The Characteristics Of Characters In The Epic Of Mali

In the Epic of Mali there are many stories to be told. We see this oral of history through the eyes of Sundiata. A young king whom was cast out from his kingdom at a very early age because he was not believed to be the actual ruler since he came from such different circumstances. Sundiata was born through the word of a prophecy. His father (Fatta) one day welcomed a griot into his court. This specific hunter came bearing news of a prophecy. The prophecy being that the great ruler of Mali must marry and bear a child with an ugly hunchbacked woman. She would in turn give him the proper heir to the Mali kingdom. No one took very well to the news that the griot brought. Even though he was very smooth talking and thought to be sent from God himself. The king paid no mind to the word of the hunter until one day an ugly woman with a hunchback comes through the court. The king

Some of these behaviors explain the characters in much better depth than just using dialogue. For example, someone reading the Epic wouldn’t really have known how evil the original queen was without having her exile Sundiata and his family. I don’t feel as if behaviors differ solely based on the fact of social status in the Epic. Except for maybe the fact the higher class feels entitled so they act accordingly to how important they think they are. The behaviors definitely differ on the fact of entitlement. The original king happened to be so entitled to himself that he listened to a prophet about marrying an ugly woman. He took the advice only so he could have a son that would be a great ruler. When the son ended up being Sundiata, the king wasn’t having any of that because Sundiata was misshapen and ugly. After the king ended up dying he had his first born son take over rule instead of Sundiata. The Griot in the story exhibited behavior that was not deplorable. He helped young Sundiata through his troubles as an “ugly