Reincarnation or Death

Throughout an entire lifetime one will face very few events that may completely change there life. Whether it be the great pleasure that comes with becoming a parent or the loss of a loved one from a brutal murder, events such as these will often completely change the person involved. What is left is often a new person with new outtakes on life.

We find this in Bharti Mukherjee’s novel “Jasmine”, where the main character has three distinct outtakes on life after each major life changing event. With each outtake comes a reincarnation and a new person is born. Jyoti, Jasmine, and Jane all have there time and place. Although born Jyoti, she becomes Jasmine after marrying her husband and beginning a new life with him. With his support, she pushes to relearn the English language so they can pursue their dreams of living in America and running their own electronics business “Vijh & Wife”. This dream dies after Jasmine witnesses her husband’s death at the hands of the Lions when they placed a bomb near them on the street. However this event does make Jasmine more determined to get to America and to pursue a dream that her and her husband shared.

Once in America, Jasmine finds it to be nothing of what she had imagined. She was brutally raped her first day in the country and afterwards manages to murder her attacker. This seems to e the beginning of the end of Jasmine. After almost completely giving up we see that with the kindness and generosity of Lillian Gordon, Jasmine starts to form herself into an American, into Jane. She manages to find her husbands professor in New York, but finds herself dying in the atmosphere that surrounds her. It’s not New York she hates, but the Indian lifestyle that surrounds her in America. Eventually she leaves and becomes independent. She is now Jane.

What we see throughout this novel is the life and death of each character. After life changing events a new character arises. This is common throughout everyday life as well. Many individuals will often be put in similar situations as we see in “Jasmine” and some will be able to rise to the occasion and a new person will be born from the circumstances. Yet others will be left with and empty hole and may choose death as their way out. Ultimately by adapting to what life throws our way will make us the individuals we are, and makes each and everyone of us unique.