Past Importance in Middlesex and The Lacuna Anonymous 11th Grade

Although the past has chronologically been removed from present time, “the past is never dead and buried. In fact it’s not even past,” said William Faulkner. The theme of time is a common expression in American literature, as is seen in The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver, and Middlesex, by Jeffery Eugenides. Both authors demonstrate the importance of the past by showing past historical event and how they have changed the lives of the characters. Kingsolver and Eugenides use the past and express it’s importance, rather than considering it “dead.”

In the Lacuna, the past was an important part of the present because Lev Trotsky’s past followed into his present, and affected the main character, Harrison Shepherd’s, impression of humanity. When the reader meets Shepherd, he, a young boy, often goes to “the sea again for most of that day,” and has little regard for time, much like when he is older, which contrasts with Trotsky’s past - a past stuffed with important previous actions (Kingsolver, 7). “A false telegram on a train” forced Trotsky to live abroad for the rest of his life, demonstrating the past sets a precedent for the rest of one’s life (Kingsolver 244). Because Trotsky was constantly tracked and under the pressure of...