This week's reading was especially macabre, but interesting! Many of the Congolese readings that we were provided bypass the norm we are accustomed to. Where relations between lovers and family members are considered to be of the utmost importance, the Stories from Congo show that those closest to you can also be the cruelest. Some stories that revolve around the "Vanishing Wife" show that sometimes bonds shared through blood can be not as strong as those shared by lovers. Other stories show that lovers can be overly jealous. We saw examples of this of one wife trying to kill the other's child, only to have killed her own child by mistake.
The one redeeming story within this half of the section is the last story, where despite two brothers not seeing eye-to-eye, the elder brother ends up saving his younger brother's wife. This leads to their reconciliation.
For this week's story, I feel that I could use two brothers as a protagonist who are united when something horrible happens. To stay with this week's theme, I plan to make the main antagonist one of their jealous wives.
Bibliography: Notes on the Folklore of Fjort, R.E. Dennet.
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(Estranged brothers:
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