Week 4 Reading Diary B: Buck's Ramayana

(pgs. 60-109)

This part of the book focused more on Rama than in the beginning. Buck really emphasized on Rama's bravery throughout the journey. Kaikeyi seems to be really annoying and kind of manipulative? She tried to convince that there would be disaster if Rama becomes king and but I guess it wasn't her fault since she was the servant of Manthara and her mind was being controlled. She was the reason for Rama's exile and Rama did oppose of it, even though he was nice enough to convince his father not to be angry with Kaikeyi. The actions of Kaikeyi does not bother me as much just because I'm not really a fan of Rama, even though the books are based on his journey and he is the protagonist and known to be the brave god. I don't like the way Rama treats Sita. I don't think their love is fair and he still doubts Sita's love when she has done nothing but loyal to him. Even though he saves her, he still questions her purity. I have talked about this numerous times in my past posts how I feel about their relationship.

The people in the city of Ayodha seemed really supportive of Rama during his exile, the animals were helpful and were a big part of Rama's journey. The death of Dasharatha was pretty sad and he probably feels bad for killing the boy. The ending part of was miserable and how he relates to the death of the boy to his son, although he could have died because he taught Kaikeyi the language of animals when he was not suppose to, so maybe karma on him? It was still sad that he died though, even though he was easily manipulated by Kaikeyi. This part of the story really emphasized the antagonist character of Kaikeyi. I actually enjoyed reading the bad behaviors of these characters.

(Brave Rama) Source: Rama