Passion Changes Perspective

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Passion Changes Perspective
People who have a passion for a particular activity tend to excel in the activity more than people who don’t have a passion for the activity. “Babette’s Feast” is a story written by Isak Dinesen about Babette, a French refugee who is a servant of two old sisters, Martine and Philippa, who are having puritanical lives. In the story, Babette requests to provide a feast for the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the sisters’ father who was a Christian minister with a great following in the village. Babette uses ten thousand francs which is all her money from the lottery to prepare the feast.
Xiaoli Bai in his article "Greatness of having passion" analyses Dinesen's story "Babette's Feast' and concludes that Dinesen sends a message that an artist with enormous passion could move people's hearts no matter how limited knowledge they have about the works of art. Is it then that passion only moves the hearts of people? Passion helps people to excel at what they do and therefore, passion changes peoples' perspectives and opinions.
In Dinesen’s story, Babette works in a café known as Anglais before she moves to the two sisters’ home as a servant. She enjoys working in the café but then she loses everything, including her family, and she moves on and becomes a servant. This is a life she does not love, but she keeps her passion for cooking deep inside her and doesn’t just cook as a way of survival. This passion for cooking that she has inside her is the driving force that drives her to request that the sisters allow her to provide the feast on their father’s anniversary.
When requesting that the sisters allow her to provide the feast, her dark eyes were like a dog’s; eager and pleading. So they allowed her to provide the feast even though they were not comfortable with the idea. From this scenario, it is evident that the passion that Babette had moved the sisters’ hearts, but even more so, it made them change their perspective of Babette just being a refugee and the servant in their eyes. Being the hundredth anniversary of their father, it meant that it was a very special day for them and for them to allow Babette to provide the feast meant that there was a great change of perspective that was brought about by the passion that she possessed.
The sisters were worried about the food that Babette was going to serve at the feast. They had even vowed between themselves, not to talk about the food before. The guests as well never spoke of the food and this worried the sisters a lot. They thought the food was going to ruin their father's anniversary. But since Babette had a great passion for cooking, these worries were going to change because passion makes people excel at whatever they do.
Xiaoli Bai, in his analysis, notes that Babette’s passion was so fierce that she could impress the si...