Comparison of Ripe Figs, The Story of an Hour, and The...

Comparison of Ripe Figs, The Story of an Hour, and The Storm by Kate Chopin In the three short works, Ripe Figs, The Story of an Hour, and The Storm, Kate Chopin has woven into each an element of nature over which no one has control. She uses short time spans to heighten impact and bring her stories to quick conclusions. She displays attitudes in her characters in two of her stories which may have been very controversial at the time they were written. Ripe Figs is the shorter of the three, covering a summer in a young girls life. The figs need to ripen before she can visit her cousins. At first the leaves of the fig tree were tender and the figs were little hard, green marbles (4). Each time she would slowly walk†¦show more content†¦As she began to recognize this thing coming to posses her, she tried to beat it back with her will (13). Only she was powerless to do so. Then giving herself over to it, the vacant stare and look of terror left her eyes (13). Then she breathed, Free, free, free! (13). Her eyes became bright, pulses beat fast, and blood flowed warm causing her body to relax completely. She knew that she would weep again, but she saw beyond the grief toward the years to come, to spring days and summer days, and all sorts of days (13), as she drank in the essence of life through the window opened to blue skies. The third story, The Storm, happens during a storm. Due to the threat of a storm, a young man sought the shelter of a former sweethearts gallery. She had not seen him very often since her marriage five years earlier to someone else, and then never alone. The driving force of the rain soon compelled them inside. As the rain beat upon the low shingle roof, he was conscious that she had lost none of her vivaciousness, and as the storm increased in intensity, he is aware of that old-time infatuati on and desire for her flesh (28). Even though there was fear in her eyes, it soon gives way to an unconscious sensuous desire (28). Soon this tension of repressed attractions escalates, and her flesh was knowing for the first time its birthright