Once upon a time in the deep blue sea, there lived a beautiful young mermaid named Sita. Sita was the daughter of the most powerful sea king to ever rule. Sita loved to hang out with her sea creature friends and collect items from the dry lands. Sita had a collection of several items humans had lost to the sea. She admired them daily as she daydreamed of life on land. Sita's 18th birthday was approaching, and she dreaded it for she knew that on her 18th birthday she would be wed to the merman Ravana. Sita's father felt Ravana was the most eligible merman in all the sea to marry his beautiful princess. On a wavy Tuesday afternoon, 3 days before Sita's birthday, she met with Ravana to talk about the arrangements. Ravana made his intentions very clearly explaining to Sita that she would be his wife, tend to his needs, and look pretty. She was to do no more and no less.
This infuriated Sita for she knew that meant giving up her hobby of collecting the humans lost treasures. In one swift flip of the fin, Sita smacked Ravana across the face and swam away. Sita cried and swam for what felt like hours. When the beautiful mermaid finally began collecting herself, she noticed something shiny about a quarter of a mile away. She quickly swam over to notice a fishing weight that had came loose from a fishing rod. She swam to the surface to see a good-looking man fishing on the shore. She had never felt so swoon. Sita swam to the man to get a closer look. When he noticed her, he called to her, and she swam to him. He reached down looked into her eyes and knew instantly he had to have her.
He explained to her his desires to be close to her, and she further explained her situation with Ravana and her birthday. Rama told Sita he knew a witch who could temporarily make her human if she pleased, but it lasted only 3 days. Sita realized if she agreed to be made human she would get to experience a life she had always fantasized about, but also realized that she would become a mermaid again on the day she was to marry Ravana. Never the less she agreed. Within hours Sita had spoken to a witch, consumed a magic potion, and grown legs. She immediately left with the man Rama. The couple spent the next two days in relation with one another. on the third day Sita's legs disappeared, and she swam back to her home reef.
Hours later Sita prepared for her wedding to Ravana with no complaint for she felt guilty of her time on the dry land. By the end of the day, Sita was married to Ravana and secretly loathing herself for her actions. Sita spent the first 6 weeks of her marriage just as Ravana had expected of her, but one day Sita went into shock. Something within her had changed, Sita realized she was pregnant, and she wasn't sure if they were Ravana's or Rama the dry land mans.
What would Sita do next??
The Mermaid and Her Man
Image Information: Illustration by H. J. Ford for Andrew Lang's "The Brown Fairy Book."
Author: H. J. Ford illustrator
Source: Wikimedia
Authors Note:
I wrote this with the idea of it resembling the little mermaid, but as I was writing I didn't know where to take it and I couldn't come up with much surrounding my previously expressed direction options. So, I just wrote as I went with no sense of direction. I had no idea where I wanted the story to go, so instead of writing an ending, I just stopped. This week was a struggle for me.
Source:
Your Name Here presents in association with Your Money; a Funded by You production; a film by Nina Paley; written by Nina Paley; directed by Nina Paley; produced by Nina Paley. (2008). Sita sings the blues. [San Francisco]: Nina Paley Productions, LLC.
I loved the underwater world that you created. It is a lot different than what many people have used to recreate the story. I also liked that Ravana was the most eligible Merman but had very unrealistic expectations for Sita. Great way to create conflict! I also loved the ending! I wanted to know whos kids they were going to be! Great job of keeping your reader interested.
ReplyDeleteAli, I loved that you combined our assigned reading from this class and a Disney classic! I actually liked that you left the ending a cliff hanger. It gives us the opportunity to decide our own ending (I totally understand about struggling with the writing. I did not do one this last week because I could not find any creative juices left). I did notice a few minor errors, but overall it was very creative!
ReplyDeleteI like that you based this story on the little mermaid but took the story into your own hands in terms of how the characters acted and felt about their situations. I also think it’s really interesting that you chose to have Sita’s situation end the way that it did. It’s not typical for someone in a story to accept their fate like that, but I thought it was a nice dose of realism. Well done!
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