There once
was a boy named Jerry who was in love with a gorgeous girl named Beatrice. Beatrice
was kidnapped one day by an evil professional wrestler, whose name was Henry.
Henry took Beatrice from Jerry because Jerry was only trying to help his
friend, Gary, earn the right to professionally wrestle again. Henry refused to
let Gary wrestle because they were brothers and because he secretly knew that
Gary was a much better athlete than he ever could be.
Jerry was
absolutely distraught when Beatrice was taken and he forged a plan with Gary to
get her back from the evil Henry. If Jerry could help Gary beat Henry in a
wrestling match, he would be able to win Beatrice back again. So they set on a
journey to reclaim Gary’s professional wrestling title.
Jerry was
very superstitious and did weird things like throw salt over his shoulder and
knock on wood before they crossed any path that looked remotely dangerous. For
instance, in the middle of their long journey, they came to a rickety bridge
with a ravine underneath. Jerry took the salt and through it over his shoulder,
mumbled a couple of words, and hoped to cross safely. Once they were across,
Jerry and Gary both took large breaths, finding comfort on the other side.
"Building the bridge to Lanka" (Image Source: PDE Ramayana)
As they
reached the wrestling gym, where Henry was keeping Beatrice, they made a plan
outside. Jerry would take Henry down by distracting him, while Gary would then
come and wrestle him one last time. They shot into action. Jerry grabbed Henry
from behind, which allowed Gary to catch Henry by surprise. Henry was furious
and he challenged Gary to a wrestle-off in order to settle the whole ordeal.
As Gary
prepared for the wrestle-off, he realized he had twisted his ankle. He said to
Jerry, “Jerry, I can’t wrestle! You have to take my place in order for me to
become a professional wrestler again and for you to win Beatrice back!”
Jerry felt
uneasy about the whole thing, but he knew that he had to have Beatrice back
with him, so he wrestled. Henry came at him from all sides, but Jerry fought
him off like a true champion. In the end, Jerry won because he ran into a piece
of wood on the side of the arena. His superstition believed this was the
knocking on wood that came to his aid. When Henry was knocked out, they called
the police to haul him away. Jerry was once again reunited with Beatrice. As he
held her in his arms, he promised to never let go again.
One year
later, Gary was headlining as the main professional wrestler for the state and
people were coming from all over in order to see him. Jerry and Beatrice were
married and they went to go and see Gary wrestle one evening. As they watched
him doing the sport he loved, they gazed deeply into each other’s eyes, knowing
what it took to get to that moment.
Author's Note: I am not
sure how it came about for me to write this story, but it was fun after I
started. I chose to tell my story in a modern interpretation this time because
I had seen other people's stories written this way and I thought they were so
creative! This story did not take me long at all because the modern
interpretation made it fun! The idea of the professional wrestlers came to me just
in a whirlwind of brainstorming for the storytelling assignment this week. As
soon as I thought of it, I knew that I could make it both humorous and
inspirational to the readers. Another aspect that I enjoyed about this story was
the superstitions. Instead of praying to the gods for certain things, I created
the idea of superstitions. The character of Jerry would be very superstitious
and would have to perform some sort of action in order to counter the bad luck that
would happen along the journey. I think that one way I could have improved this
story would have been to spend more time on the actual “final wrestling match”
because I did not describe it very well. For those of you who were curious, I
picked the names on sheer will. I had no idea what I wanted to name the
characters, but I just wrote down the first names that popped in my head and
voila! The characters were born!Bibliography: "Ravana's Death" by Donald A. Mackenzie, from Indian Myth and Legend (1913). Web Source: PDE Ramayana: "Ravana's Death
Your story made me laugh! Having Ravana and Rama square off with each other as professional wrestlers was brilliant. I also wonder why you went with the name Beatrice for the character that’s based on Sita. Have you read Dante’s divine comedy perhaps? I also liked the way that you tied in such superstitions as throwing salt over your left shoulder and knocking on wood in the story too, as aids for resolving conflict.
ReplyDeleteYour story is really creative Hannah. It's such a unique idea to take the battle between Rama and Ravana and set it as a wrestling match. I think you've made the story a lot easier to process and relate to. I'm really curious as to how you chose the names for each other characters! I would've liked to see that in the author's note. Like Brynn said, the inclusion of the superstition aspects really adds to the story.
ReplyDeleteThis was hilarious! I know I would have never thought about making Rama and Ravana into professional wrestlers. It kind of made me stop and reread what I was going over. Your style definitely had a fun, modern feel to it that communicated the story in a new way. I think I would have loved to see some of these moments described a little more fully. It could be really great to see a bit longer scene of how Jerry and his brother were creating their plan. However, I understand following your flow of thought and letting the words guide you.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love your website design. At first your background did not load and I wondered about the choice of pink text. But when I saw the background I understood how it all came together. What is the meaning behind your site’s title? I think it is awesome and definitely unique.
This was an interesting story. I was picturing the wrestling match at the end between these two people. That would have been extremely strange to walk by that scene. These stories we keep putting a modern twist to are odd. It's interesting to see what context we try to create to help us better grasp the story. Great job on this quick and easy flowing story.
ReplyDelete