Yessenia Vargas

Ms. Reyes

April 19th, 2015

Middlesex blog post 1: Key Passage Response

The prostitute scene serves to highlight the empathy Callie feels for the prostitutes. As Callie observes the prostitutes he pities them as they have no choice but to submit their bodies to awful acts that maybe many of them do not want to. As Cal describes his surroundings, “It isn't easy to keep yourself clean on the street... They're numb, too, to thoughts of babies left at home, six-month-olds with bad colds lying in used cribs, sucking on pacifiers, and having a hard time breathing” (236-237). Cal acknowledges that these woman are submitting their bodies only for sex and in return all they will receive is money. He understands that doing this job must be extremely difficult as it requires these women to make sacrifices in order to be able to perform this job. Women must expose their bodies to many men in order to get their attention, in the hopes of being the lucky one to be taken. Due to the actions that these women perform it becomes difficult to keep themselves clean as they have to sleep around with many men. The use of the phrase, “it isn’t easy to keep yourself clean” (237) highlights that this action is seen as dirty thus causing Cal to feel a sense of empathy for these women. These women have to leave their babies at home alone just to sell their bodies to try and make money to survive. The use of the words, “bad colds”, and “hard time breathing” (236-237) emphasizes the severity of the problem. These phrases are used in order to create an image that makes the reader see the awful situation, thus emphasizing Cal's feeling of condolence for these women. Women that do take part in this job, are often looked down upon or shunned from society because it is seen as morally wrong. Most women that resort to prostitution do so for the need of money not because they want to. Both Cal and the reader feel a sense of pity for these women through the awful acts they have to submit their bodies to and the extreme sacrifices that no mother will want to make.