The New American Geometry

 

When I think of geometry, I usually think of the study of straight linear lines and varying angles.  It involves using theorems and rules that triangles, intersecting lines, and other geometric shapes follow. It is sort of a linear and determined pattern that guides these math principles. If you were to look it up in the dictionary or online, geometry is defined as follows: The mathematics of the properties, measurement, and relationships of points, lines, angles, surfaces, and solids. Looking at this information, can we say that some individuals use a geometric outlook on life, in that, we live a predetermined linear life from life to death with guiding rules bounding us to a structured life? Can we break out of this and form a new geometry on life?

 

I personally believe that we can break out of this predetermined geometric outlook on life and live in a manner which may seem “chaotic” to others. The Chaos Theory states as follows, according to some online sources: It describes the behavior of certain nonlinear dynamical systems that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions. As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved. 

 

 

I think this is an intriguing theory that supports this idea of a new geometry which we can break out of our initial actions and form a new outlook life. This new outlook may be labeled “random” according to the Chaos Theory.  This new geometry is not necessarily straight or smooth with bounding rules guiding its next move. It can be a set of skew and curving lines not bound by rules.  I feel that this is how we all should live our lives, a sort of “live for the moment” or “by the seat of your pants” philosophy.

 

This idea of a new American geometry seems to be a reoccurring theme in Bharati Mukherjee’s novel “Jasmine”. It directly relates to this idea of a new geometry as is even stated in the very beginning of the novel in the epitaph. In a short piece by James Glieck, he expresses this new idea:

 

“The new geometry mirrors a universe that is rough, not rounded, scabrous, not smooth. It is a geometry of the pitted, pocked, and broken up, the twisted, tangled, and intertwined.”

 

This short quote reinforces the point that I alerted earlier and is in the same realm as the Chaos theory. I believe that it states that we live in a universe of “random”, “chaotic”, “rough” events that can not be defined in a straight and smooth perfect world. When we start to look into Mukherjee’s novel, we can see how this applies to the main character Jasmine.

 

 

Jasmine comes to America after the freakish death of her father and arranged husband. I feel this is what breaks Jasmine out of her linear geometric life. It is apparent that she is now entering this new idea and new geometry on life as we read on and find that she changes her name several times throughout the novel, moves all over the United States, and undergoes traumatic events that she would not have if she followed her predetermined life.  Jasmine seems to be living many different lives throughout the novel.  She is now living in a life of chaos and randomness. All of her previous life experience will not influence her future actions, coming from a culturally diverse society and customs.

 

One of the other characters in the novel shows an interesting take on this new geometric outlook. Du breaks away from the idea that one device should only serve one purpose. This is evident in the following excerpt from the novel:

 

“All Saturday Du shuts himself in his room, reshuffling circuits, combining new functions. Why should a radio only produce sound, a light switch only light? Du’s light automatically brings music, since for him the two are intimately connected. All his lights are on dimmers, the dimmers scan the FM band as they control the lights. Efficiency, he would say – why should dimmers confine themselves to one, boring function?” (pg. 154)

 

 

We all look at a tool and see one specific purpose for it. Is this narrow minded thinking or are we subconsciously following rules that limit our perception? This is a good philosophical question we can ask our self, but at the same time, wonder if it is straight line geometric thinking. Du seems to have broken out of this way of thinking and raised this question for us. Another individual that may not know the function of an object may see many uses for it besides its intended use.  Maybe we should consider Du’s non-intended lesson here and open our perception to this non-straight, rough, random universe.

 

Another good excerpt from the novel is as follows:

 

“Du’s doing well because he has always trained with live ammo, without a net, with no multiple choice. No guess work: only certain knowledge or silence. Once upon a time, like me, he was someone else. We’ve been many selves. We’ve survived hideous times. I envy Bud the straight lines and smooth planes of his history. Until Harlan. Always, until Harlan.” (pg.214)

 

This short quote is referring to the character’s past. For Jasmine and Du, life has not always been straight and defined. They have been other individuals besides themselves (even in America for example), survived through hard times where the next days events were not clear and put fourth, and from one day to the next, randomness appeared to be abundant in their life. Bud, on the other hand, is from America and has not experienced any deviation from the day-to-day or even year-to-year events we experience growing up here in America. We follow this straight line progression of preschool, middle school, high school, maybe college, and working the rest of our lives. I feel that Mukherjee is portraying that the characters Jasmine and Du are viewing this differentiation in their lives as opposed to the character Bud’s life from this geometric standpoint. 

 

After looking at the information in the novel and the other principals guiding the views of this new geometry, I can see how one may refer to our normal lives as a straight linear outlook. The novel is definitely relevant in portraying this new skew way of living our lives.  I feel that this is an interesting outlook on life, living from one day to the next the next, in a state of randomness. I feel that I personally fall into the category of a straight line geometric outlook, but I am fine with it.  Maybe it is my personality, being able to have a secure and non-risky future which is clear cut. Maybe it is because I have grown up in America. Whatever it is, I have accepted that it is the way I feel comfortable living. I do, however, have those moments where I like a sense of guessing and randomness in my life, not being able to predict what is going to happen next.