Rebirth in America

Coming to America was a decision she had made since high school. She set out at age 20, with a little cash and a little English she picked up in school. That was all she had and she had to make a life for herself in a world totally alien and new. She though it was ironic, how she now lived in a nation that fifty years before was an enemy of her birth born country. But she knew that Germany had long since shed its negative political and racial views. Although she still lived in a Westernized culture here in California, the language gap and overall customs of America were completely new. My stepmother never really completely became Americanized until she met my father. Slowly her accent faded over the years, she got her citizenship, and she became the stereotypical soccer mom. The blonde hair and blue eyes didn’t make her stand out, and after she had my brother and sister you couldn’t tell her from one American woman to the next. We visit Germany every couple years to be with the family we have gained there. That is the only time you can see her go back to her cultural roots, along with the weekly phone calls from home spoken in German around the house. Although not identical, my stepmother made a cultural transformation when she came to America, like the main character in Bharati Mukherjee’s novel Jasmine.

Jasmine is born in Northwestern India in the state of Punjab, “I was born the year that the harvest was so good that even my father, the reluctant tiller of thirty acres, had grain to hoard for a drought.” (Mukherjee 39). Jasmines story quickly goes to Iowa where she moves to “reinvent” herself. And early in the story she clearly states that, “I know what I don’t want to become.” (Mukherjee 5), referring to the new life and opportunities that she will be presented with in America. Jasmine wants to come to America for the educational opportunities, but something about her says there is something deeper to her journey from Punjab to Iowa. She spoke of the poverty in India to Mother Ripplemeyer, and I believe she came to America to escape poverty and leave the land of no opportunity to come to the land of opportunity. Jasmine wants to reinvent herself positively and forget the past, but not necessarily forget her culture.

            Jasmines first companion in Iowa is a man named “Bud”. Bud decides to name Jasmine “Jane”, Americanizing her name because, “her genuine foreignness frightens him.” (Mukherjee 26).  Jasmine embraces this new identity like it is her own, and she knows it is all part of her cultural transformation and assimilation. This helps her forget about the life she had in Punjab, and previously in New York City.  Iowa is more like home for Jasmine rather than New York City because, “Dullness is a kind of luxury.” (Mukherjee 6).  Jasmine believes that she must dismantle her previous identity of the “woman from Punjab”, in order to find peace in Iowa. Bud helps her to become more assimilated giving her the American name, speech, and culture. She does not fight this change because she loves Bud and will soon marry and have children with him. Jasmine tries to erase the past in order to be “reborn” and become the person she wants to be. This has been a continuous cycle throughout Jasmines life, and Iowa may be the site of her last rebirth where she will take on the future with a solid and unfaltering identity.

            Jasmine came from a society where you are told from a young age what your destiny and goals in life are and should be. Jasmines continuous rebirth symbolizes her independence to follow her heart and become what she wants to be, “‘I don’t want to be a steno.  I don’t want to be a teller, either’…‘I want to be a doctor and set up my own clinic in a big town’” (Mukherjee 51). Jasmine wants to define her own destiny and her own identity, she does not want to be “pre-packaged”. She is in search of this goal so far throughout the novel, and although I attempted to predict Iowa will be the last site of her rebirth, only time will tell whether this will hold true.