Middlesex Lesson Plan

How do Detroit's racial tensions affect the Stephanides' life after the downtown riots?

Materially, the burned-down Zebra Room offers them the money to buy a house in a suburb and continue their attempted assimilation into American society despite anti-immigrant real estate point systems aiming to keep them off streets like Middlesex Blvd. But the riots also affect Milton's ideas about race, causing him to become conservative and bigoted. This puts him in conflict with Chapter Eleven, whose experience at university has caused him to reflect his parents' straightlaced ideas in favor of Marxism. Milton's lack of respect for Detroit's black community also affects Callie's...