Trying to Balance Culture

Moving to a new country and choosing whether or not you completely adapt to the new culture, keep or own culture completely intact or find a balance between both has to be an extremely hard decision to make. My next door neighbor in the bay area moved to the United States from China when she was 18. At the time she had a strained relationship with her parents and she says that the United States seemed like it would offer her a lot more. When she got here she was so upset with her parents and all their traditions that she abandoned them and tried to completely Americanize herself. After having children she decided she did not want to raise them with any Chinese traditions. In recent years she has mended the relationship with her parents and they frequently come to visit her and her family. She now says that one of her biggest regrets is not having her children learn at least some basic Chinese traditions because now they have an extremely hard time relating to their grandparents.

In the novel Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee, the main character, Jasmine, has to make the decision of whether or not to completely abandon her cultural ways or to reinvent herself to find a balance between her culture and American culture. At the very start of the novel an astrologer tells Jasmine that one cannot change their destiny. Jasmine is living in the village of Hasnapur and is not happy with the astrologers words, “I know what I don’t want to become,” (pg. 5). From this point Jasmine will continuously reinvent herself to try and have different destinies.

The novel cuts to Jasmine living in Iowa, she seems to have abandoned many of her cultural traditions. She speaks of dinner guests that “get disappointed if there’s something not Indian on the table,” (pg. 9). The fact that Jasmine makes her cultural dishes for the pure entertainment of her guests shows that she has tried to culturally reinvent herself but other people expect her to be excited about her cultural background.

I think Jasmine intentionally tries to reinvent herself, I think she is stuck between two worlds and does not know which path to take. She longs for an identity that she understands. She changes her name several times and adapts to many different surroundings and different men. I think Jasmine would like to keep some of her cultural values but she does not know how to balance her old life with her new life.