Jasmine
...he lives her life for her community, so that she can belong as an Indian woman. In America, Jasmine finds her identity as an American woman, as she learns to choose her own paths and “reposition the stars”. She gains this knowledge by noting the experiences of Kate and Darrel, who are both torn between their personal desires and their senses of duty to others. The two choose divergent paths, and through the different consequences of their actions, Mukherjee relates her belief in individual pursuits. A carefree Kate sends postcards from Europe, while Darrel finds himself destroyed by his commitments. Having learned from the two, Jasmine abandons her obligations to her wheelchair bound husband, and “greedy with wants and reckless with hope”; she rushes to fulfill her individual American dreams. In the Hindu tradition, the fundamental idea is the relationship between Atman and Brahman, the two main gods of this religion. Hindus believe that every person goes through a cycle of rebirths and re-deaths known as samsara. Because they are never really dead, they feel that they can never attain any real peace. One way to break from this cycle is to truly understand the relationship between the two gods. “I have had a husband for each of the women I have been. Prakash for Jasmine, Taylor for Jase, Bud for Jane, and Half-Face for Kali.” Throughout this book you see Jasmine change into all different types of people and you witness the cycle of re-deaths and rebirths. Throughout the story you see signs of the fact that Jasmine has the strength to fight of this cycle and break it. Early in Jasmine’s life when the wild dog that terrorizes the village women confronts her, she shows her strength by warding it off with her stick. The courage she shows as a child continues throughout her life. She finds power within herself to journey to the United States after the death of her husband, who was brutally murdered by the terroristic Sikh faction. Upon her arrival to the United States she is immediately confro...