I really enjoyed the assignments for this week. I really
liked the storytelling post that I did. This week I discussed Kaikeyi’s
thoughts right before she blackmailed the king into allowing her two boons to
be making her son king and exiling Rama for 14 years. This was an extremely
emotional and passionate scene in this epic, and I adored it. I gave another
level of complexity to this story by writing an inner monologue of what she was
feeling: her remorse for treating Rama this way, her delusions of being cast
out the second that Rama had gained the throne, and of her desire to get what
she wanted. I could have written for days and just fleshed out the character of
Kaikeyi. I think this is my favorite type of writing, using a story that
already has a solid plot and a great set of characters and then just flesh out
those characters and give them history and memories and motivations and
reflections. I think that is what I want to do for my Storybook project. I have
considered focusing on Sita, and looking into what is written about her past,
and also comparing her character in both versions of the Ramayana that we read.
She is a fascinating character and I believe is meant to exemplify what the
perfect Hindu woman is, yet at the end she is exiled and forced to raise two
sons by herself for fifteen years. Why did she get this lot in life? How could
Rama, the hero of this story who is said to be loved by all and is kind and
good to everyone he meets, treat the wife that he adored and loved like this? I
remember reading a passage about he could not even lie still because he was so
in love. How could he treat his wife like that, especially after she proved her
innocence to everyone including him? These are questions I wish to investigate
Sita plays hide-and-seek with Rama; illustration by Warwick
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