BHARATI MUKHERJEE’S JASMINE:A JOURNEYTO SELF-ACTUALIZATION

Abstract

The term self-actualization is coined by Abraham Maslow to describe the growth of an individual towards the fulfillment of their highest needs. Bharati Mukherjee is an Indian Diasporic writer who writes about the problems of Indian Immigrants particularly women. She skillfully portrays the struggle of women for self-actualization and identity through her novels. Her women characters are the representations of contemporary women who strives to live their life with full potential and capabilities and become an individual, she wants to be.  Jyoti, the protagonist of the novel Jasmine, is an Indian Immigrant who faces the problems of acculturation and alienation in an alien land.She tries to assimilate herself into the foreign culture and gain an independent identity towards the end of the novel. Mukherjee succeeds in presenting the predicaments of the third world woman with all her frustrations, longings, hopes and aspirations in an alien land. This paper is an aim to bring out the journey of the Jasmine to self-actualization that leads her to fluid identities and a comfortable life.