Alfred Romero
11/10/2022
Professor Frank
Introduction to Literary Theory & Criticism
QCQ#9
In her short story “Jasmine”, Bharati Mukherjee asks the audience why money should be pretty, “like a picture” (Mukherjee 2).
This was an interesting read. I enjoyed the story and didn’t really know what to expect as I was traveling along the pages. This quote resonated with me throughout the entire reading, however, as it reminded me of a society’s different cultural perspectives towards the concept of wealth (sort of covered in the Marxism discussions). The idea of pretty money completely depends on the economic status of the person perceiving that sense of currency. Pretty money isn’t as necessary to someone with lower annual income as opposed to somebody with a higher annual income. This ties in with the idea of cultural capital as the people higher up have access to the use of pretty money, which comes through the purchase of aesthetics and art. This concept certainly fits America’s materialistic culture and certainly fits other societies around the world as well.
The ending was really interesting to me. I’d like to ask Mukherjee what that ending meant to her, whether it relates to the how or why the story took that turn, or whether it had some underlying economic or racial message that I’m missing out on.
