Metaphors & Symbols in Middlesex

Why would Cal want to use metaphors and symbols as part of his descriptions?

In the opening pages of Middlesex, Cal uses metaphors and symbols both to describe and represent himself and to inform the reader's understanding of the characters. In addition to the cocoons, which Theresa explains below, eggs are a particularly important symbol. On their own, eggs represent fertility, birth, and femininity, but the egg-cracking scene (15) is significant because it represents the destruction of all of those qualities. The way Chapter Eleven and Milton select the eggs so carefully parallels how Milton wants to choose the sex of his next child and dying the eggs is similar to how Desdemona attempts to predict Cal's sex while his mother is pregnant because they are putting their own wants and assumptions on the eggs. In some ways, the metaphors and symbols seem like a roundabout way for Cal to tell his story, but they actually play an important role in how his character is presented to the reader.