| Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine utilizes the similarities in the journey of self-discovery between postcolonial citizens and immigrants in a new land to illustrate the intricacies of identity formation for both groups through her titular character. She uses the change of settings as the catalyst for the major changes in Jasmine's life and marks each transformation by a renaming: Jyoti, Jasmine, Kali, Jazzy, Jase, Jane. Each of the names represents a hybrid persona on her continuous journey from the colonial past to the immigrant's future, highlighting a present reality in which time, identity, and environment are painfully but productively entangled. |
