Jasmine

Told from the first-person point of view and in a non-linear style, Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine is about the journey and personal development of a young Indian woman as she attempts to assimilate into American culture. Influenced by Mukherjee’s experiences, the title character, Jasmine, plays a series of different roles throughout her young life.

At the heart of the novel is the struggle to find one’s identity, and yet be flexible and courageous enough to reinvent a new self for each unique life experience. The themes of assimilation and identity are crucial to Jasmine’s growth as she is given new names at each stop along her journey; some of these names are liberating, and some are oppressive. Additionally, the themes of duty and love are addressed in Jasmine’s different types of love for two different men, and the decision she must make between that sense of devotion and the desire to freely follow her heart.

Plot Summary

Jasmine begins the story by sharing an encounter from her childhood when she bravely confronts an astrologer about his prediction for her future: She will be a widow and live in exile. The story moves to the present, with the twenty-four-year-old Jasmine, pregnant and living in Baden, Iowa. She lives with her older lover, the paralyzed banker Bud Ripplemeyer. They live in a small home with their adopted Vietnamese son Du. Bud left his ex-wife Karen for Jasmine, who appeals to his worn, jaded, middle-aged sensibility, but he does not know how to please her. Rural Iowa is filled with farmers in dire straits, like their next-door neighbor, Darrel Lutz. He is struggling to operate his family’s farm on his own and bitter that Bud won’t help him secure a loan to keep it afloat.

The story then moves back in time to Jasmine’s girlhood in Hasnapur, Punjab, India. As a child, she is called Jyoti, and she is bright and eager to learn. Her teacher, Masterji, instructs her in English and advocates for her continuing education despite her family’s stance that she should find a husband. After her father’s death, Jyoti meets Prakash, a young, hard-working man who defies cultural Indian norms and dreams about being successful in America. He gives Jyoti the name Jasmine and is proud to have a hand in the rebirth of this woman’s identity. Before they can begin their journey to America, Prakash is killed in a terrorist bomb attack.

Jasmine wants to honor Prakash’s American dream, so she takes his belongings in his suitcase, obtains a doctored passport, travels by plane, and then is smuggled by trawler to the Florida coast. The captain of the trawler, Half-Face, takes her to a local motel and rapes her. Jasmine decides to kill Half-Face instead of killing herself so that she can complete her husband’s quest. As she wanders the Florida backroads alone, she meets Lillian Gordon, a woman who assists undocumented female immigrants escape from the violence and abuse of their pasts and blend into American culture. Lillian gives Jasmine a place to stay, clothes to wear, and food to eat. She also assists Jasmine in making contact with Prakash’s professor, who lets Jasmine live with his family and eventually gets her a green card.

Using Lillian’s daughter as a contact, Jasmine secures a job as a nanny for Taylor and Wylie Hayes’ daughter Duff. For the first time, Jasmine (or “Jase,” as Taylor calls her) experiences a taste of independence and freedom. She is treated as a professional, not a servant. Jasmine’s happiness living with the Hayeses ends when Wylie leaves Taylor for another man. Jasmine stays on as Duff’s nanny through the divorce process, and Taylor makes clear his interest in her. But one day in the park, Jasmine recognizes a hot dog vendor as Sukhwinder, the radical terrorist who killed Prakash. Panicked and afraid for herself, Taylor, and Duff, she runs away to Iowa.

In present-day Iowa, Jasmine—nicknamed Jane by Bud—recalls the day that Bud was shot and paralyzed by a disgruntled bank customer. It is one more burden of guilt that she takes upon her shoulders, along with Prakash’s death. Jasmine’s life in Iowa revolves around her frustrations with fitting in, her love-hate relationship with Karen, and her deepening awareness of the strength and aptitude of humanity as evidenced in Du.

Du has found his one remaining sister in California, and he leaves to reunite with her in a Vietnamese community. He encourages Jasmine to follow her heart. She has been receiving postcards from Taylor, who heads to Iowa with Duff to see her. Meanwhile, an increasingly erratic and depressed Darrel confesses his love to Jasmine and mocks her relationship with Bud when she doesn’t return his feelings. Jasmine convinces Bud to approve Darrel’s loan, but when they go to his farm to tell him, they find he has hanged himself.

When Taylor and Duff arrive at Jasmine’s door, she realizes what she must do for her sake. She is fond of Bud, but she does not love him. Jasmine rejects the astrologer’s prophecy and takes her future into her own hands. She walks out the door with Taylor, never looking back.