Analysis Of Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine

depression for home and India. Sudha also decides to relieve the octogenarian of his homesickness and secure a life for her daughter and herself. Sudha undergoes metamorphosis simiar to the character ‘Jasmine’ in Bharati Mukherjees Jasmine. Sudha transforms from a naïve traditional well matriarchal protected woman to modern and independent.

This summarized progression from India to America might easily be understood as a stereotypical reification of cultural boundaries where India manifests all the traditional Indian patriarchal restrictions under which Anju and Sudha suffer and where America promises possibilities not only for Anju, who can work, take classes, and wear jeans, but especially for the divorced Sudha who would, along with her
Sunil's nickname "Mr. America" perhaps signifies, where the one with symbols of power expects the one who eagerly wants those symbols to be grateful upon receipt. Rather than having accomplished her dreams for herself, Anju must thank someone else for them. Everything she desired has tricked her into an inappropriate, unhappy marriage. Thus, the allusion demonstrates that Western culture cannot simply erase colonial women's problems. Rather, women must begin to read cultures critically in order to negotiate the webs of power embedded in them. By taking this active responsibility for their own happiness, women can avoid the kind of trick Anju has essentially played on
However, if the Eastern world is delineated at times in a rather negative light in this book, then the Western world is presented not without its own evils and shortcomings. Freedom and riches in the West are often bought, particularly by the immigrant, at the expense of the love and support provided by the extended family or the community. This is proved while Anju doubts on herself that “Did I make the wrong decision for Sudha, misled by my American - feminist notions of right and wrong? Have I condemned her to a life of loneliness?” (Divakaruni 1999: