Ramayana’s Banishment to the Forest, Essay Example

Valmiki’s Ramayana is an Indian epic story that features the primary cultures that establishes the entire value of the Indian religion and traditional origins. For the sake of better literary understanding, this same story has been made available to different generations of readers and learners in different forms. One is more dedicated to the verbal presentation of the story; rather challenging the thinking capacity of each reader into imagining what the narrative actually wants to employ as part of the message of the actual story. Necessarily, this form of the presentation of situations often uses different words in order to play with the idea and the picture that the author wants to share with his target readers.

Another form of presentation that has been produced to make the story even more acceptable to the new generation of readers is the comic-strip designed narrative. This presentation is generally presented with the use of visual presentations of the actual situation suggested in the narrative. While this visual presentation is rather effective in getting the attention of the younger generation of learners and explorers of the story, literary critics tend to be quite adamant about the idea of illustrating every scene in the story as this might not help the readers in furthering the way they imagine the message of the whole narrative.

An important part of the story is Ramayana’s banishment to the forest where he meets several creatures and dealt with several challenges offered by the creatures and the gods altogether in order to survive the desire of seeing his wife again. In the verbal presentation of the narrative, it was evident how the imagery [as suggested through the descriptive words] used in the story intend to help readers ride to the journey themselves; as if imagining how the challenges are faced and what important lessons in life are learned every step of the way.

For instance, Ramayana could be quoted saying:

I have concluded that I had to suffer the consequences of my fate, and, being helpless, I had to endure all of this here at the hands of Ravana’s servant women (page 405 verse 32)

From this particular line, it could be understood that the challenge has already been accepted and that whatever it might result to has already been prepared for. Although the situations may not be as easy to accept, Ramayana’s desire to see his wife was something much stronger than those hardships that he has to undergo in the hands of the superior ones who seem to have much power against him especially in directing him towards the life that he is supposed to lead. Surviving all these challenges marked his capacity to become more effective especially in determining the conditions by which he is to take on his responsibility as the protector and provider of his wife, even amidst the hardest punches of fate on him.

The primary lesson that could be learned from this part of the story could be understood as follows:

A superior person never requites live evil on the part of evil doers with evil. This rule of conduct must always be adhered to. For good conduct is the ornament of the virtuous. (page 405 verse 35)

In this particular line, it could be realized that beyond all the hardships that the challenges carry into the thinking of the main character alongside the values that he  recognizes to be important, he still follows the code of conduct; one that would bring him up even against the most superior creatures in the journey he is taking. Relatively, it could be taken into account that somehow, being evil is never an option in order for one to survive; even when the situation possibly calls for it. This line points out how unresponsive the situation would be, if it would be resolved with negativity. Nothing could be taken from anything that is spurred from negative thinking and actions. As it could be understood, only those who are able to think well are able to function well; in this case, only individuals with the right values are able to survive the challenges of life itself [even the supposedly superficial ones].

While these lessons are real and summative in the verbal presentation of the story, the comic-imagery that was used to represent the other side of the narrative is considered quite weak. Most likely, with the visual elements present in the narrative, readers are attracted to simply interpret the pictures instead of giving a deeper meaning to the words that were used to describe the scenario. Giving attention to the imagery brings the interest of the readers to the ready-interpretation of the narrative rather than thinking about it for themselves thus improving the way they give meaning to the story in par with their own being. True to its sense, while the comic-strip narrative makes it easier to catch the attention of the new age learners, it does not help so much in basically allowing readers the freedom to interpret stories according to their own understanding and experiences. Through this discussion, it could be understood that somehow the comparison between verbal and visual narratives create a different impact on the thinking of the audience, including the interpretation that they have on the overall meaning of the stories presented to them.

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