Can't Run From What You Don't Want

"I know what I don’t want to become," is this a positive statement or a negative? When someone believes this and this is the only thing they are sure of in life, are they running from that thing that they don’t want to become or are they making a positive choice and step that is directed away from what they don’t want? I think it depends on what type of steps they are taking after they know what they don’t want. If someone bases all their choices and actions upon what they don’t want then they are running away from it. But when people are only taking steps throughout their lives based on what they think is right in each situation then that person is just living not running.

In the book, Jasmine, by Bharati Mukherjee, the main character is running from what she doesn’t want, never forgetting the astrologer’s foretelling. At the start of chapter two she explains that "Taylor didn’t want me to run away to Iowa," in which she leaves little room to argue that she feels she has made a choice to run and escape what she found in New York. At this point in the story Jane has not explained about what has happened in New York…perhaps she is running away from the topic? It is curious that she has chosen Iowa as her new home, maybe she is running away in a positive way? Escaping New York for a simple place with simple people…like her old home Punjab. She obviously likes the "luxury" of dullness she had in Punjab and is seeking its comfort in Iowa. The fact remains though that she is leaving because she is running, but she is running towards a better situation—she has direction. A negative situation leading to the positive.

She also chose not to marry, Bud, the man she happily had a child with. She believes he was "wounded in the war between [her] fate and [her] will." But perhaps she would have been better off forgetting the astrologer and living life as she wanted and married Bud. Would she and he have been happier if she would have married him? Perchance she was the one who wounded Bud, because she could not let go and stop running from the war within and deal with her inner turmoil.

Jane has the ability to move on and concentrate on her life not her fear of her fate. Even if the astrologer is right, she cannot stop fate. She is running so much she is making the foretelling true, she gives it power by letting it control her. I’m sure if she would just stop running that she would not run into her "fate." She ran from New York…is that not like exile? Has she put this exile upon her own shoulders without realizing that she is bringing life to the words of an astrologer? The words of the astrologer control her every action, and ultimately drive her towards what she doesn’t want.