Bharati Mukherjees Jasmine: Making Connections Between Asian and Asian American Literature

Year 1996, Issue: 4, 31 - 35, 01.10.1996

Kuldip Kaur Kuwahara

Abstract

The heroine of Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine experiences "the tug of opposing forces" as she travels from India to America. This conflict sets up a constant pattern of "Hope and pain. Pain and hope." Jasmine embarks on a symbolic as well as a literal journey that explores both the physical and spiritual dimensions of her experience. Mukherjee contrasts the paradoxical pattern of social limitations and spiritual freedom in India with the social freedom and spiritual limitations of life in the New World. There is an ironic tension between the Eastern concept of fate and human destiny, and the heroines need to exert herself and shape the pattern of her life in the West. Bharati Mukherjees narrative is both an Indian mystical journey and an American story of self-making

References

• Buck, William. Mahabharata. Trans. Vyasa. New York: Meridian, 1987.
• Mukherjee, Bharati. Jasmine. New York: Fawcett Crest Books, 1991