Ripe Figs - Research Paper Example

Your full April 22, Ripe Figs- Characters Analysis This paper analyzes the two characters presented to us in the short story “Ripe Figs” by Kate Chopin, comparing and contrasting the main features of their characters. Babette is an impatient girl; while, Maman Nainaine is very serene and somber. Babette is shown as an immature girl, who is yet not allowed to visit her cousins alone, who live down on Bayou-Lafourche. She is an impatient young girl, because she finds it very hard to wait for the figs to get ripened before she is allowed to go down Bayou-Lafourche.

For example, Chopin (399) writes that, “It seemed to Babette a very long time to wait”, which shows how impatient she was when Maman Nainaine told her that she would have to wait. Although she had to wait only for a few months, she would go into the garden to see how ripe the figs were, to know how much time was left for her to go down the Bayou-Lafourche. The narrator called her “as restless as a humming-bird”, dancing out to the fig trees to know the condition of the figs. When she would see them ripening, this would “made her sing and dance the whole long day”.

This showed that Babette felt as if she would speed up the natural process of ripening of the figs, by checking out everyday how they were. And every day, she would come back “disconsolate”, which means that she would feel frustrated enough when she would see that the figs were ripening very slowly. When Maman Nainaine told her that the fips were ripening fast, she said, “I think they have ripened very late” (400). Her impatience had made her feel that she had waited very long for the figs to get ripened.

So, we see that Babette had the weak point of impatience, which made her feel as if time was moving slowly for her. In contrast, Maman Nainaine had a very patient personality. She was practical enough to know that figs take ample time to get ripened. She had told her god-child to wait to go to her cousins, till the figs get ripened. She was in no hurry, which depicted her calm personality. She wanted to make things go according to her wishes. She patiently waited for the ripening of the figs, when Babette would go down to the fig trees every day.

In contrast to Babette’s personality, the narrator has called her “as patient as the statue of la Madone”. This comparison gave a saintly touch to her personality. For her, time had move very fast, like when she said, “how early the figs have ripened this year!” This was because she was waiting for nature to complete its natural course of action. Hence, we see that Babette and Maman Nainaine had completely contrasting personalities. Babette was incredibly impatient in her behavior; while, Maman Nainaine was very somber and saintly in waiting for nature to complete its course.

Time had different meaning for both of them. For one, it moved very slowly; while for the other, it just flew away. Works CitedChopin, Kate. “Ripe Figs.” Documenting the American Youth. The University of North Carolina, 2004. Web. 22 Apr 2012. .