A Young Girl Transformed

Blog #7

Jasmine has brought this class full circle. It truly was about one woman’s transformation.  Rather than trying to transform to forget who she was, such as in American Born Chinese, it was about her expanding who she was throughout her life.  She started as a village girl on a farm in India and when we left her, she was an almost wife of an Iowa farmer that was getting ready to start on another adventure.  Once she left India, her life seemed to be a continuous adventure.  While there were some tragic moments that she encountered, she always seemed to be able to move on and reinvent herself, but for the better.  Something that was most fascinating was the way in which her named changed throughout the book.  It was a reflection of who she was at the time.  She was always hoping and wanting more than what she had once she realized there was always more.  She transformed from Jyoti to Jasmine to Jase and ultimately to Jane.  She said “Jase was a woman who bought herself spangled heels and silk chartreuse pants” (Mukherjee, 176).  Each time her named changed, it was as if she was leaving a part of herself behind and creating a new future.  It was a way to leave the past in the past yet not forget.  She was able to remember where she came from yet she was not afraid to move forward.  “Jyoti was now a sati-godess; she had burned herself in a trash-can-funeral pyre behind a boarded-up motel in Florida.  Jasmine lived for the future, for Vijh & Wife.  Jase went to movies and lived for today” (Murkherjee, 176).  And Jane, Jane saw all of the possibilities.  She was all of these women in one; the caregiver, the mother, the wife, a girl, a woman in love, just a woman.  She was simple yet complex.  She was a walking contradiction and yet a fascination all at the same time. Live is an adventure and we all seek to find out who we are and try to determine what our purpose is.  For Jasmine, she believed once her purpose in life had been fulfilled then she would die.  Clearly her “mission” was not complete.  She was still seeking answers and trying to find her place in this world.  She had witnessed death, had suffered loss, had cheated death-on a number of occasions- and yet she continued on her journey; reinventing herself along the way. She believed she had “been many selves” and questioned “how many more shapes are in me, how many more selves, how many more husbands?” (Murkherjee, 215)  She tried to embrace what it means to be American yet she did not fully reject her India roots.  Part of this character was somewhat conflicted.  She was a woman who was torn.  She was “caught between the promise of America and old-world dutifulness” (Murkherjee, 240).  I think that Jasmine eventually finds out who she is and is able to find her purpose.  But she continued to be adventurous and search out new places.  For her, there was simply too much to see and do instead of settling or remaining idle in her life.  “Time will tell if I am a tornado, rubble-maker, arising from nowhere and disappearing into a cloud.  I am out the door and in the potholed and rutted driveway, greedy with wants and reckless with hope” (Murkherjee, 241).  She was not afraid to “re-position the stars” (240) and create her own destiny.

Photo: http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/worldlit/india/mukherjee.gif

Gifted or Crazy???

Blog #6

After reading “Beccah”, I was left thinking about how the mother must have been crazy.  After all, she danced about when no music was on (not completely abnormal but for arguments sake it seemed a bit odd), bumped into walls, and appears to not take notice of her daughter while being entranced.  However, I read “Beccah” a second time and viewed the mother somewhat differently.  Instead of viewing her as mentally ill, I started to think that maybe she really was gifted.   Auntie Reno said “Some people-not many, but some-get dah gift of talking to the dead, of walking true worlds and seeing things one regulah person like you or me don’t even know about. Dah spirits love these people, tellin’ em for ‘do this, do that.’ But they hate em, too, jealous of dah living” (Keller, 199).  There is the notion that some people can in fact communicate with the dead.  They are the translator between the living and the deceased; passing on messages from one world to the other.  That is talent.  Despite her mother being seen as gifted, all Beccah wanted was her mother, in her truest form; a form that made her appear “normal.” Beccah also seemed to be pulled between two worlds; two opposing desires.  Not in the same sense of her mother but in her desires.  One part of her wanted desperately for her mother to be there and for no one to harm her.  But another part wished her mother away.  She prayed to the spirits and to her dead father to release her mother.  She offered up sacrifices that might possibly appease the spirits.  She believed that if the spirits were happy they would protect her but they could also inflict disaster.  “Always, when I went to hide the money in my room, I’d slip out a dollar bill, roll it tight as an incense stick, and lay it in an ashtray on the dresser.  Careful to hide from Reno’s eyes, I’d strike a match and burn the money for the spirits.  Then, pulling out my father’s picture, I would begin to pray to my only connection in the spirit world. ‘Please please please, Daddy. I’ll give you everything if you give my mother back.’ I begged, reasoning that as a dead preacher, my father would be able to get God to intercede on my mother’s behalf, or-as a spirit himself and in collusion with the other vengeful ghosts holding my mother captive-he might be persuaded by my own burnt offerings and bribes to free her” (Keller, 201).  In spite of all her efforts, her mother seemed destined to be partially controlled by the spirit world.  Her mother was convinced that she alone had killed Beccah’s father since she “wished him to death, every day I think, every day I pray, ‘die, die,’ sending him death-wish arrows, until one day my prayers were answered” (Keller, 201).  Would she go into a trance since she felt she had caused the death of her husband?  Was it he who was taking a hold of her?  Or was she truly crazy?  Was there any truth to her mother’s teachings about the spirit world and being careful with death thoughts?  Beccah seemed to think she was crazier than gifted and seemed to take her mother’s ramblings with a grain of salt until one day, she realized that her wish had been granted, her mother was dead.