Jasmine

“He comes from a place where the language you speak is what you are.”

Jasmine describes the rural reality that exists in Darrel Lutz’s character, and the element of language that helps shape people’s identities. Darrel’s mode of speech reveals him for who he is—a struggling Iowan farmer who revels in exotic escapisms.

“The villagers say when a clay pitcher breaks, you see that the air inside is the same as outside […] We are just shells of the same Absolute.”

This village adage speaks to the higher concept of understanding that what is outside of us is the same as what is inside of us. Jasmine wonders why someone as old as Mother Ripplemeyer bothers with trying to look younger when there is no difference between her insides and outsides.

“Calamity Jane. Jane as in Jane Russell, not Jane as in Plain Jane. But Plain Jane is all I want to be. Plain Jane is a role, like any other.”

Jasmine’s statement exposes some element of her acceptance and underlying restlessness at being cast in yet another “role.” Here, she is Bud’s partner, the mother of his unborn child, and she wants this new chapter of her life to be as uneventful as possible.