Jasmine...

This week’s response, I wanted to shortly summarize Jyoti’s different role because I think it is very interesting for one to have several name representing several roles in one single “ life cycle”, which is what Buddhists believe. Please feel free to jump in and discuss further of what you think about each of her role.

Jyoti is always being represent as a very smart, good looking girl who born eighteen years after the partition Riots in a makeshift birthing hut in Hasnapur, Jullundhar District, Punjab, India. In her family, she is the fifth daughter but representing the seventh of all the nine children. She met an astrologer who tells her that in her whole life, she will face a fate of widowhood and alienation; unluckily, both predictions come true and she was suffered through these tragedies. As I mentioned, she was very smart, she attends school twice as long as most Indian girls, and impresses her teachers with her intelligence. Jyoti's name and identity keep changing during the whole story, which is one of the major criteria of the book. Her grandma names her Jyoti, meaning "light." Lillian Gordan calls her Jazzy, Taylor names her Jase, her Indian husband, Prakash, who was killed by a terrorist bomb, calls her Jasmine, and Bud Ripplemeyer gives her the moniker Jane.

Nonetheless, in the story, Jasmine originally shares Prakash's dream of an American life of prosperity. Unfortunately, after his murder, she decided to travel abroad to burn herself on his pyre, which seems to be the start of her real tragedy. Upon landing in America, Half-Face, the horrible captain of the boat that carried her over, rapes the innocent Jasmine. Out of the anger and all the sadness that she bared, she then kills him. Life seems to turn better when she met Lillian Gordan, who saves her, coaches her, and sends her to Flushing, New York. There, she lives peacefully and was able to spend five oppressive months with Professor ji, an Indian immigrant, and his family. From there, she goes to Manhattan to be Duff's au pair.

After all she suffered, she thinks that she needs to move forward and pursue another love life. Jasmine falls in love with her employer, Taylor, who eventually entices her to run away to California with him. How a sweet couple! This scene seems very lovely and romantic to me, Taylor doesn’t care about Jasmine’s past and still wanted to be with her, and he even wanted to sacrifice something just so they can live happily together.

In Iowa, she met Bud, who hires Jasmine to work in his bank, a family business started by his father, and soon after leaves his wife to be with her. Bud is the pillar of Baden, Iowa, a small farm town experiencing drought. He wields the power to loan farmers money. As a result, he creates some resentment, particularly from Harlan Kroener, who cripples him with two rifle shots in the back. Bud wants Jasmine to marry him, especially now that she carries their unborn child. He is twice Jasmine's age, and an avid Cardinals baseball fan.  Jasmine becomes pregnant through artificial insemination, then they gave birth to Du, their adopted teenaged child, also flees to California.

The Superstition...

 

Indeed, I have to say that this week’s reading is definitely different from most of our readings in the past. It is quite mysterious when reading this story. I thought this kind of superstitions only happens in China, in fact, it was also past to Japan and Korea. I wasn’t surprised to read the person acting like this because I had heard stories about this kind of superstitions before. What I felt surprised is that I actually read it from a Japanese descendant. 

In today’s reflection, I would like to clear up couple points, as well as, telling you the real story that I heard from my friend’s family.

This story really makes me think, it confuses me in some part, but I was able to get back to the track, digest and organize the story. When Beccah started to reminisced what her mother said to her, “I killed your father” (p. 192), I first thought that her mom is a murderer and this story might be something about Beccah’s father is a bad person. However, After reading the statements like “……secure the double locks…so my mother couldn’t get out of the house”, (p.193) “Instead of continuing straight to school, I’d wait with her until the number 8 came to take her to Reno’s Waikiki Bar-B-Q Hut……” (pp. 193-194), then I thought the story will be about Beccah’s crazy or incapable mother, who in some point became crazy and killed her husband and she felt guilty that she needs to tell Beccah, but then when the story reached the end, it proves that all my thinking and assumptions were all wrong. Beccah’s mother said “I wish him to death”(p.201), “Every day I think,…Die, die, sending him death-wish arrows, until one day my prayers were answered” I thought my assumptions in the beginning was right, but when Beccah said “so you didn’t actually, physically kill him. Like with a knife or something” (p.202), it really confuse me how can this possibly happened? However, after linking and organizing all thoughts from the whole story, especially, the ending part, then I realized what is really going on in the story.

Many of you would think that the spirit thing is a joke, right? I would think the same things if I have never seen one, but I have to acknowledge that this kind of power is actually exist. The story happened when my friend’s grandmother past away for “7 weeks”, and they went to one of the “Spirit medium” (p.200) just like “Akiko”, and they summoned his grandmother to the Spirit medium’s body, talked and asked her questions. The amazing part is, she where able to say who were there and what they did before, she also talked what she is doing now in the other world.  He told me the process of summoning the death people’s spirit and it actually looks very similar to what Beccah’s story describes, except, the “Spirit medium body” is not insane and people don’t have to wait day and night.

Now, do you think it is still unbelievable? Me too…. Even though I have heard lots of these, I still wanted to see it myself.