Jasmine

“The villagers say when a clay pitcher breaks, you see that the air inside is the same as outside […] We are just shells of the same Absolute.”

This village adage speaks to the higher concept of understanding that what is outside of us is the same as what is inside of us. Jasmine wonders why someone as old as Mother Ripplemeyer bothers with trying to look younger when there is no difference between her insides and outsides.

“Calamity Jane. Jane as in Jane Russell, not Jane as in Plain Jane. But Plain Jane is all I want to be. Plain Jane is a role, like any other.”

Jasmine’s statement exposes some element of her acceptance and underlying restlessness at being cast in yet another “role.” Here, she is Bud’s partner, the mother of his unborn child, and she wants this new chapter of her life to be as uneventful as possible.

“We murder who we are so we can rebirth ourselves in the images of dreams.”

Jasmine makes this comment to herself when talking with Du’s history teacher after he admits he tried speaking Vietnamese to the young man. She is upset with this man for his subtle racism and for his inability to see that people like Jasmine and Du, foreigners in a strange land, have to leave behind who they were and assimilate into a new culture if they are to survive.

“The incentive, I should have said, is to treat every second of your existence as a possible assignment from God. Everything you do, if you’re a physicist or a caregiver, is equally important in the eyes of God.”

Jasmine explains her culture’s philosophy for handling death, especially death which occurs suddenly and unexpectedly. This philosophy is confusing to Taylor who cannot understand Jasmine’s world.

“Love before first sight: that’s our Hasnapuri way.”

This quote refers to Jasmine’s one-sided decision to marry her brothers’ friend, Prakash. She hears his voice well before she ever sees him, and that voice, with its righteous, modern tone, propels her to love how he sounds rather than how he looks.

“For the uncle, love was control. Respect was obedience. For Prakash, love was letting go. Independence, self-reliance: I learned the litany by heart. But I felt suspended between worlds.”

Jasmine is continually amazed by her husband’s desire to break away from the traditions their culture emphasizes and celebrates. Although Jasmine is very tempted by Prakash’s view of a new world, she still struggles to let go of the old one completely. This struggle haunts her for the remainder of the novel.

“After they freed his rolled-up beard and chopped it off, they spun him around until he staggered and fell. Then they shot him, emptying over thirty bullets in him, according to the police inspector.”

Jasmine’s mother recounts to her the murder of Jasmine’s teacher from childhood, Masterji. This quote foreshadows the rise of cultural and religious tensions in Jasmine’s town, as well as the empowerment of the radical terrorist group, the Khalsa Lions.

“My husband’s body cushions me. They can’t pry us apart, we’re that close.”

This quote reveals Jasmine’s state of mind as she falls to the floor beneath the weight of her husband’s body. The terrorist bombing has killed Prakash, and his body has protected Jasmine from harm.

“Later, I thought, We had created life. Prakash has taken Jyoti and created Jasmine, and Jasmine would complete the mission of Prakash.”

Jasmine realizes that although she and Prakash had no children, they have still created a new life: her life, as Jasmine. Reborn in this sense, Jasmine decides to carry on with Prakash’s mission by traveling to America.

“You con count on dat at least, when de end of de world come in.” 

After giving Jasmine a knife for her protection, a fellow trawler passenger she calls Kingsland gives her this advice, foreshadowing the violent murder Jasmine will commit with the knife against her rapist in a later chapter.

“I wanted that moment when he saw me above him as he had last seen me, naked, but now with my mouth open, pouring blood, my red tongue out.”

This quote exemplifies Jasmine’s decision to take Half-Face’s life for his rape of her instead of taking her own. In doing so, Jasmine takes control of both the situation and her destiny.

“'Yes,’ I say, ‘I do believe you. We do keep revisiting the world. I have also traveled in time and space. It is possible.’”

In her conversation with Dr. Webb about reincarnation, Jasmine agrees that it is possible, but more in a metaphorical sense rather than literal. She thinks of her series of “lives” and the roles she played in each one before circumstances cast her into a new name and new place.

“Let the past make you wary, by all means. But do not let it deform you.”

Jasmine uses these words to describe the subtle but stern attitude that Lillian Gordon teaches her. This view encourages Jasmine to be cautious and take into account the scars of her past but not to let those experiences warp and change her into something broken.

“I feel at times like a stone hurtling through diaphanous mist, unable to grab hold, unable to slow myself, yet unwilling to abandon the ride I’m on.”

Jasmine’s thoughts relay how overwhelmed she feels by the rapidity of change in American culture. She feels out of control, but at the same time, doesn’t want to break out of the cycle she is in.

“Can wanting be fatal?”

Here Jasmine wonders if wanting something so much in life—even if that something is nebulous or unformed or unknown—can destroy a person’s spirit. She leaves Professorji’s home and family after only five months because she is bored with tradition, bored with order, though what she does want she cannot define at this time.

“The brightest boy in the camps. The boy who survived.”

Du, an engineering prodigy, impresses Jasmine with this ability to create and build with technology. Bud, however, does not feel the same, seeing Du’s skills as a method of adaptation. Jasmine notes that adaptation is needed to survive, to live, to emerge alive from a refugee camp. Bud clearly does not understand her mode of thinking.

“I fell in love with his world, its ease, its careless confidence and graceful self-absorption. I wanted to become the person they thought they saw: humorous, intelligent, refined, affectionate. Not illegal, not murderer, not widowed, raped, destitute, fearful.”

Jasmine wants to reinvent herself to be the person she believes that Taylor and Wylie see in her. She does not want them to know the gritty, bloody, violent past that has marked her for life.

“The inexpressive voice comes from a demented man. Flat affect is the sign of murderous rage.”

This is Jasmine’s description of Harlan Kroener’s voice when he comes to the door of Bud’s house, before he shoots Bud in the back, paralyzing him. She realizes that the tone of Kroener’s voice should have tipped her off that something was wrong.

“You were glamour, something unattainable. And you were standing there with my mother.”

Bud describes what he thought of Jasmine when he first saw her in the bank; he is also pointing out why he was attracted to her—because of her exoticness, because she was different. That is not what Jasmine ultimately wants in a husband.

“I feel responsible. For Prakash’s death, Bud’s maiming. I’m a tornado, blowing through Baden.”

Jasmine laments that she is to blame for being the reason behind Prakash’s death and for not recognizing that Kroener meant to kill Bud. Although she bears the guilt for these events, she also acknowledges that they are part of her, of who she is as a person.

“'Whatever you’re planning to do is okay. Just do it.’”

Du, who has long understood Jasmine’s precarious role as Jane in Iowa, gives her permission to follow her heart and leave Bud for a life with Taylor and Duff. Du himself will do the same thing when he leaves Bud’s home for California and his older sister.

“But now he’s a shy, would-be lover with a despondent face, holding my hand in so anxious a grip that I think I must pull away before he breaks it.”

Confronted with a depressed, unstable Darrel, Jasmine suddenly realizes that he loves her and that her foreignness is to him, as it is to Bud, a means by which to escape from an untenable life,

“I want to say to him, You were my hero.”

Jasmine thinks of saying these words to Du before he leaves for California. The two characters have far more in common with each other than with anyone else in Iowa. Jasmine admires Du for his courage and ingenuity, and how he has inspired her to let go and follow her heart.