Diasporic Pain in Bharati Mukherjee’sThe Middleman and Other Stories

Abstract

The collection of short storiesThe Middleman and Other Stories (1989) written by Bharati Mukherjee, isa collection full of traumatic experiences in the life of diasporas. The characters in almost all the stories undergo many ups and downs in course of getting adjusted in the new alien land. Some of the characters are from European world while most of thembelong to Asian origin,that migrate there for their concrete mission, but theycannot live up to their expectation and hence start facing many pains and sorrows. They put maximum effort to become completely audacious to come up above the limit of the natives.. In course of their stay they start getting some good jobs and respect and finally mediate themselves thinking that they are great to come across those challenges. Therefore, the diasporic painas a traumatic experience is seen in the migrant charactersbut finallytheyare bound to become happy and mediate themselves. The author hasbeen greatly successful in projectingdiasporicvoice that man is destined to fall if he or she allows ambitions to hover in the air, far beyond one’s destined lot and limitations. The psychological turmoil they experience and the sense of loss they arrive at, are true to many of the post- colonial mimic men. This anthology hasbeen very categorical in establishing this reality. However the migrants characters experiencepain and get extreme frustration, theyare bound to reconcile and get adjusted with the new environment and the new land.