Jasmine

Prakash is Jasmine’s husband, a modern, educated man whom she falls for before she ever sees his face. Prakash wants more than Indian society can provide him, and he thinks that America is the answer to his desires. He gives Jasmine her nickname and encourages her to be an educated, forward-thinking woman, helping her to reconsider the role her culture has played in her life. After planning to leave for America, Prakash and Jasmine are attacked in a sari shop by radical Indian terrorists, and Prakash dies during the bombing.

Taylor and his wife, Wylie, hire Jasmine as an au pair for their daughter, Duff. Taylor is a free-spirited man who is unafraid to laugh at himself, and his goofy, laid-back personality causes Jasmine to fall in love with him. Taylor, after breaking up with Wylie, courts Jasmine and asks her to stay with him and his daughter. Later in the novel, he travels out to Iowa and convinces Jasmine to leave and move with him to California.

Bud is the fifty-three-year-old founder of a major bank in Baden, Iowa. Smitten by Jasmine the moment she walks into his bank, he falls in love with her because of her foreignness. He leaves his wife for Jasmine thinking that this new relationship will rejuvenate his spirit and save him from his mid-life crisis. He is hopeful that Jasmine’s pregnancy will also give him a new lease on life. Bud is paralyzed from a shooting attack by a farmer who felt wronged by him two years before the start of the novel. This injury puts significant strain on his relationship with Jasmine, whom he calls Jane.

The son of the farmers who lived next door to Bud, Darrel tries to make his family’s land a working, profitable farm on his own. With little to no help and looming financial difficulties, Darrel becomes more frustrated and depressed. Over time, he blames Bud for being critical of him and thinks that Bud is a roadblock to getting funding for a new loan. Ultimately, Darrel finds that he does not want to be chained down to the farm; he wants to escape, run away, enjoy life. He expresses a shy, unrequited love for Jasmine, but quickly turns on her when she does not respond in kind.

Like many desperate farmers in the area, Darrel ends up committing suicide before Bud can tell him that he qualified for a new loan.

Du is Bud’s adopted Vietnamese son who is a genius when it comes to technology and electronic engineering. A refugee, Du is given a home with Bud. However, he never feels a genuine father-son connection with him. The trauma he experienced as a refugee, the loss of most of his family, the less than subtle racism that he is exposed to is a permanent wall between him and America. His past ties him to Jasmine, who has experienced her fair share of the same burdens.

Du eventually makes contact with his one remaining sister in California, and he leaves Bud’s home to live with her and be connected to a Vietnamese community again. He drops out of high school and works full-time at a hardware store.