“It’s late summer now, we have been out here in the wilderness for 13 years. I know that I chose to come myself in support of my brother, but I am so ready to be home. This has been a long hard road we have traveled on, and without Sita here to help boost our mentalities, our weeks seem much longer. Sita has been gone for a four years now. Four years! Why did I leave her? Why did I listen to her that day? This is all my fault. But I am sure we will find her” Laka writes in his journal. He wanted to get his thoughts out of his head for the first time in a while because he felt they were eating at him. He continued in his journal, “We met the monkey king Sugriva this last year and his faithful friend Kong has given us shelter and food. We have been thankful for our time in their home, without it, I would have felt like I could have died. But even while we are here we are still on the search, doing whatever we can to find Sita. Sugriva sent scouts, multitudes of his people to find Sita. We have been anxious to here from them, all groups are supposed to be back today”.
Laka finished writing as he heard the horns blasting in the distance, the scouts had returned. He ran out of his room to the city walls to see the group as they came in. Climbing over the walls and rushing over the gates the Eastern scouts returned with no news. In the distance the North scouts could be seen merging with the West scouts. As they came in they brought no word of Sita. Laka’s heart dropped. He was loosing hope of ever finding her. His brother was looking confident, “We will find her” he said to Laka, giving him hope. Even though his heart was heavier than Laka’s could ever be, “the South has not come back yet”. It was true, there was no news of the Southern scouts yet.
Three hours had past and it was getting dark, and still no word of the Southern scouts. “Look” shouted a guard on the wall, “Kong is returning”.
Laka was looking around the ground confused. “Where is he? I see nothing”
“Look up” yelled the guard to Laka. Looking up, Laka was stunned, he saw Kong the giant ape seemingly flying through the air to the city. He had heard myths of Kong the flying monkey but never believed them, and now he was seeing it with his own eyes. Though Kong could not claim that he could fly but instead that he could only jump 10’s of miles at a time. As Laka was watching him come in closer and closer to the city he was baffled at him coming in.
Kong landed at the city walls and walked to the King Sugriva and Rama he said to them, “I have found her”.
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The Burning of Lanka
Sources used: M. Dutt, R. Dutt, Gould, Griffith, Hodgson, Mackenzie, Nivedita, Oman, Richardson, and Ryder
Authors note:
For my story I wanted to continue to look at it in the eyes of Lakshmana. So I wanted to make the majority of the story in this point of view. I decided to change some names because, since I started hearing about Hanuman, I have thought that he was like King Kong, so I wanted to reflect that in my story and also to make it just a little more exciting. I wanted to end it with a cliff hanger, because that is one of my favorite things that authors and films do.
What a great story! I like that you mentioned in the story how many years had passed. When I was reading the Ramayana, I found it hard to believe that the story was supposed to take place over fourteen years. It was also a great twist reading it from a different persons perspective rather than always hearing through Rama or Sita's perspectives! Great work!
ReplyDeleteTyler - I loved how you changed the viewpoint to focus on this story through Lakshmana’s eyes, and like Sydney said, it really is crazy to think about how much time had passed throughout this story. It was really good of you to highlight that fact! I had the same thought about Hanuman’’s likeness to King Kong when he transformed to become larger. Great story!
ReplyDeleteTyler,
ReplyDeleteI loved your perception of Hanuman as King Kong. That is so funny! Now, I can see that thinking back to the story where Hanuman is able to transform himself. I also like the picture that you used, as you were able to tie that into your story. Taking this story into Lakshmana's perspective was a great twist, and I enjoyed every bit of it! Nice job!
Good job Tyler! I love that you wrote the story through Lakshmana's eyes. I hadn't even thought of that, but it'd be interesting to see more about how he felt. It's easy for people to not think of anyone except the main characters, but they wouldn’t be who they are without the people around them. I was kind of sad the story was left as a cliff hanger though.
ReplyDeleteMariah Butler
I liked your storytelling style, and I liked the different perspective you took on this story. I didn’t think twice about what Lakshamana was thinking during this entire exile at all! I enjoyed reading your take on his thoughts, and I thought it was a wonderful and interesting addition you made to change Hanuman to Kong in reference to King Kong. The cliffhanger was left perfectly and on an interesting note, and I hope you are able to continue on!
ReplyDeleteTyler,
ReplyDeleteI also chose the burning of Lanka for my version of the story. Maybe where you end the sentence with “But I am sure we will find her. Laka writes in his journal” in your first paragraph, you can start a new paragraph with “He wanted to get…” That can serve as an introduction to your reader. I enjoyed reading your post and the twist that you gave to it made it very different – good job!
Nice spin off. The first person perspective of Lakshmana as for your story was very good. I too used him as the main character in one of my writings. I had a good mental image of everything that was happening in your story, and the way you described Kong jumping so high it was almost like flying caught my attention, in a good way. I enjoyed how you described that in that way.
ReplyDelete