Week 5 Story: Lakshmana's Blues
Lakshmana's Blues
Rama, Sita and Lakshmana in the wilderness (Indischer Maler)
Anyway, the three of them go into the woods for twelve years - no, I'm sorry, fourteen years - and Lakhan is sort of like the body guard or provider for the group. He makes sure they have a nice hut to live in and then he also cuts off Surpanakha's nose and ears out of anger when she tries to seduce Rama.
It does seem like Rama and Sita kind of boss him around though. When Rama goes off to catch a golden deer for Sita he gives Lakshaka instructions to guard Sita and Lakshaman is like "Yes brother. I will stay."
Then Sita barks at him, "Go check on Rama."
Lakshma tries to get out of it by saying, "But Rama told me to stay here."
But Sita gets mad and essentially says, "Yes, but now I say go," and then Lakshasa goes after Rama just like that.
If I remember correctly, Laskhman is also the one who Rama tells to take Sita into her own exile after they return from the wilderness and the common people become convinced she is unpure. It really seems like he never questions Rama and just does what he's told but you have to wonder how he feels at that point. He is really at fault for Sita's abduction in the first place because he abandoned her to go help Rama and now again he has to abandon Sita in the wilderness as a favor to his brother. You have to wonder if he feels any guilt about what has happened and if he feels caught in the middle of this conflict between husband and wife. His first loyalty is obviously to Rama but I imagine he feels bad about the situation between him and his sister-in-law. After all, Sita is probably the only other person who loves Rama as much as he does. Would Rama send Lakshmana into exile too if the people wanted him too? One can only wonder.
Author's Note: I really enjoyed the narrators in Sita Sings the Blues who sort of struggled to remember how the Ramayana goes from memory. I tried to encapsulated that style of storytelling her using a single narrator who can't remember Lakshmana's name and other details of the story. I decided also to insert opinions about how the characters feel and act like the narrators do in the film. I focused on Lakshmana in the story because he is left out of the majority of the story as it is told in the film and I wanted to fit him into the film's narrative that paints Sita as a victim.
Bibliography:
Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley (2008).
Hi Hannah!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved this story and it was so funny! The different spellings of Lakshmana were hilarious to me, especially Laxman hahah. I never really put much thought into how he just does exactly what he’s told all the time. I completely forgot that he left his own wife in Ayodhya to be Rama’s side kick in the jungle. Overall, great story! I think its been my favorite that I’ve read so far!
Hey Hannah!
ReplyDeleteFun story! I definitely got 'Sita Sings the Blues' narrator vibes from the first paragraph so I was happy to then read that it was the inspiration for the story! I think that it would be really helpful if you set up your narration-style with a sentence in the beginning like "Here is the story of Lakshmana, as told by me..." The informal writing style felt a little weird at points, since the first few sentences didn't start out super informal, so I think that introducing yourself as the narrator early on would be a good way to start the informalities at the very beginning! Overall really fun story and I loved the Sita Sings the Blues inspiration!
Hi, Hannah,
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that Lakshmana was married and left his wife at home while he went on exile with Rama. I agree that it is frustrating to read about how Rama and Sita treat him on exile. Then I remember that Lakshmana's either 25% of Visnu or the incarnation of Shesha, a snake who's job is literally to support Vishnu's body. If I had to choose being bossed around or being sat on, I'd choose bossed around. How can you incorporate Lakshama's god role with his human role to help the reader better understand why Rama and Sita treat him this way and why he is willing to let them treat him this way?
-Eden
Hey Hannah! I love how you were able to write out the feeling behind the story. I found the video quite humorous as I was watching it as they did a great job of providing a human element to the retelling of the story. I think you were able to bring out that element in your writing while still maintaining the original feel of what was going on in the epic.
ReplyDeleteHi Hannah! What a great choice of story telling style. Making a conversational style like this is actually kinda hard (in my opinion). With that said, I am so happy to read this and see how you used the style from the video. Overall, I think you did great and stayed accurate with both the story and style. Well done.
ReplyDeleteHannah, I did not stop cracking up every new time Lakshmana's name was spelled wrong. This story was a great break from some of the more serious stories I've been reading, so thanks for that. Reading this really makes you think about Lakshmana's character. Is he just a loyal brother? Is that enough to really fulfill his life? Even with these being kinda sad questions, your writing keep it funny and easy to read!
ReplyDelete