The Middleman Bharati Mukherjee

The story titled, “The Middleman” is written by American author, Bharati Mukherjee. The story revolves around a young man named Alfred Judah, who is an Americanized jew from baghdad Iraq now living in Central America. He finds himself stuck in the middle of the dealings of illegal weapons in a Latin country. He becomes involved with the the Arm dealer himself, Clovis Ransome. While staying at his home, Alfred meets Clovis’s wife Maria. Instantly, Alfred is attracted to her and experiences conflict with his feelings for Maria with Clovis and her lover, Andreas in the picture. Ultimately, Maria ends up taking Ransome’s life while sparring Alfred’s in the name of true love. In this love triangle, Mukherjee makes it apparent that the men in the
While confessing his weakness for women, Alfie reflects on his upbringing and explains why he views women in the way that he does. He goes on to reveal that where he is from, the young boys in Baghdad, including himself were exposed to adultery at the young age of 12. He says, “We were twelve and already visiting whores during those hot Levantine lunch hours when our french masters intoned the rules for food, rest, and good digestion.” (Mukherjee 4) Alfred expresses that he has experience first hand with woman based on his encounter with adultery. In addition, he was also guided on various things like when to eat, sleep and figure out what is good for you and what is not. This shows that at twelve years old, he was heavily influenced by these “french masters” that clearly wanted the boys like him to grow up familiar with a specific way to live. I believe that Mukherjee was bringing light to the fact that the men’s perception of woman stems from what they were exposed to as young boys which as a result, defines the type of relationship that they had with them in the overall