The Name Game

In the novel, “Jasmine” by Bharati Mukherjee, the main character, Jasmine is an individual whom through her life is given many different names by different individuals.  Jasmine was born Jyoti but went by Jasmine when her husband, Prakash, gave her that name after they married.  Jasmine took the name accepted it because she truly loved her husband so she immediately loved the name that he gave her.  Unfortunately, her husband died in a terrorist bombing attack.  After Prakash’s death Jasmine moved from India to America where her name was changed many more times.

On her very first day in the U.S, Jasmine becomes a victim of rape and due to the incident she changes her name to Kali.   Kali is the name of the Hindu goddess of death and destruction.  Kali then kills the man who rapped her, whom she named “Half-Face”, by stabbing him to death.  Kali eventually remarries to a man named Bud whom gives her the name Jane.  By the end of the novel Jasmine has gone through many names; she is know as Jase by Taylor, Jazzy by Lillian, and Tornado by Bud’s ex-wife.   “I have had a husband for each of the women I have been.  Prakash for Jasmine, Taylor for Jase, Bud for Jane.  Half-Face for Kali.”  (pg. 197).   Ultimately, Jasmine does not really own her own identity when she allows people to changer her names for her and accepting them. 

When I got married my husband called me “Babe,” a dumb word who many men call their significant others.  I HATED it with a passion and I let him know that right away.  He never called me that again.  I guess what I am trying to say is that we have control of what others call us and we can either allow them to call us by a name and take the “identity” that comes with it or we can object to it and not go by the name.