easy, to painted toe nails. Every little event that happened along the way contributed to making a place in the world for Calliope Stephanides. Any one of these actions or thoughts or feelings changed along the way would have produced a very different outcome.
People would look at Cal’s “deformed” body or Humbert’s affair with Lolita and wonder what went wrong.
But through their narration Cal and Humbert explore the fact that nothing is wrong; on the contrary, the course of their lives were determined entirely by many, many instances of things going right.
(There is a quote from Cal about events being so coincidental that there was no way he have made them up. I will find this quote by the time we have class.)
Tags: Cal, fate, Hermaphrodites, Humbert
