Jasmine and the Immigrant Experience



Bharati Mukherjee explores the life and experience of an Indian girl as she immigrates to America and ingratiates herself into American culture. The main character of Jasmine during this journey has many experiences of home and building a new home, after she gets married and leaving her childhood home, to going to New York, to moving to Elsa County in Iowa. It is important that Mukherjee chose to show the immigrant experience as an immigrant herself in this time where our country is so divided about the issue of immigration and if the United States should close its borders. Jasmine experiences people all along this spectrum of opinions around immigration. The people of Elsa County are the most open to Jasmine as opposed to the more immigrant populations of New York and Tampa. Jasmine is confused by the American people’s apathy and hatred towards immigrants. There is one scene in the novel when she is watching the news and it is covering a raid by Immigration officials of a warehouse in Texas housing illegal immigrants from Mexico. The camera then turns to a woman from the neighborhood blaming the immigrants for her own financial troubles and being unable to pay for her car. At this point, Jasmine is screaming at the screen, questioning what immigrants have to do with her car payments.

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