Sexy

Miranda is the protagonist of “Sexy” and the story focuses on her experience through third person narration and, particularly, flashbacks. The story’s other major characters, Dev, Laxmi, and Rohin are seen only as they interact with her. Miranda is 22 years old and new to Boston; the only two characters who appear as important in Miranda’s daily life are both of Indian heritage: Laxmi, her colleague, and Dev, the older married man with whom Miranda is secretly having an affair. Miranda’s character is the point of view through which the narrative explores ideas of identity, morality, and connection, especially in relation to racial and cultural differences.

Miranda is single and starting out in life; she is working in fundraising for public radio and is clearly junior in her career. She was brought up and went to College in Michigan, in what the story’s details reveal as small-town, insular environment. She has deliberately sought out a different life “precisely because” she knows no one in Boston, and she is still learning how to navigate the challenges that this new life presents. Miranda’s naivete in comparison to Laxmi and Dev is made obvious immediately and throughout the story: although her role is as the protagonist, her character can also be read as a