Cursed

To want extent do any of us have control over our lives? Is every second a chance to make a life changing decision? Or has fate mapped out our future? Throughout our lives we will make decisions and reap the consequences. Even if fate has predetermined our future we still must take the steps to see it through. Arguing that fate is in control is often times useless. Too often humans throw their lives to preconceived notions of what fate has planned for them. Fate can control someone’s life only if they believe in it.  

If a person does believe in fate they can choose between two paths. The first is that fate has picked out their destiny and they are just along for the ride. The second thought process is to fight against fate. However, it seems either way the simple act of believing in fate controls our lives.

In Bharati Mukherjee’s novel, Jasmine, the main character struggles with her destiny and fates hand in it. From a young age the main character, Jasmine, fights for agency in her life. As the story progresses Jasmine takes steps to choose her own destiny, however it appears that her preconceived notions of her fate control her decisions.

Jasmine is a fascinating character who denies her lack of free agency. Early on in the book she screams at an old fortune teller whose forecast for her life is bleak, “‘No!’ I shouted. ‘You’re a crazy old man. You don’t know what my future holds!’”(3) Jasmine wants to deny that her future is predestined.

As the story progresses she reveals some interesting notions about herself. Jasmine views herself as a “sage,” (5) a “goddess,” (12) and “millennia old.”(34) When she is very young she is scared and calls the scar her “third eye” (5) with which she can see invisible worlds. Jasmine gives herself almost supernatural abilities to counter fate.

No matter how hard Jasmine tries it seems that not only fate but also her past controls her decisions. She herself admits to this, “…but I had a past that I was still fleeing. Perhaps still am.”(34) To Jasmine her past is directly related to her future. She believes that “we [must] murder who we were so we can rebirth ourselves in the images of dreams.” (29) Jasmine isn’t running from her past she is slaughtering her past all in the hope of reinvention, the hope or free agency to become whoever she wants.

However, Jasmine is treading on thin ice. Through her willful act of murdering her past selves she does not have a concrete self identity. She was born with the name Jyoti. She then goes through a transformation when she marries and she becomes Jasmine. Then when she moves to Iowa and lives with a banker named Bud she goes by Jane. These alter egos seem to be just that, alter realities that Jasmine seems to be fitting into at a certain time. Jasmine is fleeing from her past and does not want to be held down, “Bud wants me to marry him, ‘officially,” he says, before the baby comes.”(7) Through this comment she reveals that she herself does not want to get married in fear of being held down. Jasmine is ready to flee to another reality at a moments notice.

We must all face up to our past, future and destiny. Some of us run from and some face it full on. Jasmine seems to believe she is actively fighting her destiny/past however; she is letting her life be controlled by it. Jasmine was born into a culture that believed, “daughters [are] curses,” (39) Jasmine tries to make herself out to be something extraordinary, yet she is cursed. She is cursed by the need to run away from fate, haunted by the ghosts of her past self.