Week 6: Reading Diary B

I think Sugriva has some wide words and ideas when he’s trying to convince Rama to stay strong for if he doesn’t, he won’t be able to get Sita back at all.  I wonder why the monkeys had to carry Lakshmana and Rama.  At first, I thought maybe it was to keep them from growing weary, but I thought Rama was supposed to be nearly invincible so he probably wouldn’t grow weary then.  It’s neat to see both monkeys and squirrels come together to aid Rama.  Skipping forward, I though Vibhishana didn’t want to fight her own people, but he broke the disguises of Sardula and Sarana- guess that doesn’t count which is good because that’s a very useful thing to be able to do.  I think it’s ironic that even the giant Kumbhakarna even tells Ravana to just let Sita go and avoid war with Rama.  I sort of wanted to laugh at Ravana when his cover was completely blown after he tried to convince Sita that Rama was killed.  Prahasta definitely messes up that plan for him, but I’m sure Sita is very shaken up upon realizing that Rama has arrived and is definitely going into a very dangerous situation that could cost him his life.   It’s nice that Trijata consoles Sita and tells her that Rama isn’t really dead- I wonder why she wanted to comfort Sita.  I thought she was on Ravana’s side- maybe she empathizes for Sita or maybe she thinks Ravana is being absurd and wants to save Sita any pain she can.  Or, maybe she expects Ravana to lose and wants Sita’s favor so Trijata would possibly be spared in the event that Rama was going to kill everyone in Lanka.  Regardless, poor Sita must be experiencing a roller coaster of emotions and I can’t imagine how she must be doing.  She’s probably very anxious.  Skipping forward, it’s particularly cruel that Indrajit conjures a fake Sita and kills her in front of Hanuman.  That must have been both upsetting and scarring for Hanuman to witness and also very defeating because he has worked so hard to keep her alive and now he thinks she’s dead.  I can’t imagine what that would have been like and I wonder if Hanuman’s first instinct would be to tell Rama or to not tell him in fear that he would throw Rama off and he would get killed because his grief would overtake his ability to keep himself safe in battle.