The Monkey Man
I was really inspired to write my story plan based off of Sugriva and Hanuman. After reading the
story it made me realize how important animals and their presence is in the
Hindu culture. Animals represents power and growth and it intrigued me. Below
are a few guidelines as to how I can approach my story.
Long ago in a land far, far away lived a couple in a
city known as Mumbai. The couple had two sons, named Vali and Sugriva who were
very nice, well-mannered boys. They were well known among community members and
was always willing to help other people with tasks. Sugriva was the younger
brother and always looked up to Sugriva as a role model, a confidant and a leader.
He wanted to be just like his brother when he grew up, but little did he know
that things will turn out very badly. Many years passed and Vali and Sugriva’s
parents passed away. Vali became possessed by the evil goddess named Kali
(literally meaning demon) when she promised him that he could have all the
powers he wanted, only if he would help her out with a few chores. Of course,
Vali, being a kind-hearted person, agreed to help Kali. It is at this point in
time that things turned out for the worse. Kali convinced the older brother to
kidnap Sugriva’s fiancé, because she had a sacred Hindu gemstone that Kali
needed desperately. Sugriva realized the brother’s evil plan and took his fiancé
to flee to the forest where he knew he would be protected. Unfortunately
Sugriva was not able to protect Yamai (his fiancé) and she was soon captured by
the evil demon’s slaves.
One day, Vali roamed through the forest and heard the
voice of two men. He was scared that it was the demon’s slaves who came back to
find him, and having many powers, he quickly turned himself into a monkey. I
can go into detail to describe the monkey – four feet tall, dark, long, brown
hair and big eyes. Two more characters will now be introduced and it is these
two characters who is in search of Vali to lead them to the monkey chief to
help them with their problems. The reader’s attention can now be turned to a different
scene in the story. Possibly a beautiful, gold castle, where they will meet
chief Hanuman.
I can end the story on a happy ending where both parties involved found what they were looking for. They remained friends for life and visited with one another quite often. I am not quite sure how I want to end my story, so more focus will have to be placed on this.
Link to Ramayana Public Domain Part C
Author's Note: My story is based off of the Ramayana PDE- Sugriva and Hanuman. I decided to change the story line and start it off as a sweet family who lived happily in a town and then one of the brothers turned out to be a bad person. Character names and roles were also reversed and their forms of power has changed as well.
Wow this sounds like a very interesting story! I like that you are focusing on the animal-people. They are really unique characters and I don't think they get enough attention in the Ramayana. Hanuman really saved the day helping Rama out, but he doesn't really get any of the fame from it. I bet your story will be really good! I will have to come back to your blog and read it when it is done!
ReplyDeleteHi Vera! I haven’t done a story planning yet but I really liked yours! I love how you incorporated the importance of animals to the Hindu culture into your story. You definitely got me hooked when you said that Vali turned himself into a monkey! I was so eager to read what happened next so I’ll definitely be on the lookout for your stories in the coming weeks! It was a little confusing however with all of the characters names so what if there was a more defined introduction of all of the characters? Also, maybe go into more detail about how Sugriva finds out that his brother has an evil plan because I wondered how he knew. I don’t know if this is childish of me but what if there were more pictures throughout your story? It would add more flow to the story I think. Here are some more questions I wondered: What happened to the relationship between the two brothers? Does Vali feel bad about Yamai? Is he going to try and get her back since he has a lot of powers? That’d be a cool happy ending!
ReplyDeleteOverall though I think your story is going to be awesome!!
Wow, I also wanted to base my story off Sugriva and Hanuman as well in my story! In my story, I ended up fitting Hanuman in even though he did not fit the setting too well. When I first started reading some of these Indian epics and stories, I wondered why there was such wide use of animals as main characters and actors to the stories. When researching the subject similar to you said, they represent power and growth, which is something that I would not usually correlate with them. I do like reading stories where animals or other objects having human characteristics because I feel like it really mixes up the reality that we are used to. I do agree with Mariah that there are some characters that we are not too familiar with so maybe some type of introduction into those characters might be helpful. I am interested to see where this story may go and possibly your other ones as well. Great job overall!
ReplyDeleteI really like how you explored the relationship between Sugriva and Vali and sort of took their story into your own hands. This sort of storytelling offers a lot more flexibility to the author so it’s really cool to know that the story you write is going to be a lot of original ideas. I would love to read the story when you write it. This seems like an awesome premise and plan!
ReplyDeleteVera, I really like the plan that you have created for your story about Sugriva, Vali and Hanuman. These were some of my favorite characters in the Ramayana and Hanuman even plays in the Mahabharata. So I believe the story that you will produce based off this will be great. The animals play a huge role in Hindu culture, so it is great that you are looking to make sure they do in your story.
ReplyDelete