{"id":4300,"date":"2025-11-05T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T13:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/?p=4300"},"modified":"2025-11-21T10:22:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T15:22:20","slug":"women-of-myth-history-the-evil-stepmother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/2025\/11\/05\/women-of-myth-history-the-evil-stepmother\/","title":{"rendered":"Women of Myth & History: The Evil Stepmother"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kaikeyi<\/span><\/i> by Vaishnavi Patel follows the titular character, Kaikeyi, a figure from the Hindu epic the Ramayana, which I\u2019m admittedly much less familiar with than Greek mythology. Unlike <\/span>Circe, <\/span><\/i>I was drawn to this book (and impulse bought it at a Goodwill bookstore) less out of familiarity with the original story and more out of my interest in stories of mythology. The rave reviews of some of my favorite authors listed on the back was an added bonus.<\/span><\/p>\n

This reimagining is in a similar vein as Madeline Miller\u2019s <\/span>The Song of Achilles, <\/span><\/i>which tells the story of the <\/span>Iliad<\/span><\/i> story through the perspective of a lesser character, Patroclus. <\/span>The <\/span>Ramayana<\/span><\/i><\/a>, the epic that inspired <\/span>Kaikeyi<\/span><\/i>, was originally composed by the poet Valkimi in Sanskrit some time around 300 B.C.E.. The <\/span>Ramayana<\/span><\/i> follows the demon-slaying heroics of Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, the god of preservation. His story begins when he is exiled for 14 years by his father, King Dasharatha, at Kaikeyi\u2019s request.\u00a0 Kaikeyi is portrayed as jealous of Rama, the rightful heir, and wanting her own son Bharatha on the throne, using two boons\u2013essentially unrestricted requests granted by her husband after she saved his life early in their marriage\u2013to crown her son and exile Rama. However, Rama\u2019s adventures make up the bulk of the epic, leaving Kaikeyi on the sidelines.<\/span><\/p>\n

Patel\u2019s novel turns this approach on its head. Instead of following Rama, Patel relates the series of events that led to the decision that made Kaikeyi one of the most vilified female characters in Hindu mythology. As Kaikeyi herself says in the novel, \u201cBefore this story was Rama\u2019s it was mine.\u201d This is where Patel makes space for her twist on the <\/span>\u201cevil stepmother\u201d story<\/span><\/a>, imagining The novel begins with Kaikeyi\u2019s fraught early life in the kingdom of Kekaya, the only daughter in her family with a cruel father, a distant mother, and many brothers. Soon after her mother\u2019s mysterious departure, which leaves Kaikeyi acting as a surrogate mother for her younger brothers, she develops the ability to see and manipulate relationships in the form of threads\u2013reminiscent of sewing thread and with thickness relative to the strength of the bond. Patel uses this early twist on Kaikeyi\u2019s character as the basis for much of the novel, with Kaikeyi\u2019s supernatural understanding of human connections allowing her to thrive in her husband\u2019s kingdom, while along the way forming strong bonds with her fellow wives and using her influence to advance the lives and rights of other women. Patel emphasizes Kaikeyi\u2019s immense love for her fellow wives\u2019 sons as well as her own biological son, and we come to understand her request of Rama\u2019s exile in a new context of concern and care.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While it contains the characters and basic plot of the <\/span>Ramayana<\/span><\/i>, many details in <\/span>Kaikeyi<\/span><\/i> come from more obscure works than the traditional story. While explaining the <\/span>Ramayan<\/span><\/i>a as her inspiration for the novel, Patel <\/span>tells OrbitBooks<\/span><\/a>, \u201c[W]hile you\u2019ll meet all the characters mentioned here and more, don\u2019t expect a tale that follows the story of the epic. After all, this novel isn\u2019t about the legendary prince\u2026it\u2019s about the evil stepmother.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Though it was Kaikeyi\u2019s exile that allowed Rama to come into his own, Kaikeyi is a very hated character. Patel\u2019s reimagining of the story gives Kaikeyi a voice to explain her reasoning beyond jealousy and evil step-motherhood. It even presents Kaikeyi as aware of her condemnations, an intriguing fourth-wall break that forces readers to grapple with the question of\u00a0 how women, whether historical or mythological, are remembered\u2013the main interest of this series. <\/span>Kaikeyi <\/span><\/i>is primarily a story of love, loyalty, and difficult choices, themes that are summed up well in this quote: <\/span>\u201cBecause those who are good question themselves. Because those who are good always wonder if there was a better way, a way that could have helped more and hurt less. That feeling is why you are good.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel follows the titular character, Kaikeyi, a figure from the Hindu epic the Ramayana, which I\u2019m admittedly Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2348,"featured_media":4303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,42,29,1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwr","category-book-review","category-reviews-recommendations","category-uncategorized","category-what-were-reading"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2348"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4302,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4300\/revisions\/4302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/engblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}