Reading C: Narayan's Ramayana

The first half of the reading for this week was really centered around Sita being captured by Ravana and all of the adventures that Rama goes on while trying to find her again. The epic style is really noticeable in this part of the story as there are several different stories woven together to create the overall feel of the story in which the main events take place. Although most of the events that take place are important to the story itself, there is definitely some room for expansion of other characters that might not occur in a story lacking the epic style.

I found the story about Sugriva and Vali to be particularly interesting, as it happened almost as an intermission to the original story and was worked back into the search for Sita when Sugriva sent out a search party. I was reminded of The Odyssey when I read this portion of the story because of the epic quality associated with a heavily action-based plot, often taking intermittent breaks from the main story line in order to establish a new story and regain focus from a new perspective in the story.

Sugriva and Vali Fighting (Wikimedia)

I really enjoyed the development of the story about Sita and Rama. As far as ideas about utilizing this story in my project, I think that learning more about the divine trinity of gods and goddesses would be a good start. I could make two alternate versions of this story, similar to the style of cloud atlas, and craft one version to be much more tragic and the other version to be much happier.

Bibliography:
Narayan's Ramayana (Web Source: Reading Guide)