Licen, Christian Ray C.
BA English III-V
Criticism of Fiction: Marxist Critical Theory
Selection: Bharati Mukherjee’s “Jasmine”
Marxist Criticism:
Bharati Mukherjee’s “Jasmine”
The story centers on the plight of Jasmine as an illegal immigrant in the U.S. Coming from a middle-class family in Trinidad, Port-of-Spain, she is ferried off through the boarders of Windsor to get into Detroit. Whoever is to blame in her escapade, it is her father, Dr.Vassanji who keeps pushing her to seek for “greener pastures” in the land of milk and honey, America. By way of “greener pastures”, the author denotes not just an idiomatic locution, but in the most overt literal sense, the dollar. Such that in a state where most Black Americans dwell- Detroit- she feels so superior in matters of skin color and upbringing. Though a stranger in a foreign land, she is very welcome by the Daboos whose color is like a coal. Very ironic, but she must settle with it for she has no choice. Well, her father has arranged everything- from the loan-lender Mr. Singh who offered a bargain-priced emigration to the driver who has stealthily placed her inside the box and finally, the Daboos who is Jasmine’s relatives. What’s so astonishing is the “Bargain-priced emigration”. Seemingly, one may presume that indeed, Jasmine has sold her flesh in exchange for that emigration. Such is an outlandish deal. Could it be that she has loosened her moral fibers for the sake of ambition?
With due certainty, ambition is what drives an individual to pursue and make possible at something even at their life’s expense. In this case, it is what steered Jasmine to outsmart her own volition. One may just realize that her struggle toward achieving the American dream has a tinge of Marxism ideology. As in any Marxist tenet, it is class struggle which is given primary attention. Jasmine’s struggle only proves that she was not at all contented with her life. Back in Spain, she has worked for bank. But that did not give her enough reason to eke out a living. She wants more. Her drive provoks her so much that she has reached a place not-so-common to her. She has been working for the Daboos as a book-keeper and household helper. Good thing, they treat her just like a family. She has earned a good reputation for being charming and witty. She didn’t mind the work at all. She has been learning about Detroit, every side of it. A very exhilarating incident to supplement her fastidiousness over Detroit is her visit to Ann Arbor. There, she gets acquainted of the young adults of her age. The reggae beat has belted her weight down that she almost got gaga. After such frenzy, she has finally come to the rescue of the Moffits whom she applied as a baby sitter. Little did she know that this episode in her life with the Moffits can either propel her own whirlpool or lever a new horizon. Bill Moffit, a molecular biology professor and Lara Hatch-Moffit, a performance artist are her bosses. To her surprise, they just slip off her credentials and accept her without further ado and queries on her identification. All they had ever asked was her family life. Overwhelmed by her wit and grace, Jasmine has earned their trust. Just before everything else goes smooth, an incident happens. Lara, being a traveling performing artist, is out-of-town one winter night. Only Bill, their baby and Jasmine are the only ones left. In tenterhooks with their perplexed intimacy with each other, they fell into a sudden outpour of erotic passion that they kissed the moon away with a shadow. They had sexual intercourse! Jasmine, the flower of Trinidad, as Bill hollered in her ears has fallen into the arms of vulnerability. And that is how the story ended. Much is left to the discretion of the reader as to how it should end.
Ostensibly, the stereotyping of events and incidents implies an explicit development of the protagonist, Jasmine. From being a gentle vindictive woman she has conclusively become an unscrupulous person. In an encounter with her mother, she insists, “I am my own person” because she loves them. But her own callousness to pass good judgment has paralyzed her moral consciousness. Seemingly, her ideation of the line, “In this country Jesus givin’ our good luck only” has become her own pitfall of the American Dream. Because of too much “over thinking” of her priorities and wants, she has outstood her principles in life, thus, submitting herself in total self-destruction. Her insistence to be called, Flower of Ann Arbor, is a clear manifestation that she is infected with its culture and tradition that she forgot her own identity. The driving force of poverty and lost of reason has deteriorated her own persona. Well, as in any marginalized or third-world country, people dream big of earning dollars. What they fail to discern is that their own purpose of attaining self-fulfillment through labor has been compromised by their ambition of achieving status and stability. Inadvertently, such is reality in its most honest mistake. If we were to consider the author’s personal milieu, her residency in Canada and U.S., though a born Indian, has brought about a great impact to the concoction of this story. Oftentimes, her thematic parlance of immigrants adjusting to life in a new society proves one major key point: Due to the stratification of peoples in terms of financial, political and economic stability, this affects the work force, majority of which dwells in the margins of society, to look for better means, better income and compensation and better living. Just like Jasmine who is a hoodlum of illegal immigration (or TNT in Phil. lingo), she has suffered a tremendous change in her life, that which is a metamorphosis from butterfly to pestilent locust. If I were to end the story, she should just come back home- she wasn’t really destined to be there. As the saying goes, There’s no place like home.
