The Novel Jasmine

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THE NOVEL JASMINE INTRODUCTION The novel “Jasmine” was written by Bharati Mukherjee who is an Indian-American author. She has a master’s degree in fine arts and a doctorate from the University of Iowa. She won the National Book Critics Award in fiction for The Middleman and Other Stories. The novel Jasmine was published in 1989 illustrates the story of a Punjabi widow reinventing herself in America. It follows the life of Jasmine character from her birth in a rural village in India to her adulthood in America, such as Florida, New York, Iowa, and finally California. In her life experiences, she has a long excited journey including murdering, raping, a suicide, and three love affairs. CHARACTERS AND BACKGROUND In this story, the time, place, and culture of the action constantly shift. Jasmine is the protagonist of the novel and she tells her own story that happened in the past, but not in chronological order. Some events happened in the past, and some in a more present past. Beginning events happened in Hasnapur in India during Jasmine’s childhood. She is the fifth daughter, the seventh of nine children, in a poor family. She is very beautiful and smart, but she is a poor girl. When she was seven years old, there was an astrologer forecasted her eventual widowhood and exile. Both predictions come true. She marries to a twenty-four man, Prakash Vijh. He is modern man and he rents a two-bedroom apartment rather than live with his family after his marriage with Jasmine. He studies engineering and works as a repairman and a bookkeeper. Prakash has a special talent for fixing televisions, VCRs, and computers. His dream is to move to America, so Prakash encourages her to study English, and symbolically gives her a new name from Jyoti to Jasmine, and a new life. However, Jasmine’s happiness is short-lived. Two years later, her husband is killed by a terrorist bomb and
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