Skip to main content

The Strength and Resilience of Sita

By Anonymous


Have you ever heard of the Sanskrit epic Ramayana? I had never heard of this legendary tale until reading Sita's Ramayana. In the original Indian epic, a prince named Rama is exiled from his kingdom for 14 years. It details his experiences during his exile and his return to the throne. Sita's Ramayana is unique because it is a retelling of the original in the point of view of Rama's wife. As a reader, this graphic novel was a great stepping stone for understanding the epic while still maintaining its authenticity. I would highly recommend reading the graphic novel before reading the actual epic because it is appeals to a wider audience and is easier to digest as a whole. While researching the origins of this text, I slowly began to realize just how iconic and sacred the Ramayana is to the culture it belongs to. I feel like Sita's Ramayana is able to provide that sense of significance to the general public. Especially in America, many people are ignorant of cultures that differ from their own. I think Samhita Arni was trying to share this rich piece of literature from her culture to those who are completely unaware of it. The illustrations were done in such a unique style. I found myself staring at each page intently, taking in all the details of each brush stroke and color used. The art paired very well with the story because it paralleled the intricacy of each respective medium. In fact, the illustrator is a scroll painter, which suits the historical significance of the piece so seamlessly. On the other hand, the facial expressions of the characters are very simplistic. It reminds me of a concept that Scott McCloud addressed in his work, Understanding Comics. In the second chapter, McCloud discusses iconic abstraction, and how if something is simplified enough, it becomes an expression that can be universally understood. This directly supports the Arni's purpose of trying to shape her story to a broader range of people.

 I think the message that Sita's Ramayana is trying to send is about the strength of women. In the original epic, the character of Sita was portrayed more as a one-dimensional damsel in distress. In Arni's retelling, Sita is a strong-willed, passionate woman who fights for her place in the world. This is a message that can be applicable to many people today. It is something that all oppressed groups can relate to. Being made out to be submissive, powerless, and in need of rescuing is how women have been depicted in film, literature, and art for centuries. Sita's Ramayana breaks these norms and proves that women can still come out stronger than ever despite the hardships that they may face. This modern version of the original epic made me proud to be a woman, as well as allowing me to know that what may seem like a weakness to the world is actually a strength for many. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Junji Ito and the Art of the Uncanny

By Anonymous
As discussed in Chapter 2 of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics , the Japanese style of comic book art holds several notable quirks. While early manga artists tended to favor simplistic, yet distinct styles that paved the way for a number of internationally renowned characters, contemporary manga artists have since favored a hybrid style that juxtaposes the cutesy, rounded characters of yesteryear with the realistic and richly shaded settings that have since become popular. Building on this, McCloud describes a phenomenon in which Japanese comic artists have used realism to objectify--that is, to emphasize the "otherness" of certain characters, objects, or places--elements of their work and further separate these elements from the reader. I have chosen the work of one of my favorite comic artists, Japanese horror icon Junji Ito, to further illustrate McCloud's point. Though McCloud describes this phenomenon in the context of Japanese comic book art, he is usi...
1 comment
Read more

The Two Faces of Anarchy in V for Vendetta

By Anonymous
As someone who has only seen the movie version of V for Vendetta once many years ago and have never read the graphic novel, I wasn’t exactly sure how similar or different the movie version would be to the graphic novel. I was in for a surprise when I discovered just how vastly different, they are from each other. With that being said, they do have some similarities when strictly looking at the motives of the characters. Let’s dive into those motives and how the author and illustrator of V for Vendetta achieved getting these motives across to their readers. In Scott McCloud’s chapter of Understanding Comics “ Blood in the Gutter ” we are presented with different panel – to – panel transitions, and an introduction to the term “gutter” as being the white space between the panels which is where the audience of reader “takes two separate images and transforms them into a single idea” (McCloud, 66). After finishing reading V for Vendetta , several themes or ideas that were most prevalent...
Post a Comment
Read more

Maus: A New Type of Nonfiction

By Anonymous
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the nonfiction genre is the biography. A thick book full of pages about the life of a specific individual. Barely any visual aids, if any, and a monotonous voice throughout that makes these great to fall asleep to. In summation, I had a very rigid and bland view on the nonfiction genre before reading Maus by Art Spiegelman . This graphic novel is so entertaining that it was hard for me to believe that it is nonfiction. I did not think that nonfiction books could be anything but a glamorized version of a textbook. However, Spiegelman was able to prove everyone that nonfiction was not such an inflexible genre, and could tell a story instead of simply informing.   He incorporated many other creative elements to make his story different from all the other Holocaust tales in existence. Firstly, by making the characters animals, he adds a somewhat otherworldly aspect to this retelling of his own father's experiences. I think t...
Post a Comment
Read more