Week 5 Story: A Letter to Rama
My dearest Rama,
It seems like yet again, fate is pulling us apart. You are the love of my life and I have known this since the moment we first laid eyes on each other. It is rare to come across something so beautiful in this life. You are my moon, my stars, you have my heart. Though I have said these words to you, have shown my devotion to you time and time again, you have cast me away. I am aware a king must hold himself to higher standards than a common man, but I know not what I have done to deserve such disdain. There is and never has been any room in my heart for anyone besides you. I am the mother of your children, your queen, Sita. Do not forget that when you ask me to prove myself. I do have my own virtue to uphold, you know.
I am writing you this letter as a final statement of my love. I pray that it reaches your ears, your heart, whatever it may be. I hope you are impacted in any capacity. I have heard your request to have me undergo another trial and I will abide by your wishes, but on my terms. This endless cycle is humiliating and degrading. I will once again prove my love to you by returning back to mother earth's womb. This will be my final attempt to prove my devotion. You will not be able to stop me, though I don't think you will anyway. You once loved me, I hope you will understand once I have returned to the soil that I have been true to you and you alone. It is a shame a love as great as ours will have to end like this, but I think this is the way it must be. If I can get through to you, then this will be worth it. With this, you will know my feelings are pure.
Yours truly,
Sita
Author's Note: For this, I pulled inspiration from the ending of Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley for this one. I enjoyed her creativity with her own retelling of The Ramayana, I wanted to try something different with my story for the week. I thought it would be interesting to have Sita confront Rama about all of the wack purity tests in a letter form, so I did that. Just did something short this week to talk about Sita's perspective on her feelings for her husband.
It seems like yet again, fate is pulling us apart. You are the love of my life and I have known this since the moment we first laid eyes on each other. It is rare to come across something so beautiful in this life. You are my moon, my stars, you have my heart. Though I have said these words to you, have shown my devotion to you time and time again, you have cast me away. I am aware a king must hold himself to higher standards than a common man, but I know not what I have done to deserve such disdain. There is and never has been any room in my heart for anyone besides you. I am the mother of your children, your queen, Sita. Do not forget that when you ask me to prove myself. I do have my own virtue to uphold, you know.
I am writing you this letter as a final statement of my love. I pray that it reaches your ears, your heart, whatever it may be. I hope you are impacted in any capacity. I have heard your request to have me undergo another trial and I will abide by your wishes, but on my terms. This endless cycle is humiliating and degrading. I will once again prove my love to you by returning back to mother earth's womb. This will be my final attempt to prove my devotion. You will not be able to stop me, though I don't think you will anyway. You once loved me, I hope you will understand once I have returned to the soil that I have been true to you and you alone. It is a shame a love as great as ours will have to end like this, but I think this is the way it must be. If I can get through to you, then this will be worth it. With this, you will know my feelings are pure.
Yours truly,
Sita
Author's Note: For this, I pulled inspiration from the ending of Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley for this one. I enjoyed her creativity with her own retelling of The Ramayana, I wanted to try something different with my story for the week. I thought it would be interesting to have Sita confront Rama about all of the wack purity tests in a letter form, so I did that. Just did something short this week to talk about Sita's perspective on her feelings for her husband.
Sita Goddess Poster (Flickr)
Short and sweet, but I really like it! I also watched "Sita Sings the Blues" and was blown away. I think you captured Sita's emotions in the scene that you pulled inspiration from perfectly here. I love that you emphasized that she could maintain her loyalty and virtue whilst also returning to her roots, quite literally, on her own terms. Your letter in pointing that out made me realize that by this act, while it still seems unfair that on earth she seemed to be a puppet and a scapegoat for everyone else's pressure and gossip, that this surprising ending was actually quite a liberating scene for Sita to break away from those chains. I kept wondering why Nina Paley chose the paper-doll looking characters, but I have come to think that her choice of style throughout the three different types of animation was meant to be symbolic. What a great choice of an event to zoom in on through this letter!
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you gave Sita some empowerment and made her strong like she was standing up to Rama. Throughout the movie she seemed to beg Rama to take her back after she was kidnapped and he constantly doubted and denied her. What were her feelings when she was put through the trial by fire? What did she think about his consideration to take her back only after learning about the twins? I think something maybe you could have included to make it a little bit longer would have been her refusal to do a trial by water as he suggested. She was tired of the way he treated her so it was her choice to return to mother earth. Overall I loved how different this approach was to the story of Sita. I think it gave her a little bit more power than she is portrayed in the stories.
ReplyDeleteHey Ryeli! I really enjoyed reading your story about Sita affirming her love for Rama. I really enjoyed that you wrote the story using a letter, and I'm glad that you had Sita confront Rama about all of the ridiculous purity tests he made her endure. I thought it was interesting that she didn't argue against Rama's tests much, though she didn't want to continue repeatedly doing them.
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