Actions Speak Louder Than Words...A Name Is Just A Name

And even though the moment passed me by
I still can't turn away
Cuz all the dreams you never thought you'd lose
Got tossed along the way
And letters that you never meant to send
Got lost or thrown away

And now we're grown up orphans
That never knew their names
We don't belong to no one
That's a shame
But you could hide beside me
Maybe for a while
And I won't tell no one your name
And I won't tell your name

I’m not a huge Goo Goo Dolls fan, but Trent Reznik has assisted me in researching the question: What’s in a name? The lyrics above are from a song called “Name” and only he knows what they truly mean, or perhaps all songs are written open for interpretation. Whatever the song means, the fact that I came across it while concurrently reading the novel, “Jasmine” by Bharati Mukherjee seems a bit coincidental.

Jasmine tells the story of a young girl who travels to the United States from India to reinvent herself. She does this many times over throughout the book, which is where the question what’s in a name comes into play? Does changing your name, change who you are? Do you change your name to escape someone you used to be, or in order to become someone new? Is a name simply a name? In this novel I think name changes demonstrate significant changes in Jasmine’s life.

Jasmine is born Jyoti Vinh, which means light. It is unfortunate that after being given this name, a man foretells a “dark” future. In which he predicts she will die a widow living in exile (pg 3). She eventually leaves India in search of a better life, and is given the name Jasmine by Prakash, her husband. Jasmine comes from the Persian Yasmin, which is a climbing plant used for making perfumes. This name also offers an optimistic outlook.

It is unfortunate that the next name change we are offered in the book is Jasmine’s first night in the United States in which she is raped by Half-Face. At such a tragic point in the book, and her life, the reader is undoubtedly ecstatic when she murders Half-Face. She offers a bit of insight into later renaming herself Kali when she says on page 119 “What a monstrous thing, what an infinitesimal thing, is the taking of human life; for the second time in three months I was in the room with a slain man, my body bloodied. I was walking death. Death incarnate.” It isn’t until later that she names herself Kali but it is undoubtedly because Kali is a Hindu goddess long associated with death. However, it is interesting that Kali is not the goddess of death, but actually the goddess of time and change, which seems fitting since this is an obvious turning point in the novel.

Throughout the novel, Jasmine is renamed by many characters, and it is interesting to note, that most of her name changes are associated with male characters. Bud renames her Jane, when she is living in rural Iowa. When Lillian Gordon is teaching her “how to be an American” she is known as Jazzy. Even when she is an illegal living in New York as a “Day mummy,” she is known as Jase.

Although it is undeniable that Jasmine experiences great changes in pivotal moments of her life, and name changes occur in these instances, I still believe that your name doesn’t define who you are, and what you do is the measure of man. Interestingly enough I just finished watching the film “Into the Wild” which is based on one of my favorite books about a college graduate who is inspired by writers like Jack London, Walt Whitman, Jack Kerouac, and others, and sets off on an “Alaskan Adventure” to become someone else. When he embarks on his adventure he burns all his money, credit cards, social security, everything. Christopher Mccandless renames himself Alexander Supertramp and embarks on a two-year journey. Unfortunately, that journey does not end happily, and in the end of the film (and book) Alexander Supertramp is isolated and alone, and his last words are self inscribed above his final resting place,

“Happiness is only real when shared. I have had a happy life and thank the lord. Goodbye and god bless all.”

He signs this final note, Christopher Johnson Mccandless, NOT Alexander Supertramp. I get an eerie feeling that “Jasmine” shares many ideals with “Into The Wild” but ultimately in the end, the JOURNEY was more important than the NAME. Although the name is important in the story, and important to her, they are still just names, and people can become whomever they want, and they are shaped by whatever they do, but changing your name doesn’t change who you are. It may help "you" to change your name, but it is your actions that change who you ARE.