Suicide in the United States Suicide is a widespread social problem that occurs in all human societies. In the United States in 2000, suicide was the eleventh leading cause of death. The total number of suicides was 29,350, or 1.2 percent of all deaths. In 2001, the figure was 30,622. Suicide is more common than…
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The Necessary Grace to Fall – Literary Devices
Imagery of the Human Body The story contains much imagery of the human body in its different forms. Leonard’s muscular physique is emphasized, as is the physical presence of the corpse of Svea Johnson. But the main examples are in reference to Howard. Unlike Leonard, who is extremely comfortable inside his own skin, Howard is…
The Necessary Grace to Fall – Themes
Mortality, Suicide, and the Affirmation of Life The characters vary greatly in the extent to which the life force and the desire to live flows through them. Leonard, with his physical fitness, well-defined muscles and constant munching of “energy bars,” has a strong hold on life, as does the aggressive Carla, with her desire to…
The Necessary Grace to Fall – Characters
Carla Carla is Howard’s wife. She has an eight-year-old son, Kevin, by a previous marriage, and she works for the same insurance company that employs Howard. She is an aggressive woman who gets angry when Howard is late for dinner and reproaches him for his unreliability when she sees him in an unfamiliar neighborhood when…
The Necessary Grace to Fall – Summary
“The Necessary Grace to Fall” begins on an August day in an office in the Hope and Life Insurance Company in an unnamed American city. The main character, Howard, works in this office with Leonard, his immediate supervisor, who is a physical fitness fanatic. Howard has only recently switched to his current position in which…
The Middleman by Bharti Mukherjee – Analysis
Bharati Mukherjee is known for her compelling stories about the experience of recent immigrants to the United States from the Third World. Although “The Middleman” takes place not in the United States but in an unnamed Central American country, it features the same theme. Alfie Judah is a naturalized American citizen who found his way…
The Middleman by Bharati Mukherjee – Setting
East Asian Immigration to the United States Immigration to the United States from India and other South Asian countries greatly increased following the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act. By the mid-1970s, there were over 175,000 Indian immigrants in the United States, with four states, California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, developing sizable Indian American…
The Middleman by Bharati Mukherjee – Literary Devices
Setting The unnamed Central American country is evoked in full sensory detail. The weather is hot and soon the rains will come, but at the moment it is “so dry it could scratch your lungs.” The wildlife is exotic: “Bright feathered birds screech, snakeskins glitter, as the jungle peels away. Iguanas the size of wallabies…
The Middleman by Bharati Mukherjee – Themes
Amorality, Deceit, and Self-interest The world depicted in the story is a brutal, violent, cynical one. With the possible exception of Andreas, the guerrilla leader, the characters are concerned only with how they can exploit the situation for their own benefit. The finer qualities of love and friendship and behavior guided by moral standards are…
The Middleman by Bharati Mukherjee – Characters
Andreas Andreas is the guerrilla leader. A tall, handsome man, he is Maria’s lover. When Alfie meets him, he realizes that Andreas is the man on the poster that Eduardo has placed on the wall of his room. It shows a man in beret, black boots, and bandolier who looks as if he might have…