Change...What is it good for?

Why do we make changes? Everyone has their own reasons on why they make a decision to alter something in their life. I have made many alterations in my life. I have made plenty of choices to change who I was as a person in order to fit in or to make myself a better person.

In Bharati Mukherjee’s novel Jasmine, the narrative of the story, Jasmine, is a women who has been through a lot in her life. She has come from India to the United States in search of the ‘American Dream’. The novel begins with Jasmine or Jane, which she changed her name to, living in rural Iowa. Jasmine lives in a farming community with her significant other, Bud, who wants Jasmine to marry him before their unborn child is born. Jasmine used to live in New York, but traded that life to live a more relaxed life in a small farming town. Jasmine believes that is the true American Dream. Living a leisurely life and not having to care about too much. “Dull is its own kind of action…dullness is a kind of luxury” (Mukherjee 6).

Jasmine, as of page 57, seems to want to start over in Iowa. She can change from who she was in New York and even who she was in India. Jasmine however does not give up all of her past identity. She regularly cooks traditional dishes from India for her family and also the community, “I took gobi aloo to the Lutheran Relief Fund craft fair last week. I am subverting the taste buds of Elsa County” (Mukherjee 19). Jasmine clearly wants to show her family and friends the tastes of India. “They get disappointed if there’s not something Indian on the table” (Mukherjee 9).

It is hard to say distinctively that Jasmine has either lost her cultural identity or reinvented herself positively as of only page 57. She seems that she has done both in her life. She has lost her cultural identity by changing her name to a more Americanized name and she does not wear the traditional clothing anymore. On the other hand though she does cook and tries to relate with Mother Ripplemeyer, Bud’s mother, to past experiences in India. “Mother Ripplemeyer tells me her Depression stories…I could tell her about water famines in Hasnapur” (Mukherjee 16). Jasmine wants to try and relate with Bud’s mother and American culture.

At times we try and lose parts of our identities that we do not like. People sometimes want to make a new life for themselves to forget their past ways and start living a fresh new better life. No one can judge someone if they decide to change and start over. No one is perfect and we all have our individual reasons to make a transformation in our lives.