Girl Power

Sita’s Ramayana is the title of the graphic novel that we will be discussing next which, if I may, exceeded my expectations as it focuses on a woman’s perspective during time of war by switching to Sita’s point of view Ramayana is the original story in which Prince Rama, who is Sita’s husband, and Sita along with Lakshmana are exiled from the kingdom of Ayodhya for fourteen years, so they end up living in the forest. One day, while Rama and Lakshmana are away, Ravana, the king of Lanka sees Sita alone and wants her for himself, so he decides to kidnap her. Soon after, war is declared in hopes of defeating Ravana, and Rama and Lakshmana get the help of the monkeys and Hanuman is their leader.

Having said that, the most important part of the story is when Sita is questioned about her virtue for having been with Ravana for so long. Rama doesn’t trust Sita, so by the end of the story, she makes a very important decision, and through her experience, is able to show what women undergo during the time of war, something that is very well depicted with graphics and words. It is important to note that both function as an additive combination, like McCloud puts it in Understanding Comics, where they elaborate one another. Some panels need the help of images to get the message just right, and sometimes it’s the graphics that need the help of words.

The text box on the panel above is over what seems to be the blood of Ravana, and Sita observes the chaos, she says “They would be queens no more, and their people had met death on the battlefield - for what? For one man’s desire. Men had been killed, widowed and children orphaned. It was such a high price to pay.” Even though women aren’t the ones who go into battle, they still are gravely affected, and perhaps more than men because men either die or gain victory.

This next panel is also astonishing because Sita is in the middle of flames, but don’t worry, she doesn't get hurt. In my opinion, they make her seem stronger and undefeatable, but here too, she is upset and says that “ instead of love, [she] found suspicion, [and] Instead of justice, [she] met with false accusation and distrust,” for having been kidnapped, something that she had no control over. She was left alone in the forest, and taken by Ravana as an object, and somehow, she still the bad guy. Also, notice how every letter of every word is capitalized. I think that is really neat as it represents her rage.

Now, the moment that I’ve been dying to get to, but I had to explain everything before getting to this point, the part where Sita does something for herself. After the defeat of Ravana and having been questioned about her virtue twice, Sita has no other option but to leave, and she is PREGNANT. The time to meet the father unexpectedly reaches Sita and her son Lava, but may I clarify that there is another child identical to Lava whose name is Kusha and was created by Valmiki, a friend of Sita’s, out of kusha grass. The two sons meet their father Rama, and he wants to take everyone back including Sita, but in the panel above, we can see that she refuses and says “Let me go. Take care of our children. Having gained a father, they now lose a mother. You must be both to them” all in caps once again. Sita is tired of treatment she has received by Rama and society for questioning her virtue after suffering at Ravana’s. In this very moment, Sita is done with everything and leaves. She didn’t want to leave her children, but she had to teach Rama a lesson, and that had to take strength.