On the evening of December 24th, Jessica and her fiancé Jimmy were headed to the grocery store to pick-up a Christmas ham. Jessica, not wanting to face the bitter cold, waited in their worn-down suburban as her husband braved the night to retrieve the ham. Sitting in the lonely lit parking lot Jessica power locked the doors. She felt unnerving to be alone.
The next thing Jessica remembers is waking up in a speeding white van with three large men surrounding her. Kicking and screaming for her husband and her life Jessica did not understand what was happening. She had been kidnapped! Snatched right out of her own car, while her husband was inside grocery shopping. For thirty days and thirty nights Jimmy search for his wife. He put her image on every street corner and every television station. Everyone told Jimmy to give up, she was gone.
On the thirty-first day Jessica escaped from her captors and ran screaming for help. She found herself in the arms of warm and loving people who quickly notified authorities. "We've seen you on T.V. you know?" They said, "your husband is all over the news search for you." Jessica's heart swelled with hope. During her imprisonment she never once doubted her husband had sought after her. She prayed to him, that she would return to him and now it looked as though everything would work out!
Jessica was taken to the Police Headquarters and given warm blankets and hot coffee. A young police woman took her into her office and questioned her about the circumstance. The questions started very informatively. "Where were you abducted? How many people were in the van?" The policewoman asked. Jessica supplied the best answers she could, but her memory was weak from the whole experience. Not satisfied with her answers, the policewoman started pressing harder for answers, "Why did you not fight harder? Why did you let this happen?" Perplexed Jessica began to cry, why was she being treated this way! They are making it seem like it is her fault!
 |
| Mother and Twins Monument (Saunders 1857) |
"I'm so cold and lost." Jessica weeped. She thought to herself if only she hadn't left Jimmy's side she wouldn't be in this mess.
Author's Note:
My story was based on a series of Ramayana episodes. Once Sita is rescued from Lanka she is accused of consorting with Ravana, her captor. Even though we as the audience know that she kept her purity, Rama cannot be certain. When they return to Ahyodiah and Rama becomes king he quickly rids himself of Sita, because Rama's subjects think that she is impure and thus they do not respect him. Rama chooses to gain public approval rather than be by his wife's side. When I was writing my story I kept this anger inside. I was very angry at Rama for the decision he made. He basically ruined Sita's life and all the while she kept praising him. I wanted the story I wrote to reflect a modern version of the Ramayana. In my version, Jessica (Sita) was captured and her captors were not as nice as Ravana. They did not ask for Jessica's permission to have sexual intercourse with her. I think the Ramayana is strange in that the character Ravana is a evil character, but he does not do many evil things (other than steal Sita and lock her away). When Jessica returns home she is battered by questions from the police and from her husband and soon she finds herself without anyone. I hope Jessica will not continue to praise Jimmy... he is an ass. Instead, I hope that Jessica can find her own way and raise two children that will be better than their father was. Again, we see this strange thing in the Ramayana where Sita continues to praise the man who banished her and sent her to the forest... pregnant!
Bibliography:
Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley. Question Copyright.Public Domain Version http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/
Christian, great story. I think you did a really good job of putting a modern twist on the Ramayana. It really puts into perspective how crushed Sita feels after Rama turns his back on her. It honestly surprises me they wrote it like that. I really enjoyed your story
ReplyDeleteThis was such an interesting way to tell this story! In both versions of the Ramayana, the story where Sita is abandoned by Rama was pretty upsetting, but with your modern setting, it really puts it into perspective! Your version of the story was very interesting and I think you did a great job! It really paralleled the story from the traditional version well.
ReplyDeleteHi Christian! Like the others said, you made the Sita's story a lot easier to relate to by putting the story in a contemporary setting. There are a couple grammar/wording issues spread throughout that affect how easy the story is to read, so if you can take time to do a more thorough proofreading in the future, I think it would help your readers a lot.
ReplyDelete