What are the themes of the novel Jasmine by Bharati Mukherjee?

In the novel Jasmine, as the title character moves through different phases of her life, she also changes her name. This constant reinvention suggests one prominent theme, the search for identity. That theme is also conveyed through other characters, notably Du and Devinder. Many of the characters are immigrants to the US, as is Jasmine herself. This supports a primary theme of the challenges of immigrant adjustment to foreign life. As a woman, Jasmine—first as the young Jyoti in India—has many experiences that seem exclusively or primarily gendered. In this regard, one of the main themes is the role of women in society. In the ways the author strongly contrasts life in India and the US, another theme is the influence of religion on national culture.
For Jasmine as an individual and for her native country of India and the Punjab region within it, the process of identity formation entails considerable violence. While Jasmine moves away from using violence to resolve problems, such as defense against a rapist, she cannot escape its presence in her life. This repeated presentation suggests a theme of the inevitability of violence, giving the novel a realist orientation, in comparison to an idealist view that could endorse nonviolence or pacifism.