Golden Opportunities

America. What comes to mind when people think about the United States? Do people think, ‘wow it is the greatest country on the Earth’, or do people say ‘that country is destroying lives and should be stopped’. No matter what your personal opinion is, millions of people call the United States home. Many people risk their lives just to get a taste of that sweet American dream.

In Bharati Mukherjee’s novel Jasmine, Jasmine is faced with many challenges throughout her life. She is widowed at a very young age and is now looked down upon in her society, after a bomb kills her husband. Her husband, Prakash, was accepted to the Florida International Institute of Technology and wants Jasmine to come to America with him and start a new life. Jasmine decides to go to the United States to burry her husbands suit at the Institute. She has to hurdle many obstacles to be able to get to the States. Once Jasmine finally reaches the United States, she arrives in Florida off of a shrimping boat that is captained by a man called “Half-Face”. Another man on the boat named Kingsland told Jasmine, “Don’t truss dat mon, no way” (Mukherjee 106). After everyone had gotten off of the boat and started out to make a new life for themselves, Jasmine was stuck with no ride. Half-Face was her only option to get into town and have a place to stay for the night.

Half-Face is horrible person and Kingsland warned Jasmine about him. Once back in the hotel, Half-Face forcefully raped Jasmine. Jasmine then takes a shower after Half-Face is finished. In the shower Jasmine “had not thought of any conclusion but the obvious one: to balance my defilement with my death” (Mukherjee 117). Jasmine however does not end her life. She realizes her mission in life is not complete yet and “could not let my personal dishonor disrupt my mission” (Mukherjee 118). After she gets out of the shower, Jasmine goes to the bed where Half-Face is asleep and stabs him in the neck with a knife. Half-Face cannot stop the bleeding and eventually dies that night.

This point in the novel, Jasmine has grown as a person. She realizes that even though she is dishonored and feels that her life should end after this tragedy, Jasmine knows she at least wants to burry her late husband’s suit at the college he was accepted to in Tampa, Florida before he was murdered. “My body was merely the shell, soon to be discarded” (Mukherjee 121). Jasmine considers herself dead at this point and is only using her body to burry the suit and then set herself on fire.

Her first night in America is a devastating one. America is supposed to be a great land of opportunity and wealth. Jasmine travels around the world to see what her friends and family were talking about what so fantastic in the United States. This episode in her life so far as a young girl, who is only seventeen, molds and shapes Jasmine as a person. She becomes stronger and more independent from this tragedy. Jasmine also starts to forget her past and move on in her life and live it for herself and not be confined by her culture’s customs.

Going to America was the best thing for Jasmine. Although she had a horrible and terrifying first day, it changed her life for the better. She eventually leads a normal life in America. Living the American dream is why so many immigrants want to and come to the United States. It is the land of opportunities and if someone works hard enough his or her dreams can come true.