1. I see Rama as a hero to his people because of the way that he lived. Rama lived by the rules of Dharma. I feel that Rama was far more interesting because of the choices and paths that he chose to take. Generally they were the tougher paths, in it seemed as though he was always tempted by the evil ways but he took the high route and went the other way even though the other way may have been easier. Just like real life Rama had to make decisions based on his beliefs. There were a couple instances where Rama showed him working to achieve perfection, but one that stood out most to me was his love for Sita. He went on a wild goose chase to find her, when he finally does he questions her faith. This is comparable to his mother because she does not respect the decisions that his father makes and in the Hindu religion that is not to be accepted.
2. When comparing this story to that of Medea, these two stories are for from the same. To me they are in fact, the opposite of each other. In Medea, the so called “heroes’ wanted to kill people. That to me is not a hero. Arjuna is much more of a hero in my eyes because of his great ability to follow the rules of his leader. We find Arjuna, frantically making decisions to fight or not because he doesn’t want to let his people down, but he doesn’t want to kill his family members. We could also say that Arjuna is not afraid to fight rather, he doesn’t know which code to break, the family code or the warrior code. Ajuna I feel is much like Rama in regards to his decisions of right and wrong and following the right path rather than the evil one, putting him closer too God.
I agree in that Medea’s story and Arjuna’s are the opposite of each other. Medea was not concern for anybody but for herself, and her revenge. At least Arjuna was questioning his beliefs because he was trying to find out what was the right choice to do. Good job.