Jasmine’s
pupa stage, Jane, in the novel
was entirely servile. Her relationship with Bud Ripplemayer embodied
this. Her submissive
nature was explicitly evident in how she had
to effect a
sexual climax for Bud. Jane
reveals, “There are massages I must administer, pushing him on the prostate,
tools I must push up him so that, at least on very special nights, he can
ejaculate.” (chapter 5, page
36) Jane was a sexual, emotional, and physical servant. This was
not the life she truly wanted.
However, Jane
would have had a similar servile role had she stayed in India; the
characters would have
changed, but the role would have remained the same.
Coming to America eventually afforded her the opportunity to escape that
compliant cocoon and hatch a
new identity filled with non-feudalistic equality and compassion to grow.
Even in her prior “incarnation” with Prakash, Jasmine was compliant when
Prakash refused to allow her to become pregnant. She did not have control
over her own body and fate.
To have a
life and to recreate
the dream of Vijh and Vijh were two of
the underlying reasons why she left
India. Being Bud’s sexual
mistress inhibited the dream. Her
realization of this is why the ending
resonated with me. Jasmine was
no longer cocooned in a life of
servitude. She took command of her destiny. She did not allow the fates to
dictate what her life would be – she took
command, even though she had to brutally suffer to become Jasmine’s
fully metamorphosed American
female, Jase. I give the
book a stellar rating in that it poetically embodies the possibility of American
metamorphosis. The book would be a blockbuster motion picture.
- J. A. Kind
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