The Inferno

As I was reading the inferno, I tried to put myself in the shoes of Dante. Although I am not as old as Dante was when he wrote this work (middle age), I do feel as if sometimes I am lost in which direction I need to take with my life. In the beginning of the work, Dante is lost in a dark wood, not knowing which direction to take, before Virgil comes to attempt to show him the way. In order to show him the way, it has been decided that he needs to see the terrors of hell, and also pass through purgatory and eventually paradiso. In the first levels of hell, Dante is totally dependent on Virgil, he cannot make any decisions on his own, including moral ones. It is as if he is a child having to be taught the difference between right and wrong. As they get deeper and deeper into hell, Dante begins to realize/learn that the sinners should not be sympathized with for the sins they have committed against God are detestable.
One part that I found extremely interesting was when Vanni Fucci, who is in the seventh pouch of the eight circle for robbing a sacristy. This is a sin that is theoretically like stealing from God. Although this is a sin that is terrible as a reader I sympathize and say that Fucci could have had a reason he needed to steal, such as feeding his family or having money to survive. Is this one sin the reason he in hell? His character may be sympathized with right until the point that he curses heaven with an obscene guesture towards heaven. This shows that he is not sorry for his actions and although he is being tortured in hell, he would rather be there than in heaven which he despises. This one soul gives the reader in to the mind set of those in hell...do they all curse heaven, do they all not wish to take back the actions that put them there?

Is Rama really perfect?

In reading the second part of the Ramayana, I was surprised when I came to the part about Rama questioning the purity of Sita. The reason this was so surprising was that it showed a weakness on Rama's part. This weakness is trust. He does not trust Sita when she tells him that she has been pure while in captivity. It requires a rigorous test such as walking into fire in front of a great audience and also the gods before he will believe that she is pure. However it is somewhat unclear as to whether Rama really does not believe Sita or whether he is influenced by the watchful eyes of the public. It could be that he is so worried about how his marriage and the purity of his wife appears to the public, that he would rather please the crowd than accept the consequences of believing his wife. What do you think? Is Rama's one weakness his trouble believing others or is it his willingness to give into the beliefs of those around him?

  Either way, it is definitely a character flaw and a fault that conflicts with dharma. If we had not just learned that Rama himself is a incarnation of the god Vishnu then it would be a little easier to accept this flaw, but in this case it causes the reader to seriously question everything that Rama and dharma stand for. Can the gods choose to not follow dharma...? Or is it a misinterpretation of the story that is leading to the misconception that Rama has failed to follow dharma in not believing Sita? There are alot of loose ends in the story, especially considering after revealing this flaw, the story goes on to say that Rama lived  for thousands of years and the kingdom was very productive and wealthy. This would seem to indicate that although Rama failed his wife in a very crucial situation, he still all kinds of benefits as king. There seem to be no repercussions of this fault.

The comedic nature of The Ramayana

No disrespect to anyone who finds religious direction from this book, but this book literally had me laughing out loud at times. It reminds me somewhat of a comic strip story, or a story told by a small child. The spaceships, fighting vultures, flying mountains, and twenty-armed antagonists gave me a picture of something along the lines of a science fiction movie. What I found strange was that the first part of the book was actually pretty normal...until Rama got to the forest, then bizarre stuff started happening left and right. I don't know why the first part seemed fairly normal but as soon as the random stuff started happening, I kind of lost focus on the Ramayana and did not take the work seriously any longer. It was actually making me laugh...the part about the vulture fighting the golden amphibian spaceship...priceless. Oh and the fact that it goes through the whole fight scene, explaining how the vulture disarms the amphibian spaceship only to later say that the spaceship was somehow miraculously fixed and was able to fly Ravana and Sita away. Maybe its just me but I find no validity in this kind of story at all.

I do like to read and watch superhero/sci-fi movies but in order for me to take anything from a work that I can apply to my life, the setting has to be somewhat based in reality. It is understandable that people elevate the idea of Rama and dharma, but as far as this story actually happening, it is far from believable. I am not saying that this work is utterly ridiculous, it does have its place in literature but it is not a work that deserves to be taken too seriously. Anyways, I did find the story quite entertaining regardless if I was laughing or not.