THE MAIN CHARACTER TRANSGENDER LIFE EXPERIENCE IN JEFFREY EUGENIDES’ MIDDLESEX

Abstract

Novel as one of literary works is classified as a prose. It is written in the form of narrative and descriptive. Middlesex is a novel written by Jeffrey Eugenides published in 2002. Middlesex is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Award for Fiction. This topic is interesting to discuss because it concerns with human choice as the attempt to look for meaning. Cal’s has to choose the gender he belongs to his consciousness. This thesis that was origionally entitled “Transgender Phenomenon in Jefffery Eugenides’ Middlesex” concerns with Cal’s consciousness toward his gender identity. Consciousness as mental activity can be analyzed from the words, physical sensation and the sensation complex that give a meaning to mind and awareness. Grounded Theory is the approach purposed by Glaser that concerns to exprore the data from literature to understand the consciousness of the main character phenomenon. To understand the problem of the sexual genital organ and the gender construction, Gender Study is used for the study of how gender is being constructed in the novel. This thesis is expected to give some contributions in understanding transgender and how gender is being interpreted in society. Cal’s decisions can be understood and can be seen as the pure and natural choice of life from his inner consciousness. For the organization of internal elements of this novel, the author perceives traditional Greek mythology which can be seen how he describes his point of view. Applying some theoritical methods to study this novel is needed to get deeper comprehension why the story uses transgender and hermaphrodite as the majors problem in the novel. The goal of analizing novel is not only to get aesthetic aspect, but also to understand the reciprocal relation of novel and the real life. As the winner of 2003 Pulitzer Award for Fiction, Middlesex certainly has the purpose to deconstruct its reader’s point of view toward gender and hermaprodithe and to understand why the novel arises in society.