Chasing the American Dream

    America, the infamous promise land, where dreams come true and opportunities are endless. Not so long ago this was the view every American worked so hard to achieve. This same view was what entitled my parents to start a new life in America. To make a long story short, my Father arrived in America in the late 70’s after surviving the horrendous Vietnam War.  He was one of the few thousands of Hmong - Laotian CIA soldiers to first arrive in America, a land which he never seen.

When the war settled, the majority of South Eastern countries were ruled by Communist regime. Returning to his land of birth was out of the question and my father was left to make a difficult decision. Upon marrying my Mother in Michigan, he made the decision to abandon his cultural beliefs and adopt a new culture. He decided to live by the America Dream.

Jasmine, the main character of writer Bharati Mukherjee’s book Jasmine, also faced a similar decision. As a Punjab descendent living with her Caucasian boyfriend Bud Ripplemeyer, she adopts the American way of life, a revelation to a new way in life. Through Jasmine’s view, to enable ones self to adopt a new way in life means to ‘murder’ the old self. In the book she states, “We murder who we were so we can rebirth ourselves in the images of dreams.” In a way, Jasmine reincarnate herself as new person when she gives up on her old traditional ways.

Jasmine herself is only one part of the many identities she has obtained through the book. Jasmine’s nostalgic memory reviles the person who she was born to be. A young Punjab girl called Jyoti Vinh. In this scene of her life, she’s destined for doom, trapped in an ancient old Indian culture, Jasmine’s fate lies within the hands of her parents. While working in New York she takes a new identity of Jasmine. And while living with Bud on their land in Iowa, she calls herself Jane Ripplemeyer, in resemblance of being Bud’s wife.

 Being born in such a strict religion, Jasmine actively sought for her freedom. In the very beginning of the novel, Jasmine was fore told her fate. “Lifetimes ago, under a banyan tree in the village of Hasnapur, an astrologer cupped his ears-his satellite dish to the stars-and foretold my widowhood and exile.” From that moment she realizes what she wanted to do. “I know what I don’t want to become.”

As a result, Jasmine actively sought to change her fate. She herself wanted to be in control of her own fate for she has already experienced how it feels to be free. Another nostalgic scene of her past reveals a relieving sense of feeling free. “The naked light bulb swaying at the end of a braided cord was magic! With my palm on the light switch, I felt totally in control.” Her active pursuit brought her new identities in which she relates to the different times of her life.  In her pursuit of happiness she made a decision to ‘murder’ her old self in order for her to create a new image. Like my father, Jasmine chooses to pursue the American Dream, for she saw a relation of the Dream that coincides with her past.