Ripe fruit

Nietzsche presented the visual image/metaphor of a ripe fruit from a tree. Nietzsche states, "The the ripest fruit is the sovereign individual... liberated again from morality of custom... the man who has his own independent, protracted will" (59). By this definition, a ripe fruit, or sovereign individual is a person who thinks on his own, against the standards of society and customs of religion. This individual is described as a (sensation of mankind come to completion", an "emancipated individual", and a "master of free will" (59). So this individual is relieved from the constraints of society while being completely in control of choice. The opposite of this individual in the "late fruit" (60). This Late fruit is the opposite of the ripe fruit. The late fruit sits in the tree to long because it can not escape the pressures to conform with the rest of society. Where the ripe fruit falls the ground or is plucked form the tree, the late fruit fails to leave and the tree, rotting away because it steals from other individuals ideas or adopts the ideas of society.