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Week 7 Reading Notes: Nigerian Folklore pt. B

For these reading notes, I am going to break down important sentences of the story and write my opinions and thoughts about these sentences. I think this will help me to see things from the writer's perspective, as well as potentially start to get some ideas about a story that I can write. I read part B of the Nigerian Folk stories, but I am just going to do these notes over "Of the Fat Woman who Melted Away."
  • "There was once a very fat woman who was made of oil." 
    • this first sentence really caught me off guard! I wasn't expecting to read about a woman who was made of oil, though the title said that she melted away. 
  • "men...offered dowry," "her mother always refused." 
    • This shows that it was arranged marriages during the time of this story, but that because this girl was made of oil she was not able to get married. Her mother said that she would not be able to work on the farm or in the fields because she would melt in the sun. I think this means that women were expected to work for their husbands during this time, so although she was beautiful, in terms of cultural norms, she would not make a good wife because she could not work. 
  • "the fat woman stayed at home and never helped." 
    • the first wife became jealous of the new wife because she never helped with the household chores, in fear that she would melt in the sun. 
  • When the jealous wife saw this she again began abusing her, and asked her why she did not do her share of the work.
    • the jealous wife did not like that the new wife stayed in the shade and did not work. I can imagine being the first wife that I would also be jealous of a new wife that did not even have to work. 
  • "and immediately began to melt away"
    • The fat wife melted as soon as she went into the sun. 
  • "The husband then took the jealous wife back to her parents, who sold her as a slave and paid the dowry back to the husband, so that he could get another wife"
    • this part honestly made me kind of sad. I can imagine that the new wife was mad and jealous, but she still should not have abused the new wife. I wish that the old wife would not have been sold as a slave. 
  • "ever since that time...." 
    • I really did not like this ending. I felt like it should have ended so much differently and not as dark! 
Bibliography: Of the Fat Woman who Melted Away by Elphinstone Dayrell (1910).


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