Week 6 Storytelling: Hanuman the Cat

"Lanka is so beautiful! Look at the white sand and freshly green hills. This place is absolutely gorgeous and the flowers near the bright blue rivers are breathtaking! I cannot believe that Ravana lives here but I must destroy it all! Ravana had abducted my best friend's wife and now Rama is devastated over Sita's disappearance. Ravana had ruin our lives and now I must cause trouble in his kingdom, but how would I do it without being notice? I need to find a way to reach Sita first! I have to tell her that Rama is looking for her and to not lose faith in him! I need to meet her so she can tell me what to do."

"Hmm.. I know I will disguise myself as a cat! If they see me, a cat roams free at night, and may explore wherever he is curious to go. I will begin to shape-shift myself into long-haired cat!"

*transforming into a cat*
Hanuman now realizes that he has turned into a cat.

"Oh wow, look at me! Look at my tail and my fur is so long! Oh and the vision! I can see better in the dark, this is amazing! Now, no time to waste admiring my beautiful self, I must go find Sita!"

Hanuman runs as fast as he can to enter Lanka but he was eventually stopped. Hanuman started to think about what it will be like if Rama and Sita found each other. The two would be so happy and all Hanuman wanted was for Rama to be happy.

"In my head I kept thinking about Rama and Sita.. oh how happy will they be when they find each other. I am running as fast as I can.. oh wait what is that in front of me? A woman?"

"You cannot enter me you little cat!" said the dark-haired woman. "I am Lanka and ruled by the hands of Ravana!" said Lanka. She kicked Hanuman. Hanuman was furious, this woman was not going to let him enter.

I cannot believe this woman just kicked me! I have to find Sita so I'm going to punch her!

Finally I have entered into Lanka, now where is Sita? I see Pushpaka and his fly chariot but where oh where is Sita?! I know.. maybe she is in Ravana's bedroom!

As Hanuman rushes into Ravana's bedroom, he was hoping to find Sita in there but instead she was nowhere to be found. He looked at Ravana's miserable wives...

"Oh these poor women.." he said. "But where is Sita?! Where is Sita?!"

Rama and Hanuman's friendship: Best Buddies

Author's Note: I decided to make a story of Hanuman's experience as a cat. I did put a lot of dialogue and narrated a few sentences just to show Hanuman's thoughts. I thought Hanuman becoming a cat was significant in the book because he was clever enough to transform himself to get into Lanka. Hanuman knew that he would never be able to get into Ravana's lair if he remained his personal imagine so he thought a cat was a good disguise. In the book, Hanuman said a cat was able to roam free at night and can quickly move around. I decided to add some descriptions of him being a cat and how he was able to get pass Lanka. In addition to his experience, I added how important it was for him to find Sita. His mission was to find her and let her know that Rama is here to save her. Throughout the story I indicated the importance of finding Sita as well as him picturing what it wouls be like if Rama and Sita had found each other. I stated his thoughts in the beginning of the story how Rama was his best friend and the importance of their friendship. Throughout the story Hanuman was concentrated in finding Sita, he was loyal to Rama and knew what his mission was. For my picture, I noticed there were a lot of cat pictures of Hanuman and even though my story was about Hanuman as a cat I wanted to add a different picture. I found one of Rama and Hanuman and thought it was a good painting of their friendship so I chose that one instead.

Bibliography: William Buck, Ramayana 1976

Week 6 Reading Diary B: More of Buck's Ramayana

p. 270-324

Here comes Rama to the rescue! Finally after Hanuman's message and report back about Sita. Rama is angry and enraged. He wants to fight Ravana himself and bring back his love. This is another exciting and intense part of the book but now it is all about Rama. Throughout his journey to get Sita, Rama encounters a lot of problems because well Ravana is trying to stop him. So Ravana would ask help from his brothers and son to help defeat Rama and his army. Of course, all of them failed and Rama was able to win all the battles. Even Ravana's magicians and giant couldn't stop Rama.

The part of where Rama die was really intense, I mean how could he die?! He's the main character but Hanuman was able to save him and the others with medicine from the Medicine Hill. I mean.. how important is Hanuman's character? Without him everyone will still be dead and Rama would never be able to slay Ravana and get Sita back! Another important character was Ravava's good brother Vibhishana. He refused to help Ravana and tried to convince him to let Sita go but Ravana wouldn't listen and instead used his son and lost Indrajit. Poor Indrajit... I thought he was a good son for wanting to help his father fight. Although he tried to get rid of Rama and his army, he wanted to help his father. But it sure didn't stop Ravana from backing down the fight, instead he is even more angry and wants to fight Rama himself. Why doesn't Ravana just let Sita go?! He already lost his son.. but Ravana is so full of pride he cannot lose. It is pretty sad that Ravana cried when Indrajit died.. kind of revealed that Ravana has somewhat a heart? He did care for his son enough to cry about it and now he feels revengeful.

I think this is probably the most intense part of Ramayana. Rama is such a hero being able to slaughter all these demons and gods in order to get his love back, but without his friends he would have never succeed. I think that is one of the most important significance is "teamwork" without a team you can't do anything a lone. Without Hanuman and the others, Rama would never be able to slay Ravana's allies.

Killing of Indrajit: Rama slays Indrajit

Week 6 Reading Diary A: More of Buck's Ramayana

p. 219-270

This is probably one of the most interesting part of Buck's Ramayana because it focuses on the character of Hanuman. Rama had sent Hanuman to search for Sita and he had quite a few adventures while searching for Sita. First, Hanuman gets swallowed by the sea demon and what was interesting was that Hanuman was able to shape-shift into different animals. He turned himself into a cat so that he can free himself from the sea demon. The story goes on with Lanka transforming into Hanuman's character and him being able to find Sita towards the end and sends a message. Hanuman then goes and cause some problems in Ravana's household.

I thought this section of Ramayana was a spotlight for Hanuman's character. Not only did Hanuman showed his loyal friendship to Rama by helping him find Sita but he went through a lot of trouble in order to find Sita. However, the adventures Hanuman faced were interesting, he was a clever monkey, knowing that Ravana was angry for what he did in Lanka, he was able to break himself free when Ravana wanted to set his tail on fire. I also thought it was really sad when Sita cried when she saw Hanuman, she didn't think he was real because in a way she kind of lost hope Rama might be able to save her? Until she spot Hanuman, it gave her some hope back and she left Hanuman her pearl to let Rama know her whereabouts. I wished Hanuman could have figured out some way to save Sita instead of sending a message. Maybe like the two of them figure out a way to escape from Ravana's lair or like a smart plan to trick Ravana, but since the Ramayana focused on Rama. I could see the story was saved for the character of Rama and how "he" will be the one to save Sita. That was the main point of the story was Rama saving Sita.

Hanuman also tells Rama that Sita remains faithful to him and that added more suspense to the story because now Rama is more determined than ever to rescue Sita. I really liked this part of Ramayana just because it highlighted the heroic deeds of Hanuman and the book revealed what a great character he was.

Sita wants Hanuman to send a message: Hanuman