Sundiata: The Lion King of Mali

I enjoyed reading this book; it was a very pleasant change to the pace of the class and a welcome break from chapter books. Some prominent themes in this book were the family dynamic, courage, and the relationship with destiny. There is something to be said about destiny in the abundance of highly improbable occurrences throughout the book. Some of these astounding occurrences include the fact that buffalo woman in the forest was able to be befriended and that she sacrificed her spirit and the fact that the protagonist's mother had a hunchback that resulted in Sundiata being born with his handicap that resulted in his difficult time becoming king. Here a small point about destiny can be emphasized. Against all the odds Sundiata rises to his destiny and takes over the kingdom as was promised and prophesied by his father. The story makes of feel as though they can easily realize their destiny and it gives the sense that although the designation is not known the path does lie ahead. However, it is made clear in the story that this is only possible with perseverance and the ability to strive to become a better person. I will achieve what is promised to me. Sundiata: The Lion King of Mali, is a story told of obstacles as well as destiny. It tells of a man who after the death of his father is forced to deal with many obstacles that are thrown his way. The first major obstacle that can be pointed to is the position of king. Its obvious in the story that Sundiata was not pleased that he was chosen to be King, in fact, that the position cause eleven of his brothers and sisters to be killed, and again his inability to escape his fate as king is yet another example of destiny and divine intervention that differs in this story from the movie the Lion King. While lots of people in lots of stories growing up in circumstances that are vile and adverse, but even for these standards Sundiata grew up with quite a deal of adversity. Born to a hunchbacked mother Sundiata was incapable of speech or mobility for his first seven years of his life and subsequently, he was despised and ridiculed by the people around him. The book does, however, follow the very stereotypical three arch story pattern, the protagonist suffers conflict, takes an arduous journey and on that journey fight an epic battle against an evil sorcerer to save his best friend and regain the rightful throne. Here it can also be seen Sundiata also gains many of the stereotypical traits of leaders, but in many ways, the playing with stereotypes works well for this novel. Sundiata shows courage, determination, kindness, loyalty, and perseverance all the traits of a stereotypical prince or hero, and it is of little surprise to me that because of all these stereotypical traits and lessons learned and the stereotypical storyline that Disney chose this tale to base their movie on.