Sunday, May 17, 2015

Text to Text

In Oedipus the King, we see before us a wise, intelligent and brave leader of Thebes who is willing to help his people at any moment to ensure their safety under his leadership. His strong persistence to solve the plague has resulted him to find the truth of his birth that lead to his own demise. His desire to prove his innocence has lead him to reveal his own sin and eventually isolate from Thebes. Similarly in Middlesex, Callie’s desire of wanting the Obscure Object will only end up in misery because the society rejects homosexual and is against the idea of a woman liking another woman. Both Oedipus and Callie will not get want they want because both of them end up in misery. As for Oedipus, he blind himself after find out he is the “scourge” of his people. He choose to exile from Thebes because he commit incest and patricide. On the other hand, Callie desires the Object and entered to Rex’s mind to have sex with the Object. She feels that “I didn’t have to feel guilty, didn’t have to ask myself if I was having unnatural desires” (375). This shows that she blame on Rex for her unnatural desire toward the Object instead of herself. Her desire of wanting the Object grow when she start having secret love affairs with the Object at night. Her unnatural desire will not only lead her to isolate from the society but as well as to figure out that she is not “normal” girl but something in between. At the end of chapter, The Gun on the Wall, we see that the Object looked “cold, skinny, out of place, lost. It was almost as if she knew we would never see each other again” (394). This reveals that since the society is in Callie’s way to having the Object, her relationship with the Object has come to the end. Callie lose what she desire because it is unnatural for a woman to like another woman. On the other hand, Oedipus lose his role as King because the society reject incest and people believe incest is unbelievable crime. What both character desire is against the society and is a violation of human moral. 

No comments:

Post a Comment