Indian Epics

For this week I read: The Bull That Demanded Fair Treatment, The Bull that Proved His Gratitude, Horse that Held Out to the End, The Monkey that Saved the Herd, The Mallard that Asked for Too Much, The Merchant Who Overcame All Obstacles, The Elephant that Was Honored in Old Age, and The Faithful Friend.  In The Bull That Demanded Fair Treatment, the common theme of the importance of respectful treatment of all living things is shown. This theme is consistent in most stories, and is usually only acceptably broken when the object of disrespect has compromised their own personal integrity in some way. Again in this story, the main character traits were played out through dialogue, either to the self or to other characters in the story. In The Bull that Proved His Gratitude, a similar story comes about - there is a bull treated very well, he wants to make a living for his owner, he pulls some heavy things, and in the end is rewarded by further adoration from his owner. T...

I tend to enjoy the tales that are more dialogue heavy. A lot of the authors rewriting these ancient stories are really able to convey the attitudes of the characters through dialogue. These tales have the main purpose of conveying a lesson, and the attitudes of the key players especially are crucial for the reader to understand the intended lesson. For example, in The Hare that Ran Away , one of the lessons learned from the story is the danger of unchecked rumors, and the panic they can cause. In the end of the tale, the Lion leads the Hare to the original source of her fear, and it is crucial that she is the one at the end of the story telling all of the other animals she raised a false alarm. I also read an alternate version of The Monkey and the Crocodile , in which the Monkey outwitted the Crocodile trying to get to his heart by saying Monkeys kept their hearts on trees to keep them from being harmed while swinging between trees. In the version I first heard, the Crocodile had t...

The story of Savitri had a great affect on me this week because of her strength, and ability to know what she wanted from life. When she was presented with situations that she did not like, she accepted what was inevitable, but knew her own power and what she was able to accomplish, and used it. I loved the style of writing throughout the story (enough to buy the whole book on Amazon), because all of the descriptions were about the relationships between characters or what they were feeling. There are definitely some beautiful stories that have a lot of detail poured into the surroundings and the background to set up a better mental image, but the relational writing here was beautiful. This depiction of Savitri following her husband into the woods spoke to me because she did not try to plead or prevent what she knew was inevitable, but she did everything she could to deal with it when it happened.  Bibliography:  Devee, M. S. (1970, January 01). Nine ideal Indian Wo...

Here is the link for my Portfolio:  https://sites.google.com/view/exploringtheepicsofindia/home?authuser=0 Thank you to everyone who leaves a comment!

Looking Back: I have not been doing a good job keeping up with all of the posts I need to be doing, and I need to reassess my schedule so that I can be sure to get everything out of this class that it has to offer. I am happy with the writing I have done so far - I don't have a lot of chances to creatively write, and I've never considered it my strong suit, so some of the writing I've done for this class shows me that I can evolve my writing style. Looking Forward: I want to have more fun with this class - it's unlike any class I've even taken and I would like to put it in a different spot in my schedule so that I can run with it. I chose this image because the original Wonder Woman was such an inspiration to me growing up. I was very timid when I was younger, and my mom would always tell me to take a Wonder Woman stance like the one above when I was nervous about something. Other than literally helping your mind to feel less scared and promote confidence ...

Feedback In: I'm finding all of the comments left for me very helpful, but I especially appreciate the ones that leave constructive criticism or ask questions. I want to use this class to grow in my creative writing abilities, so the ones that give me the chance to really look at what I wrote from a different point of view, or answer a question that didn't originally occur to me, are much appreciated.  Feedback Out: I have not given out a lot of feedback, something that I am going to change in the rest of the semester. Just from the comments left for me on the writing I've done, I can see how helpful feedback from other students can be, and I want to help others in the same way they've helped me. Blog Comments: I feel as though my Introduction gives a pretty good picture of who I am, although reading through it I did notice that my writing tone is still a bit impersonal. Especially for a post like that, the intent was to let your personality shine through while ...

Overall throughout the semester, I've greatly enjoyed the reading assignments. All of the stories are fascinating, with dynamic characters that are sometimes absent a lot of folklore. Many times, characters in myths and legends are typecast and really have only a few defining personality traits, but the characters in these Indian Epics are dynamic, and show growth and the ability to learn and improve through experience and reflection. They definitely all have defining characteristics, but that does not necessarily mean they are static. I struggle more with the creative writing aspect of the course - while I appreciate that it helps me to stretch my creative wings, it is more difficult for me to create content that I am happy with, especially in the shadow of such incredible stories. The image I've included is actually one that I made - I'm most proud of it because that was the moment I saw the potential for humor in the writing. I included it in the story of the Crocodile a...