Middlesex 6

"Like a convert to a new religion, I overdid it at first. Somewhere near Gary, Indiana, I adopted a swagger. I rarely smiled. My expression throughout Illinois was the Clint Eastwood squint. It was all a bluff, but so it was it on most men. We were all walking around squinting at each other. My swagger wasn't all that different from what lots of adolescent boys put on, trying to be manly. For that reason it was convincing. Its very falseness made it credible. Now and then I fell out of character. Feeling something stuck to the bottom of my shoe, rather than crossing my leg in front of me and twisting up my shoe. I picked correct change from my open palm instead of inside my trouser pocket. Such slips made me panic, but needlessly. No one noticed. I was aided by that: as a rule people don't notice much."
Page 449, Chapter 3, Book 4

This passage makes great use of simile and metaphor to help the reader to gain a foothold in a decidedly unconventional situation. The narrator is making the transition from female to male, and encountering resistance. This situation is sufficiently awkward enough to alienate the reader if the author doesn't handle it correctly. As such, the narrators predicament is related to a new convert to a religion, his/her idea of a male expression being related to Clint Eastwood's famous scowl. The author's tone is one of detachment and ambivalence, created by use of short sentences and small alliterations. The final sentence of the passage also demonstrates one of the authors main themes, that no one notices what is right in front of them.

Middlesex 5 ( i don't understand why these wont post)

"The cedar swamp was an ancient place. No logging had ever been done here. The ground wasn't suitable for houses. The trees had been alive for hundreds of years and when they fell over, they fell over for good. here in the cedar swamp verticality wasn't an essential property of trees. Many cedars were standing straight up but many were leaning over. Still others had fallen against nearby trees, or crashed to the ground, popping up root systems. There was a graveyard feeling: everywhere the gray skeletons of trees. The moonlight filtering in lit up silver puddles and sprays of cobweb. It glanced off the objects red hair as she moved and darted ahead of me."
Page 369, Chapter 9, Book 3

This excerpt is a description of the setting of the chapter. The tone of the author is almost Gothic, reminiscent of Dracula in its description of broken-up moonlight and shadows. The author even outright states that "There was a graveyard feeling", and describes skeletons of trees and cobwebs, leading almost forcefully to a mood of suspense. The swamp is described as ancient, leading back to the narrators Grecian theme of fate preordained far in the past. The crookedness of the trees symbolize the lack of surety inherent in the future, foreshadowing the use of drugs and Callie's lack of surety in what she is. Finally, the one aspect of color in this scene, the Objects hair, is thrown into sharp relief in the moonlight, pinpointing the narrators fixation on her, as well as her incapability of attaining her as she is described as moving and darting, uncatchable.