First of all, I would like to talk about the plot which is quite sentimental. And this novel is another one of the stream of conciousness that every small thought can emerge at any time when the character got to compare the past events with the present time. India with America etc.
Jasmine used to be traditional Punjabi girl from the village of Hasnapur who was haunted by the partition of Pakistan and India dragging from family down from Paradise. The story is absolute anti-exotic concept from the West perspective.
Jasmine always faces unexpected events; marriage at very young age, her father died by the bull hit, her husband died from the terrorist explosion, and she was raped after illegally entering to the United State by the seaman whom she killed him when he was asleep( the reason why she come to America is burn Prakash’s clothes as he couldn’t fulfill his dream of coming to America).
The story telling was like 3-1-2-4. The story started in Iowa when Jasmine was the banker’s wife who got one apoptive Vietnamese child. Then Jasmine thinks about the past of how she has survived. Around chapter 23, it turns out to be the romantic novel when Jasmine get a job as an Au-pair with the couple who get an adoptive daugther. The young girl called her a day mummy. She was told by the wife that "Taylor loved you from the first day". Jasmine kept this secret for 2 years, and she felt that this is her real family even though the child is not her genetic child. When she saw a guy who murder her husband she just run away afraiding of her beloved would be harmed.
The conflict is Jasmine, in the last part of the story has to choose between 2 men. One is the man whom she decides to spend the rest of her life with, and the other one is the one that she truly love.
Finally, she decided to be with the one she love and move to Carlifornia.
I think the sign here used here is the " Adoptive" thing which is her new identity. After she has killed half face who rapes her, she thought that her mind( or her previous identity) has already died. There’s no more Jyoti( her former name). After that day, America is her big real school. It seems that American treat her so well but sometimes they unintentually hurt her by words.
She tried to re-think again of how god could protect her father. Her conclusion is there’s no fate as she are in the free society that she can make a decision for everything.
For the author, Bharati Mukherjee teaches creative writing at UC Berkeley. Her educational background includes BA in English from the University of Calcutta, and Ph.D in Comparative Literature from Iowa University.
The last thing I would say is movie director should try to make it as a movie( I hope Mira Nair would have chance to consider my request).