Fight or Flight

"third eye"

We go through life wondering about what we are supposed to do with our lives.   Some look in different areas of their lives, like some turn to work to find purpose, some turn towards family and some to spirituality.  They find purpose through the means on this vehicle that gives them joy and happiness.  Jasmine doesn’t wonder because she knows that she has a mission and knowing is half the battle. 

Jasmine shows us her odyssey in Jasmine by Mukherjee.  She is the main character, one of nine children in Punjab, India. She is smart, courageous and twenty-four years old.  In this chapter Jasmine is in New York with her boy friend Taylor talking about religion and the way of life.  When talking to Taylor about life’s missions and how they could be as simple or small as moving a “flowerpot from one table to another”, Jasmine explains her mission or assignment was to show Taylor enlightenment.  The only way of doing that is seeing through your third eye and “sensing designs in history’s muddles” (60).  To see through all the confusion that the world has in it and reach what really matters is probably on of the greatest feeling ever. Taylor does not understand and he couldn’t imagine why people would live at all like this but “the incentive is to treat every second of your existence as a possible assignment from god” (61). Live each moment like it was your last, fulfilled with meaningful actions and experiences. 

One of Jasmine’s assignments was getting that staff from the thorny bushes in “the moment [Her] fist closed over the head of the staff, [she] felt a buzz of power” which later she used the staff to slay an attacking rabid dog (54).  The situation was to be kill by  rabid dog or kill the rabid dog.  The flight or fight methodology.  Jasmine fought when others would fly, knowing that she can stand her ground even in the most threatening circumstances. In this moment Jasmine saved her own life and the other women she was with. It’s these experiences that show us the way of purpose and meaning.

This part in the novel is important because it lets us know where Jasmine stands on the building blocks of life. She has purpose.   She knows she can deal whatever life throws at her.  Whatever it might be killing a rabid dog, losing a father, a husband, moving to America and being raped, it’s just part of the journey. With all these challenges Jasmine knows she has a mission, a purpose that keeps her striving forward.