Alyssa Wallingford
November 11, 2022
English 206
Jasmine by Mukherjee
Quotation: “Lara asked about Port-of-Spain. There was nothing to tell about her hometown that wouldn’t shame her in front of nice white American folk like the Moffitts. The place was shabby, the people were grasping and cheating and lying and life was full of despair and drink and wanting. But by the time she finished, the island sounded romantic.”(Mukherjee 6-7).
Comment: In this story, the author exemplifies throughout the story just how unusual Jasmine’s circumstances are in terms of where she currently lives. And if people of color are where she is, it is always in the role of a “servant” or of some lower social class. However, Jasmine barely questions her rank, showing evidence of cultural hybridity because she seems to think the way that the white colonizers seem to think. This way of life is better in some ways than what she left, and so she readily seems to accept her place, and even consider her “place” to be much better than where she left from, which is true for the most part. But she also carries with her the shame she feels about where she came from, and has the sense that she must hide that upbringing from her upper class friends.
Question: I wonder if the opposite is true for this cultural thinking. I’m sure these upper class people realize their status, but they do not feel the same way about sharing their past or upbringing. Also, I wonder how many layers this goes to when you think about the concept of intersectionality, since she is also not only a person of color, she is a woman, and as a result of these identities coming together, they probably greatly influenced how she operated on a daily basis.
