Response to Kate Chopin's "Ripe Figs"
Kate Chopin in 1894
Photoportrait of writer Kate Chopin
Writer Kate Chopin and her sons Frederick, George,...Kate Chopin's "Ripe Figs," leaves my mind searching for more. I do not feel satisfied after reading and re-reading this story. A little girl name Babette lives with her godmother Maman Nainaine. Kate Chopin, I believe, is trying to depict the differences between a young girls view on time an older woman views. Babette is a young girl who can't wait for the figs to ripen. Is this because she wants to eat the figs? No, it is because Maman Nainaine told her she can visit her cousins on the Bayou-Lafourche when the figs have ripened. You can see the seasons changing as Babette is watching the figs close, for any signs of change. They go from seedlings to these beautiful ripe figs, much like the growth of ourselves. We start small and then eventually, after many "seasons," we "ripen."
To a young girl, time passes very slow, but to an older woman like Maman-N, time goes by too fast. As we get older, I feel that we yearn for our yesterdays, and dread the tomorrows. It is just the opposite for someone who is just beginning to "ripen." The author states that Babette is "restless as a humming bird," while the godmother is "patient as the statue of la Madone." This shows that the more "ripe" we are, the better we are at waiting for something. Can you remember a time when you were young that you had to wait for something? Did time seem to pass slowly? If you had to wait for the same thing now in your more mature state, would it feel the same?
I was not given the chance to slowly ripen. Forced to mature at the age...