How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I was born twice: first, as a baby girl [...] and then again as a teenage boy. (1.1.1)
The very first line in the book pretty much serves as a road sign that says Fasten your seatbelts: Gender identity crisis ahead.
Quote #2
"Women aren't like us. They have carnal natures. The best thing to do with them is to shut them up in a maze." (2.2.48)
Seriously, guys, what the heck is Jimmy Zizmo talking about here? Isn't he the one always pressuring Lina for sex? What does he mean 'shut them up in a maze'?
Quote #3
[Lefty] reinstituted sex segregation in the house, reserving the sala for his male companions and banishing Desdemona to the kitchen. (2.3.35)
Jeez, with Lefty's strict reinforcement of gender roles, no wonder there's a huge fracture between him and Desdemona. "Woman, get me a sandwich," isn't exactly a romantic line.
Quote #4
In the manner of women of her generation, [Desdemona] was practically an old woman. (2.5.31)
Desdemona doesn't ever really change with the times. Do you know people like this, who are still wearing the neon fanny packs of the 1980s? Is this a bad thing, or should they learn to adapt?
Quote #5
Right next to [Chapter Eleven], there's me, his sometime sister, my face already a conundrum, flashing like a lenticular decal between two images. (2.7.8)
This is a perfect image to describe how Cal/Calliope straddles the line between two genders. It's a heck of a lot more interesting than your average Lisa Frank sticker.
Quote #6
All was shrouded in a zone of privacy and fragility, where my mother never scrubbed me too hard. (3.1.42)
The Stephanides family's Puritanical aversion to sex and gender only complicates matters for their daughter... er, son... er... um... see what we mean? It's important to check these things out early.
Quote #7
I was aware that there was something improper about the way I felt about Clementine Stark. (3.3.118)
This is the only time we hear of Clementine Stark, the girl whom Calliope shares her first kiss with. Children pick up on gender norms easily, and she can just feel that this same-sex relationship is "wrong"… at least compared to societal norms.
Quote #8
During the growing months, quite a few of my schoolmates had -- as adults liked to say -- "developed." (3.4.73)
This is a difficult time for Calliope. Being raised as a girl, she expects to, um, blossom at the same time the other girls do. But it doesn't happen that way. Since she is primarily male physiologically, she has to wait a while to experience her own special brand of puberty.
Quote #9
Females pause and look for signs of agreement before continuing. Males just look into the middle distance and hold forth. Women prefer the anecdotal, men the deductive. (4.1.144)
This is Dr. Luce's assessment of male vs. female thought processes and storytelling. Do you agree? How do you think Cal combines both of these viewpoints into one hermaphroditic body and mind?
Quote #10
We're all made up of many parts, other halves. Not just me. (4.3.2)
Cal is talking about how everyone lies somewhere on a spectrum between masculine and feminine. You might be a cowboy-hat wearing dude who likes wearing your grandmother's shoes every once in a while, or a ballerina who really enjoys wielding a sledgehammer. Cal believes that you should act however you want, without any regard to what society thinks people of your gender should do.