Reading Notes: Stories from Congo, Part A

    This week I chose to read the Stories from Congo unit. These stories are from Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort and were collected by R. E. Dennett. The Reading A stories were mainly about wives and husbands, brothers, or animals. Most of these readings were interesting but had a confusing storyline or confusing characters. An interesting thing about these stories is that they are single paged stories, but the names of the characters are used over again throughout the other stories. Besides those notes, I have enjoyed this unit so far. I think the moral of these stories is to do, choose, and say what is right and then there won’t be any harm (murder) brought by karma.

The story Another Vanishing Wife was interesting to me. The main character of this story was treated poorly by his family because he was ugly, so he ran away. He pulled leaves off of a tree and they turned into humans. The first leaf he pulled off turned into a woman who became his wife. She then turned him into a handsome man and powerful prince. His family came to visit him, and he would often visit his family. His wife warned him about his family, but he did not take it seriously. As he was telling his family the story of how he met his wife, one by one his clothes disappeared and soon his whole town and wife disappeared. The lesson implied in this story is to not please those who have done you wrong but to please those who have treated you right. I liked this story because there was a deeper meaning behind it.

I was oddly interested by the reading The Jealous Wife. I think it is because it reminds me of a Lifetime movie. There was much jealousy involved in this story which ultimately leads to terrible actions. The elder wife wanted to kill the youngest wife’s daughter because she was better than her own. The plot twist of the story was that the elder wife ended up killing her own child by accident!! I think that has been the biggest plot twist I have read this year. I am determined to spoil my readers with a plot twist like this in my storybook. I liked this story because it was thrilling and unexpected.

Congo River from Another Vanishing Wife