Journey Into the Unknown

Have you ever had something happen in your life that was so treacherous you didn’t know if you could go on living?  After the episode was over and you had overcome it, did you feel stronger? Jasmine, the main character in Bharati Mukherjee’s novel goes through tremendous hardships in her life to shape the person that she becomes in the end. Jasmine is from Punjab and her husband has passed away, so she comes to Florida in order to complete his mission of attending the Florida International Institute of Technology. She also did not want to be a widow and waste away the rest of her life in India. Jasmine will go to the Florida campus and burn herself on her husband’s suit under the palm trees.

            Half-Face was the captain of The Gulf Shuttle, a boat bound for the Florida coast from Punjab. This was Jasmines way out of Punjab, and unknown journey to America. The captain of the ship was named Half Face because “he had lost an eye and ear and most of his cheek in a paddy field in Vietnam” (Mukherjee 104). During this voyage Jasmine would make a fatal error that would change her life. Half-Face would violate Jasmine during her first night in America, “Give me any grief and you’re dead meat.”(Mukherjee 115). Jasmine could only think about surviving the incident so that she could still complete her purpose for coming to America.

She could only pray to Ganpati for good luck and wisdom. After Jasmine was violated she did not think there was any reason for her to live, and she believed that she had nothing to lose anymore. “His eyes fluttered open even before I felt the metal touch his throat, and his smile and panic were nearly instantaneous.” (Mukherjee 118). Jasmine slit Half-Face’s throat for the dishonor he had had done to her, killing him and covering him with a  sheet. “What a monstrous thing, what an infinitesimal thing, is the taking of a human life; for the second time in three months, I was in a room with a slain man, my body bloodied.”(Mukherjee 119).

            After the rape and the murder Jasmine believes there is no future in America. But her mission in America was to fulfill her promise to her husband, which she does not stray from despite the troubles she has experienced. Jasmine reminds herself of the teachings of the Lord Yama; who punishes the dead for their sins in life, as she has done to her rapist. After the experience all she can think about is cleaning off the stink of the rape. So Jasmine showers herself to regain a sense of purity, cleanliness, and to have a sense of pride. She knew that she had to fulfill the promise she made to her husband, and the hardships she had been facing would not stop her.