Week 7 Reading Diary A: Rama's Victory

So, this was mostly about the big final battle between Rama and Ravana, and didn't differ too much from Narayan. There were some notable differences and additions, though.

I like the inclusion of Time as a character in this version. Time, Kala, appears once again in this section, this time warning Ravana (who, of course, doesn't listen). This part stuck out to me especially because I read a story by another student in this class from the point of view of Time. Noticing this particular story more helped fill out the picture of Ravana as a villain whose hubris brings about his downfall - no one is invincible, and eventually Time gets us all.

The letter from Ravana to Rama, brought by Shuka after Ravana is killed, was weird. It seemed confusing - why did Ravana write all this before, in a letter? It sort of made sense to me when I read in the reading guide for this section that this part was added by Buck and not in the original by Valmiki, because I thought it seemed sort of out of place. Although, that leads me to question why Buck felt the need to add it in the first place. I guess it sort of corresponds to Ravana's dying words in Narayan, when Rama talks to him and Ravana 'sees the light' so to speak just before he dies. However, the whole letter thing just didn't make much sense to me, nor did it seem like satisfying closure for Ravana's character.

Sita's trial by fire was done differently in this version too. In Narayan, Rama explicitly makes her take the trial by fire to prove her purity. In Buck, it's more like Agni (god of fire) just happens to stroll by and burst her into flames to show that, Hey, I like Sita she's all good. On the one hand, this seems to make less sense and while I didn't like it, the Narayan version seems like a more plausible course of events. On the other hand, this doesn't make Rama look like a major jerk, so I think it better fits with the triumphant tone of the story.

One last thing that was new was the whole secret treasure room Vibhishana shows to Hanuman. I thought that was kind of random, but it made me think of another student's story I read where Hanuman is combined with Abu from Disney's Aladdin. So, of course, I imagined that Cave of Wonders scene where Abu gets all drooly over that huge gemstone. Random, but it made me laugh.