Week 3: Brainstorming Styles with Rama and Ravana

For my storybook I think that I am going to make it be about Rama’s adventure while searching for the love of his life, as well as the story of Ravana. What I was thinking about doing was maybe telling two stories at first with Rama being the main character, then after that switch to Ravana’s side of the story and tell two stories with him. The two separate stories would both tell majority of the same story at a certain time period. The only difference is that I will be telling it from two different point of views.

Style: For the Storybook styles I am thinking about doing a First Person style. The reason I decided this was because I feel that the best way to show the emotion from Rama and Ravana is to let their own dialogue do all of the talking. Another option could be Third person. This is just to provide more background information and focus on the different goals and decisions each character made.

Story Style: For the story style I was not sure if it would be an anthology or a frametale. I plain on telling two different stories for each of the characters that aren’t necessarily connected, but they mirror each other. If I had to guess, than my stories would be more of an anthology since my stories will not be following a direct train. They some of the same stories told by different people.

Sidekick as a Narrator: I thought about using this style for my storybook as part of a First-person style. This style interested me the most and seemed to fit the Ramayana. What I could do is tell a the stories about Rama through one of his sidekicks since he was always traveling with someone. One option could be through Rama’s brother, and the other story could be told through the eyes of one of Ravana’s council men, or is youngest brother. I think that telling a story this way you help clarity the roles between the two characters and also give a new perspective to from with two more different characters.

Third-Person Omniscient: One of the more popular ways to tell a story. I think that this technique would also work well for my storybook idea. This way I could focus more on the story itself as well as setting and background. This style contains the voices of all the characters so I can should how to use the dialogue between characters. This writing style works best for epics and quests like the Ramayana. 

Taj Mahal - India photo by: acher10

Week 3: Storytelling: The Brothers

The Brothers 

Once upon a time there was a happy family who lived in a small city in Oregon: a mom, dad, and two brothers. They had lived in Oregon their whole lives, and Mom and Dad were thinking about moving to the east coast in North Carolina. The brothers were older now: Vali was twenty years old, and Sugriva fifteen. Vali was a tall, strong, and outgoing young man who wasn't afraid of anything. Sugriva, on the other hand, was more reserved than his brother, and he liked to keep to himself. Either way, both were excited about moving to the other side of the U.S and experiencing a whole new lifestyle. Over the next few months it was decided. The dad got offered a nice job, and would begin within a week. The family would move out after Vali took care of some things with his friends in northern California.

 “I will be back in a couple of days, Mom, Dad, and Sugriva,” said Vali. “I am excited to move out, and when I get back we can go."

“Alright, bye, Vali! See you soon,” Mom and Dad said while giving him a hug and returning back into the living room. Vali approached the door and was on his way out.

He turned around right before he left and saw Sugriva standing there. He said, “Make sure you don’t leave without me! I will be back within a few days. One week max. “

Sugriva replied, “Okay, okay. I get it, bro. See ya soon.”

And with that Vali went through the door and was gone. Anxious to leave, the family decided to finish packing everything up and load it up in their truck. After only one day, the family was sleeping on the floor in anticipation of Vali returning soon.  After four days Sugriva became worried about his brother. Vali was not answering his cell phone, so they couldn't get in contract with him. 

“Come on, Sugriva, I’m sure your brother is fine,” Mom said. “We gave him directions  to get to North Carolina before he left. Besides, he is taking way too long and your father has to start his new job next week.”

Sugriva angrily said, “We cannot just leave him! He said that he would come back. I know it has been later than expected, but we cannot just leave him to be alo-“

Dad interrupted him, “Look. He is a growing young man. He knows his way there. Remember that we are meeting in Ohio on our way to North Carolina to visit your aunt for a week. Vali will be able to meet us there if worse comes to worse, so don’t worry about it, okay?”

Unsure of himself, Sugriva reluctantly replied, “Okay… But I still feel weird about it.”

And with that the family left the next morning without looking back. Vali would return the same afternoon that the family left. He couldn’t believe that his family decided to leave him behind, and especially after talking to Sugriva. He became enraged and went to find his family again. 

After searching for his family for days, Vali ended up at the address his parents gave him before. It was their new North Carolina house. He entered the house to find Sugriva sitting there, all alone, like he was waiting for someone to come home. Some of Vali's anger cooled of by now, but when Sugriva mentioned that Mom and Dad were not coming back he became confused. Sugriva further explained that after they arrived in North Carolina, Mom and Dad were involved in a horrible accident on a trip to the store. They didn't make it. When Vali heard this news he did not know how to feel anymore. His first choice of emotion was rage. He was mad at the fact that he never got a chance to say goodbye or spend those last couple days with his parents like Sugriva got to. Vali then wrongfully took his anger out on his little brother. Sugriva tried to explain, but Vali would not listen. Sugriva ran away from home, and Vali yelled to never come back or he would kill him. 

Gumpy Hill, Oregon

Taken by: McD22

Author's Note: 

Hello.

 This is my first story for my writing portfolio. I chose to make a writing portfolio instead of a storybook for this class. Last semester I did a storybook for the Mythology-Folklore class, but this time around I wanted to have some more freedom with different stories. I wanted to be able to work with a broad variety of stories that were not necessarily connected as well as work on my storytelling skills/revising.

I decided to write my story based off the story of Sugriva and his brother Vali. I chose to write about this because I enjoyed this part of the Ramayana. The story wasn’t really that long, but I think that it sends a big message. Sometimes you cannot let rage consume and control you from seeing the truth. Sugriva loved his brother deeply, and would never do wrong toward him. He was driven to a decision that was better for everyone during the time of Vali’s rage. I didn't tell the whole story, but there are some major changes I would like to note. First off I did not include Rama. I just wanted to get the main point of the story across exclusively with the two brothers.  I also changed the reasons for Vali to become angry at his brother. I wanted to try and make it more modern. I know that Vali and Sugriva's parents were gods, but I wanted to include them more into the modern story and have prominent roles. It is hard to give a god a main part into a story when you can't talk to them. 

Another major change that I added into my story is the reason for Vali's anger. In the original story Vali becomes angry because after a year, Vali returned to find that a stone was barricading the cave he entered. Also Sugriva was the king. He thought that he was trying to take over his kingdom. Vali took Sugriva's wife and vowed to kill him if he ever stepped foot in the city again. In the end Sugriva gets Rama to help him and Vali is struck down by one of his arrows, finally realizing his wrong doing. 

In my story I felt as if the parents had to die in order for Vali to truly be angry enough to take his rage out on Sugriva. His anger is not justified, but the parents' death makes it to where Vali cannot just blame his parents for leaving. Instead he can pin everything on Sugriva. 

The Story that inspired my own came from Narayan's version of the Ramayana. 

Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana.

Week 3 Reading Diary B Ravana's End

Reading Diary Part B:

Hanuman now arrived on Lanka to begin searching for Sita.  Upon searching, he shrank himself down to an unnoticeable size and searched through every building and home. He came across a beautiful woman who he thought was Sita, but it was Ravana’s wife.

Hanuman then went to search one of Ravana’s favorite parks. There he found Sita. 

I was surprised when I read this part of the story. I didn’t know what to think about how Sita would be treated. I figured that she would be treated like a queen. I was surprised to see that this was not the case. However, it does made sense of what Ravana is trying to do. He is using frightening women to beat and scare her to death. Then after Ravana comes in to comfort her. He is trying to break her into wanting Ravana. It is quite sinister and evil if you ask me.

Another scene that interested me was the one with Ravana’s Council. You heard different points of view from Ravana’s Council some of which included his brothers and sons. Most of the people all agreed in favor of Ravana, but one person (Vibishana) who was Ravana’s youngest brother disagreed and warmed him of all his misdoings. He was told to leave, and then he went to Rama’s camp.

The Battle raged on with the help of Vibishana. Both sides sent messengers and tricks to try and get an advantage on the other. Both sides spilled a lot of blood. Ravana’s side has suffered the most losing his commander-in-chief- and his brother Indrajit.

In the end Rama won against Ravana and got Sita back. He had one last trail to test her loyalty and she passed. They then returned home and Rama was named king and lived in peace. 

Rama in Battle

Found http://www.harekrsna.de/108rama.htm 

Week 3 Reading Diary:Vali

Reading Diary Part A

Rama arrives to Kiskinda to meet with Hanuman (Anjaneya). He was in the form a little scholar boy which I thought was weird. I am not sure why he chose that form, but is through form was a giant monkey for he was the king of all the monkey in that land.

In this next section Hanuman is telling the story of Vali, which is Sugreeva’s elder brother. Apparently he is a God-like figure and was blessed by Shiva with unimaginable strength and speed. Interestingly enough, it is even mentions that then Vali passes by Ravana even he is scared to death of him. I will have to highlight this and maybe include Ravana’s fright of him in my later storybook.  Continuing in the story Hanuman recognized that Rama is an Incarnation of Vishnu and asked him to test his Archery to prove he was capable. Rama feel sorry for Sugreeva and offers help to vanquish Vali. On top of mountain Rama sees bleached bones and asks what it is. Sugreeva then begins with Dundubi’s story.

Vali in the Ramayana

Source: Wikipedia

Vali kills Dundubi and throws his body on the Sage Matanga’s sacred site. He then cursed Vali so that if he steps foot back on the land his head will explode.

The Reading part where Sugriva fights Vali is my favorite part of the book so far! It does such a good job at explaining the motifs of Rama and Vali. Then Rama strikes Vali with an arrow at first he doesn't understand why Rama would meddle in the affairs of two brothers, and at first I could reason with him. In time, Rama explained that it was Vali who was seeing unclear, and in the end he finally realized his wrong doing. If I decided to retell this story then I can definitely see each side of the story.