Week 2: Narayan's Ramayana (pp. 1-89)

Assignments - Reading Guide A - Reading Guide B - Ramayana Resources

Character Essay

Your assignment is to write a Character Essay about one of the characters listed at the bottom of this page. If you want to write on a different character, contact me first (make sure you do that at least one day before the deadline so that you can receive an answer back in time). Each week you can take one of two approaches to writing your Character Essay:

Quotations. If you are doing the traditional analytical essay, you may quote a key phrase or a few words from the text, but do NOT quote anything longer than a few words. The words of the essay should contain your thoughts and ideas, not quotes from the book.

Title. You need to include the words "Character Essay for Week ___" in the title you give to the post, along with a title for your actual story (for example, "Character Essay for Week 2: Rama, My Hero")

Length. Your Storytelling post needs to be a minimum of 300 words long (maximum 1000 words). Make sure you do a spellcheck and a word count, and that you proofread your post by reading it out loud.

Image. You are required to include at least one image with the story, along with a link to the webpage where you found the image, plus information about the image. You are free to re-use the images you find at the course website, or you can choose some other image to use that you find on the internet. Remember: even if you are re-using an image from the course website, you need to provide image information about it.

When you are done, complete the Gradebook Declaration.

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

I have published a blog post with the words "Character Essay for Week ___" in the title, along with a specific title for my essay.

My post is between 300 words minimum and 1000 words maximum.

I have spellchecked and proofread the post.

I have included an image, along with Image Information.

LIST OF CHARACTERS FOR THIS WEEK:

Daśaratha:
Traditional Essay Option: What do you learn about kings from Daśaratha's story? What are the duties and roles of a king? What kind of problems do kings face?
or
Creative Writing + Analysis Option: Retell the story of Daśaratha killing the boy accidentally in the forest - you can do this either as Daśaratha's interior monologue (what are the thoughts he is thinking as he goes home after the incident?) or in the form of a dialogue between Daśaratha and the boys' parents. After you tell your story, don't forget to include some analysis too.

Rama:
Traditional Essay Option: How does Rama exemplify the character of a warrior-hero? What kind of expectations do you have about Rama here at the beginning of his story?
or
Creative Writing + Analysis Option: Imagine the dialogue between Sita and Rama after their wedding when Rama describes to Sita the events that happened when he and Viśvamitra went on their quest together. Choose just one of the adventures that Rama had with Viśvamitra, and imagine how Rama would tell this story to Sita (along with what kinds of questions Sita might ask). After you tell your story, don't forget to include some analysis too.

Viśvamitra:
Traditional Essay Option: What kind of picture do you get of the character of the "sage" from looking at Viśvamitra (you might also want to compare/contrast Viśvamitra to the other sages you have met so far in the reading: Agastya, Kapila, Gautama, etc.)
or
Creative Writing + Analysis Option: Focus on the moment when Visvmitra is on his way to the court of Daśaratha. What are Viśvamitra's thoughts about the immediate situation? about Rama? about the future? Why is this moment important to him? After you tell your story, don't forget to include some analysis too.

Kaikeyi:
Traditional Essay Option: What kind of wife is Kaikeyi for Daśaratha? (you might also want to compare/contrast Kaikeyi to the other wives you have met so far in the reading, such as Kausalya or Ahalya)
or
Creative Writing + Analysis Option: Focus on the moment when Kaikeyi is waiting for Daśaratha's arrival in the kopa gruha. What are her thoughts? What does she expect to happen? What are her thoughts about the immediate future? about the distant future? After you tell your story, don't forget to include some analysis too.

Modern Languages MLLL-4993. Indian Epics. Laura Gibbs, Ph.D. The textual material made available at this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License. You must give the original author credit. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. No claims are made regarding the status of images used at this website; if you own the copyright privileges to any of these images and believe your copyright privileges have been violated, please contact the webmaster. Page last updated: January 15, 2005 1:35 AM