Essay About Greatest Impact And Great Depression Hit

Willing to Be Disturbed
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“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
societys “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