Willing to Be Disturbed

“Willing to Be Disturbed” prompt

In todays society, the influence of peers shape individuals into their identities. Sometimes

getting lost in the discussion can make the greatest impact on one’s emotional psyche, instilling

thoughts and robbing people of their true originalities. It is easy to adjust one’s own beliefs to fit

society's “norm.” Lefty, once a devoted Greek, turned on his own cultural traditions to adapt to

the American lifestyle his peers lived by. Lefty assimilated into the Americanized ways, pushing

aside all things that gave him his originality.

When Lefty and Desdemona first immigrated over to America they were true foreigners,

infants to the moralities Americans possess. Overtime though Lefty became infatuated with the

new culture he was being embraced by, pushing away his past entirely. “The new country and its

language have helped to push the past a little further behind” (Eugenides. 99). Lefty’s new

beliefs helped him to not only reject his history in Greece, but to become open-minded to the

possibilities of a sinful life in America. Life for Lefty was blissful, a pregnant wife, money in the

bank, a stable job, but unfortunately in life once things start to go up, the fall down is even more

After the Great Depression hit in 1929, things in Lefty’s life were down falling

drastically. The sins he committed attempting to make a stable life in America were backfiring,

hard. From opening up a speakeasy to becoming intimate with his own sister, “the depression

made itself known to Lefty by a growing number of empty bar stools” (Eugenides. 135). Over

time the Great Depression was taking a dramatic toll on Lefty’s mental and physical stability. “In

the mornings when he was around the house, his children treated him like a familiar relative, and

uncle maybe, but not a father…..It was no longer Lefty’s face, no longer that of her brother or

her husband. It was the face of someone new, a stranger she was living with” (Eugenides. 136-

137). Lefty’s