Growing in Opposite Directions

The chapter entitled "middlesex" in Book Three paralleled Callie with her Grandfather. Her grandfather presumably had Alzheimer's and began forgetting his short-term memory, thus progressing him into various younger stages of his life. This coincides with Callie, who though she is young, is starting to understand the perspectives of both genders on the world. Since Lefty had a stroke, the connection between Callie and her grandfather was mostly emotional and understood. Lefty could not speak but that did not damage his relationship with Callie. Thus, it seems understandable that as Lefty lost memories, it is almost as if Callie gained memories from his male perspective. Lefty eventually did not remember marrying his sister or any of his life's accomplishments just as Callie began to realize that life is not strictly confined to a two-sex world as society advocates. This will become a complete parallel later in the novel as Callie will decide to be male and shed her feminine past just as Lefty decided to marry his sister, thus shedding their previous relationship and leading to the genetics that caused Callie's middlesex.