Sunjata

Today I want to discuss how Sunjata is an epic as well as how it is different from the many epics we have read over the course of the semester. First I see the character of Sunjata as an epic hero. However he is different from some of the epic heros we have seen in the past because Sunjata is troubled from the very beginning of his life and has to prove himself over the course of the text. This all begins with him being unable to walk forcing him to crawl around. Once Sunjata finally overcomes this and is able to stand up, his mother is cursed and takes her children away since being exiled. Once again Sunjata proves himself and overcomes all the troubles that come with being exiled. Aside from having an epic hero which I think Sunjata portrays and epic also holds and important representation of the civilization of a culture. I feel that this is something else that is made fairly clear throughout the story. The biggest representation to me is the use of a griot. In the african culture at that time a griot was an important honor to have where a person was able to tell the tales and stories of their ancestors. In the story we find out that despite Sunjata's weakness he is still granted a position as a griot by the king. Earlier in the year we talked about some other qualities of epics such as the way it is written. Often times and epic is written in the form of a long narrative poem. I do not think that the story of Sunjata is necessarily written this way however I do think it is written in a way that shows the story is meant to be spoken. This is another quality that is found in many epics. Overall I think that Sunjata is an interesting yet complicated story that portrays many characteristics found in literary epics. Although I am not sure if this is a quality of an epic I also found it interesting while reading how different each version of Sunjata is and how a person telling the story would change parts in order to fit the audience in which they were speaking to.