The Business Trip

Content Warning: This section includes discussion of death, rape, child abuse, physical abuse, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and cursing.

Jasmine is a primary narrator of The Business Trip and the novel’s secret antagonist. She is described as a 44-year-old woman with “long blond hair” (5), though she cuts and dyes her hair throughout the novel to change her appearance. Initially, she is characterized as a survivor of abuse whose violence is motivated by jealousy and financial anxiety. At the beginning of the novel, Jasmine describes herself as “a woman running from a tattered past that extend[s] all the way to childhood” (32). As a child, her mother’s neglect made Jasmine feel like “everything [she] did or wanted seemed like a bother, even basic needs such as food” (9). In the same way, her siblings “never seemed to find [her] anything but annoying, telling [her] to leave them alone when [she] tried to initiate play or talk about emotions” (9). The use of the words “bother” and “annoying” in these passages suggests that Jasmine was raised to feel like she was a burden, unwanted by the people who were supposed to love her most.

Through Jasmine, the novel shows how childhood neglect and abuse can make one vulnerable to exploitation as an adult.