An Important Event

In the book Jasmine by Baharati Mukherjee, there are a few big events in Jasmine’s life that shape it into what it is. The one I feel is the most significant is the death of her husband Prakash. This event was huge because it is what leads to Jasmine coming to America and starting a new life.

This part starts when Prakash receives an acceptance letter to the Florida International Institute of Technology in Tampa Florida. This excites both Jasmine and Prakash and they start planning their whole future in America. They talk about how Prakash will go there first, since Jasmine can’t go right away since she cannot get a visa, and go to school and get a job. Then he will send for Jasmine and they will start their own business called Vijh and Vijh. One night before Prakish was supposed to leave they decided to go to a sari shop. While in the shop Jasmine spots a couple men in the doorway with a boom box. She also notices another man on a scooter. She realizes that the men were part of a terrorist type group called the Lions. Jasmine notices that the two men left their stereo behind and it ends up being a bomb and it explodes. Prakash ends up dying in Jasmine’s arms as a result of the blast.

The reason why this event is important is because this is what lead to Jasmine coming to America. She wanted to come to the school in Florida, to the spot where they saw the people in the brochures so happy, and in honor of Prakash she would bring a jacket that was very special to him and light it as well as herself on fire. So she ended up getting forged documents allowing her to illegally come to the country.

This desire to come to America, lead to a few key events that followed, one of those being the rape. She was raped by the man who transported her to America. This ended up in her killing him and eventually escaping. This lead to her meeting Lillian Gordon who was a woman who took in illegal immigrants and gets them on their feet sort of after their journey over. She kind of took a special liking to Jasmine and having an actual friendship with her.

These were just a few of the events that came from Prakash’s death, but there are many more and that is why this is probably the most important event in the novel.