How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Because a person should never show vanity in the presence of death, Lefty stopped shaving and by the day of the funeral had grown nearly a full beard. (2.3.1)
Death customs vary widely by culture and are always fascinating. We hope Jimmy died in November so that Lefty was already prepared for No-Shave November—might as well kill two birds with one stone. Oops. Did we say kill? Too soon?
Quote #2
In my family, the funeral meats have always furnished the wedding tables. (2.5.84)
What is it about funerals that makes people want to feel alive? Is it a touch of necrophilia (yeah, we went there—when you're talking about a book that has so much incest in it, nothing's off limits), or something else at work?
Quote #3
As [Lefty's] mind continued to waver, to short-circuit, he finally arrived at the cold-eyed conclusion, so at odds with his youthful cheerfulness, that the brain was just an organ like any other and that when it failed he would be no more. (3.3.99)
Boy this is harsh. As Lefty gets older, he pretty much stops believing in... anything. But especially not in an afterlife. Why do you think he gives up hope?
Quote #4
"Pray for me to die," [Desdemona] instructed me. "Pray for yia yia to die and go be with papou." (3.4.4)
Desdemona welcomes death because she thinks it will reunite her with her husband. This is quite the contrast with her husband's view. Before he died, he believed that was it—no afterlife, no nothing.
Quote #5
Maxine Grossinger was already dead. (3.6.164)
We don't see many people die on-page, as it were, in Middlesex. Maxine stands out because we're introduced to her around page 338 and she croaks on page 339. What gives? Why bring this girl into the narrative only to kill her off a page later? Why are you so cruel, Eugenides?
Quote #6
My brother told me that there had been an accident and that Milton was dead. (4.5.126)
Why do you think Cal refers to his father as "Milton" here? Is it shock over his death? Or is it because they weren't all that close in life?
Quote #7
[Milton] learned to steer the flying car. (4.6.95)
Milton's bizarre Chitty Chitty Bang Bang-esque flight over Detroit cannot be real, can it? We think it's a hallucination, one of those near-death things. Or maybe Cadillacs used to be a heck of a lot more exciting than they are today.
Quote #8
[Milton] was crying not because he was about to die but because I, Calliope, was still gone, because he had failed to save me, because he had done everything he could to get me back and still I was missing. (4.6.96)
Although Cal says this has nothing to do with dying, the fact is that if Milton hadn't died, he'd still have a chance at getting Cal back. Death is kind of final in that way.