Embodied Goddesses

            One of the main things I noticed about the book was the importance of the twin goddesses, Stone Woman and Cloud Woman. They appear both as Siamese twins and later on they appear as separate bodies. Once they allow Alofa to kill them, they are buried back to back, and are reunited in death. The story of the Twin goddesses applies to the entirety of the book.

Lalolagi and Tausi start to get twin tattoos on their thighs. Although Lalolagi’s tattoo is never finished, the two women are said to be bound in blood, in the same way that twins are bound in blood. And like the twin goddesses, Lalolagi and Tausi are separated when Tausi moves to New Zealand.  Malu also sees Lalolagi go to the cliff and remove her head. When the twin goddesses were killed by Alofa, she cut off both of their heads. This suggests that Lalolagi and Tausi  are somehow embodying the twin goddesses. But we are never sure if they are reunited in death like Stone Woman and Cloud Woman. Tausi is buried in New Zealand, but perhaps they are reunited in the dream world that appears throughout the book. Figiel leaves this open to interpretation. The important aspect of this connection between the two women and the twin goddesses is the way it suggests that the woman remain connected even though they travel far away from each other. Although they were miles apart, the women still felt a deeply rooted connection to one another.

This suggests something about travel in general: although you may travel far away from loved ones or hometowns, you can still feel a deep connection to these things, and eventually be reunited with them. This reunion may occur after death, but Figiel suggests that these deep connections can overcome great distances.