Three Types of Immigrants in Mukherjee's Jasmine The complex journey of immigration and the hardships that immigrants undergo are common themes in Bharati Mukherjee's writings. The author, an immigrant herself, tries to show the darker side of immigration, especially for Hindu women, which is not often represented in other immigrant narratives. In the novel, Jasmine Mukhedee uses three types of immigrants to show how different the difficulties of adhering to life in an adopted country can be. His main immigrant characters primarily fall into three categories: the refugee, the hyphenated immigrant, and the chameleon. The refugee immigrant type is seen in Jasmine's father, Pitaji and in the Proffessodi and his wife, Nirmala. The character Du is representative of the hyphenated immigrant, and the chameleon type of immigrant is that of the novel's main character, Jasmine. By discussing the various types of immigrants the author portrayed in the novel and the importance of names for each type, with an emphasis on the protagonist, Jasmine, the immigration experience will not be seen as a generic journey similar for all people. , but is instead a deeply personal matter that is influenced by that person's past life experiences and beliefs. The first type of immigrant, the refugee, is characterized by the desire for the homeland. Mukherjee explains the difference between an immigrant writer and an immigrant/refugee writer by showing the contrasts between herself and another Indian writer, VS Naipaul:Naipaul, who was born in Trinidad because his relatives involuntarily left India to settle there, has different attitudes towards oneself. He writes about life in perpetual exile and the impossibility of ever having a home… middle of paper… elves constantly reinventing themselves to adapt to their changing world. By showing how immigrants survive in unique ways, Mukherjee is able to abandon the concept of the generic immigrant and instead shows immigrants for what they truly are: individual people coping as best they can with the new environment imposed on them. Anna. "A Critique of Bharati Mukherjee's Neo-Nationalism" Journal of the South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. July 25!999Carbs, Alison. “An Interview with Bharati Mukherjee” The Massachusetts Review v.29 (Winter 1988/1989): 645-654.Mukherjee, Bharati. Jasmine. New York: Fawceft Crest, 1989. Vignisson, Runar. “Bharati Mukherjee: An Interview.” Journal of the South Pacific Association for Commonwealth Literature and Lanouaae Studies. July 25th!999.