# Boulôt and Boulotte explained — Short Fiction

> Chapter companion for Short Fiction by Kate Chopin.

## What happens

Twelve-year-old twins Boulôt and Boulotte, having saved money from selling wild fruits, set out to buy their first shoes. They return home barefoot, carrying the shoes, to the bewilderment of their siblings. Boulotte proudly explains they will not waste their shoes in the dust.

## Themes in this chapter

### Social Class and Identity

The twins' careful saving and decision to carry shoes rather than wear them reflects the economic realities and values of their rural 'Cadian community.

## Character check-ins

### Boulôt and Boulotte

The twins, aged twelve, buy shoes but carry them home barefoot to save them from the dust.

### Seraphine Bedaut

Ten-year-old Seraphine leads the siblings in watching for the twins' return and scolds them for coming home barefoot.

## Key lines

> You go buy shoes, an' come home barefeet like you was go!

You went to buy shoes, yet you return barefoot as if you never left!

_Seraphine expresses shock that the twins did not wear their new shoes home._

> You 'spec' Boulôt an' me we got money fur was'e—us? You think we go buy shoes fur ruin it in de dus'?

Do you expect Boulôt and me to waste our money? Do you think we would buy shoes only to ruin them in the dust?

_Boulotte defends their decision, showing practical thriftiness._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_33_se/chapters/boul-t-and-boulotte
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_33_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_33_se/chapters