Analysis of Identity in Jasmine

The novel Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee is an incredible story about the transformation and life experiences of a Panjabi girl from India. The life of Jyoti is told from her point of view when she is twenty-four years old, and pregnant with the baby of Bud Ripplemeyer, a crippled banker who is more than twice Jyoti’s age. During the span of two months in Iowa, Jyoti narrates her biographical experiences in Punjab and in America as she strives to become independent. Jasmine illustrates that when one’s relationships go through changes, it will impact one’s identity.

Born in Hasnapur in India, Jyoti is said to be the most beautiful and clever person in her family. Unlike her sisters and other girls, Jyoti excels in school and continues her education until the 8th grade despite her father’s disapproval. Education represents a way for Jasmine to separate from many girls her age including her sisters and to shape her identity. In other words, this allows her to break from the semi-feudal rural society in which she lives. Her life, like most Indian women in that time period, is controlled and dominated by her father and brothers, "Village girls are like cattle, whichever way you lead them, that is the way they will go" (46). Jyoti’s opinions are often considered unnecessary. The role of women in villages was only to be a mother and to manage household affairs.

The first of many glimpses of Jyoti’s varying identities occurs during her marriage to Prakash. The first time Prakash talks to Jyoti, he says, “She is a woman of fine sympathies…” (74). He sees her as a delicate, obedient woman who follows her family’s wishes and societies restriction on women. Jyoti describes Prakash as “A modern man…For Prakash, love was letting go. Independenc...

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...el Jasmine, Jyoti has conflicts with her past and the present as she attempts to combine her life as an immigrant and life in India. Jyoti comes to America in order to fulfill her husband, Prakash’s dreams and to lead a more fruitful life. She undergoes her first transformation from an innocent, dutiful daughter to a modern wife when she meets Prakash who calls her Jasmine, then she becomes more American when she meets Lillian Gordon who calls her Jazzy. Later, with Taylor Hayse, who calls her Jase, she starts to accept her past and present together, however seeing her husband’s murderer frightens her. She then moves on to become Bud’s Jane. Jyoti tries to establish a new identity as she learns new American customs, skills, and aspirations. These transactions in her identity are apparent in her attitude towards life and her relationships with men and women.