(Rocky Balboa: Alatele fr, Flickr)
Rocky Balboa, and his lesser known brother Bullwinkle, were gifted
fighters at a very young age. Rocky, who was only sixteen, was destined to
become a champion when his time came. One day, the retired fighter Apollo Creed
came to visit Mick, Rocky’s trainer, to ask for a favor. Apollo explained how
gang members were vandalizing his gyms across Philadelphia and he needed Rocky’s
help to beat them up since he would go to jail for assaulting minors. Mick did
not want Rocky to get injured, but Apollo was one of his closest friends so he
agreed to let Rocky go with him. Apollo also insisted on bringing Bullwinkle in
case there were too many gang members for Rocky to handle on his own.
The three of them drove to the only gym that had not been
vandalized yet. They waited in a dark alleyway which had a good vantage point of
where the gang members would most likely target. It was around midnight when
Rocky and Bullwinkle sprung into action after seeing suspicious shadows moving
around the gym. There were five gang members dressed in all black holding cans
of spray paint about to deface yet another one of Apollo’s gyms. Right when
they were about to start, they heard the thunderous footsteps of Rocky coming
towards them. At first, they couldn’t see who it was, but soon they realized it
was Rocky, the greatest fighter in Philly, and all of them decided to run away except
for one.
Author's Note: For this week, I chose the story of Ramayana to retell. Rama is the reincarnation of the god Vishnu. Rama, the prince of his city, is loved by all his people and a very talented fighter. One day when Rama and his brother are young, a sage named Vishvamitra asks Rama's father if he can take Rama to help save his hermitage that is being ravaged by demons. He takes the two brothers to a jungle where they encounter a female shape-shifting demon. Since she is a female, the brothers hesitate to kill her. They eventually work together to kill her though. Vishvamitra was happy and summoned celestial weapons for Rama. I changed Rama to be Rocky Balboa, the fictional boxer, and Vishvamitra to be Apollo Creed who is also from the Rocky movies. I changed the demon to be a young gang member whom Rocky and his brother would be hesitant to beat up since he was so little. Apollo is happy and rewards Rocky with state of the art boxing equipment. I also changed Rama's brother's name to Bullwinkle because it was funny and I couldn't think of any other name that would work.
Bibliography: Ramayana by Donald A. Mackenzie
Hey, David! I cannot even begin to count the times I have seen all of the Rocky movies, so I was immediately intrigued when you chose Rocky as your main character. When you described the original story in your author's note it made perfect sense for Rocky to be the main character since he too was a young and gifted fighter. You did a great job of changing the story, but keeping the main parts paralleled to the original.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteI must say, I was surprised at the introduction of a character named Rocky Balboa. However, I thought you did a great job of creatively retelling this myth! Each week, I continue to find stories that people have transformed into a modern setting, which makes their themes hold an increased amount of relevance. The original Rocky movies are incredible! Good job.
David, I thought that this was a totally unique approach to retelling the Ramayana. I honestly did not know that it was the Ramayana until I read your Author's Note. While reading, I got the impression that you really cared about your characters. I have not read any other posts of yours for this class, but I expect that the rest will have this same element of originality. Good job on this!
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