51 pages • 1 hour read
Bharati MukherjeeJasmine
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1989A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Immigration and the Search for Identity
Jasmine and Du’s individual stories reflect the challenges and frustrations of immigrants in America, as they both try to determine their own identities in a foreign, alien culture. Du’s struggles typify what happens to “model minorities” who encounter benign racism: His teachers and neighbors write off his skills, accomplishments, and talent for engineering as a given—something worthy neither of surprise nor praise. At the same time, no one probes the depths of his emotional life—details about his journey to America, the traumas and tragedies he has faced, and his goals and plans for himself, all emerge as surprise revelations. Only when he leaves Bud does Du forge a life based on reclaiming his identity: He seeks out his sister, affirming his Vietnamese origins, and decides to leave school and work in a repair shop, relying on his innate talent for mechanics.
Jasmine’s search for identity is much more internally driven. Her perception of America is rooted in her upbringing in a conservative, oppressive, and patriarchal culture that enforced the idea that women only had value as wives and mothers. As Jasmine goes from name to name, she tries on a variety of ways of being a woman: a more liberated Indian wife with Prakash, an au pair in a seemingly idyllic family with the Hayeses, and a modern woman with a job at a bank and an adopted child with Bud. She finally becomes her own woman at the end of the novel, giving in to living out her own dreams rather than being a caretaker for those of other people.
Women’s Independence
Jasmine’s Indian culture does not encourage female independence. Every tiny concession for women must be laboriously negotiated with the men in charge, often at the cost of violence. For instance, even when Jasmine’s father yields to her mother’s request that her daughter be allowed an education, he beats his wife to reassert his dominance. When Jasmine marries Prakash, he pushes her internalized views on female independence to change—but of course the irony is that even in this case, she is only as “free” as her husband allows her to be for his sake.
However, complete freedom is also a mistake—freedom from all familial bonds leaves a woman vulnerable and places her in danger. When Jasmine escapes India and makes a dangerous ocean crossing to Florida, she has rid herself of her grandmother’s abusive oversight and her culture’s paternalism, but in exchange she has no one to rely on for protection. As a result, no one can save her from being raped or bring the attacker to justice on her behalf, so her only reaction is to inflict violence back—either to herself or to Half-Face.
The best of both worlds is a limitedly independent existence within a loving and functional family unit. Jasmine takes one stab at this with Bud and Du—a safe enough haven, but one in which love only flows one way. Jasmine doesn’t love Bud; rather, she falls into her more accustomed position of caretaker, which in turn limits her tenuous independence. The novel ends with another shot at this kind of independence when Jasmine leaves Bud for an imagined future with Taylor and Duff, who will live with her in closer proximity to Du. She will be part of a cohesive unit with them, but will also be free to forge her identity and independence as she sees fit. Of course, this idyllic vision is only something Jasmine hopes for—the novel ends before exploring whether such a delicate balance is really possible.
Rebirth
The phases of Jasmine’s life are marked by the names she gets at those times and places in her life—each one a rebirth of her character. The novel follows Jasmine as she goes from Jyoti, the young Indian girl eager to get an education, to Jasmine, the shy but strong wife of Prakash, to the naïve au pair Jase, to Jane, the nurse and partner of Bud.
With each incarnation, what is most striking is how rootless Jasmine is as each episode of her life concludes in the beginning of her life. When she leaves her childhood home for life with Prakash, she barely has any relationship with her mother and grandmother. When Prakash dies, she flees India, severing her ties to her existence there without a second thought. In Florida, she literally murders the one person who connects her to her harrowing refugee voyage across the ocean and the violence she suffers. As she leaves Professorji, she sheds a piece of herself—her hair—transforming into a different version of Jasmine yet again.
Only when she starts to form connections with the people around her do Jasmine’s rebirths start to jostle against each other and thus help her build an identity that truly represents her inner life. Though she attempts to leave behind Taylor and Duff in the same manner that she has left behind everyone else in her life, her feelings for Taylor refuse to stay buried. Taylor’s “Jase” is superimposed over Bud’s “Jane,” and for the first time, rather than just going forward into a new rebirth, Jasmine considers whether her life with Bud represents the most she can hope for. The novel ends not with a rebirth, but a return to a previous life. Jasmine doesn’t simply set off for California—she reverts to the identity which made her the most happy.
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By Bharati Mukherjee
