Jasmine Class Discussion #1


Jasmine
Bharati Mukherjee
Chapters 1-17
Bharati Mukherjee
-          Born: July 27, 1940 – Died: Jan 28, 2017
-          Born in Kolkata, West Bengal, India
-          Attended the Loreto School in Europe, going back to U of Calcutta in early 1950’s
-          M.F.A from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop in 1963
o   Big program for creative writers
§  Very successful, 17 Pulizter Prize winners came from here as of 2018
·       Philip Roth & Flannery O’Connor
o   Met her husband, Clark Blaise, here
§  Born in Fargo, North Dakota and attended Denison University and U of Iowa
-          Her fiction all revolves around the internal culture clashes of her immigrant characters
 Jasmine
1)     What is the significance of the name, Jasmine?
a.      And how does it compare to that of Jyoti?

2)     What is Jasmine’s connection to India?

3)     How does Jasmine view the concept of identity?
a.      Maybe look at page 92 for some idea, but that’s just me.

4)     Going along with this, how are people’s names used to characterize them?
a.      (i.e. Bud – a humble Midwestern farmer, Half-Face – the self-explanatory predator, etc.)

5)     There is a nostalgia about Lahare that Jasmine’s parents and family hold. This differs greatly from her opinion. This is a common theme in the novels we have read so far in this class. What do you make of this? Does this complicate what we have learned, or does it simply reinforce the ideas that we have already read?

6)     Let’s Explore: how does the notion of control work in this novel? Or, how does Jasmine see “control;” does it mean power and freedom, or is it baggage?  
a.      In India, Jyoti had as much power as a peasant girl from a “feudal” society could.
b.     Coming to America, she was forced into a situation of powerlessness and total control.
c.      With Bud, she controls the marriage.
d.     On page 44, she has control over the light switch

7)     There are three moments that a dead dog is mentioned. Once in the opening chapter, once in her recounting of her life in India, and once on the plane. What do you think the purpose of this image is?

8)     How does the concept of fate work in this novel? Is it proving true or not? Is it inevitable that it will come true, regardless of her living in India or America?


9)     Do you think the image of a dead dog relates to her “fate” as told to her by the astrologer in Chapter 1? What about the multiple scars she has (all of which inflicted upon her)? Are these at all related to her so-far depressing narrative?

10)  What is your definition of integration? What does it look like? What are the varying degrees of it? With everything described below, along with your definition, is integration possible, or even necessary, or is the wrong question being asked entirely?
a.      We see how Jasmine is treated in Iowa.
b.     We see how Taylor talks to her when she simply explains basic Hindi beliefs to him and of how different groups view her, whether it be his friends or the women in her Harlem apartment.
c.      We are given insight into her life before coming to the US.
d.     And she tells us the reason why she went to America in the first place.
Works Sited
-          https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/books/bharati-mukherjee-dead-author-jasmine.html
-          https://www.npr.org/2017/02/06/513711541/remembering-bharati-mukherjee-an-indian-born-american-writer


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