Desiree's Baby Analysis Essay

“Desiree’s Baby” is a short story that touches on the subject of racism. Desiree’s Baby was written by Kate Chopin. Kate Chopin is an American author from St. Louis, Missouri. Kate Chopin’s works often involved women’s issues, racial differences, and social inequalities. Desiree’s Baby is a short story about a woman who had a child that was of a mixed race. Desiree’s Baby touched on many subject, such as racism and social inequalities. Kate Chopin, in her work “Desiree’s Baby,” demonstrates prejudice through foreshadowing, dramatic irony, and situational irony.

Foy, R.R. "Chopin's Desiree's Baby." Explicator 49.4 (1991): 222. Academic Search Complete. Web. 21 July 2015.

Chopin was a southern feminist writer who often related her stories back to the issue of discrimination across genders. She uses symbolism to analyze the gender roles of inequality between men and women in society. In the very beginning Desiree was left on a stone pillar at the Valmonde estate; it is here that Armand Aubigny sees her and falls instantly in love with her. The stone pillar is a phallic symbol of firm, forced male dominance in a patriarchal society. Throughout the story Desiree is submissive to her husband and obeys everything he says even when Aubigny sends her and the child away. Desiree left wearing a thin white garment and slippers and as she walked the sun beamed down giving off a radiant, golden gleam from her long, brown hair. Chopin uses Desiree's white clothing to symbolize the feminine element being introduced into society and the sun's shining rays seem to represent the shifting of power roles among genders. Chopin demonstrates the rising power of women in society and the establishment of equality among genders.

Furthermore in to the literary element, Chopin used symbolism to develop more on Desiree’s characteristic. The author was describing the way she dressed “Desiree had not changed the thin white garment nor the slippers which she wore. Her hair was uncovered and the sun’s rays brought a golden gleam from its brown meshes.” (Chopin, 52) The way that Chopin is describing Desiree, it is like she is describing an angel, so pure and innocent. Everything Desiree wore was white, she was wearing a thin white dress that people usually go to sleep in. Angel always wear white. Another point was that it was sunset, which symbolized that things is about to end, this is just like her life. Earlier though, Chopin was mentioned about a stone pillar at the beginning of the story “when Monsieur in riding through the gateway of Valmonde had found her lying asleep in the shadow of the big stone pillar.” (Chopin, 48) The stone pillar represent a big marker on Desiree’s timeline. Armand drove by her and see her sleep and fell in love and got married was afterward. Before that time period, we don’t know who Desiree really is, we don’t know her dad or what race until at the end of the story, we don’t know where she’s from or what is her origin. Chopin used this stone pillar as the starting point and then keep developing Desiree’s characteristic later on. The author used symbolism to develop Desiree’s characteristic.

The main critical approaches that each author has touched on deal mostly with the themes of race and the patriarchy discussed in Chopin’s work and how they are portrayed within the story. Perhaps one of the greatest criticisms that each author has noted is that Désirée’s Baby, leaves too many questions unanswered.

Secondly unlike most people who view the mother as in denial towards her race as an African American Women. I believe she was trying to explain to everyone that her baby son was going to grow up with problems facing life because he is African American.” Towards the end of the short story “Desiree Baby” she was writing a note which said “… I thank the good God for having so arranged out our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.” From my perspective she is saying that she is happy to know that as his mother he does not have to know how it feels to be brand the past of slavery.

Kate Chopin’s “Désirée’s Baby”, published in 1893, still has an impact on its readers one hundred and twenty-four years later. Chopin captains a timeless voyage straight into the heart of Louisiana, following a unique and arduous circumstance. Madame Valmondé took in and adopted a small orphaned girl her husband, Monsieur Valmondé, had found in the shadows of their home. Although her origin unknown, the girl grew to be beautiful and kind. Gifted with a name the young girl was called by Désirée. At the age of 18, young Désirée caught the eye of Armand Aubigny, a young man with a last name known well in Louisiana. He was struck by her beauty and fell in “love” instantly. After a shipment of wedding presents from Paris, the young couple were married.

the name Desiree can be found to mean “the desired”. In the story it is very evident that Desiree is one of the most desired people as she is “…beautiful, and gentle, affectionate, and sincere – the idol of Valmonde.” This leads the reader to believe that she has both physical and internal desirable

     In Kate Chopin’s short story, “Desiree’s Baby”, she demonstrates how racism played a major part in people’s lives in the 1800’s. Kate Chopin is extremely successful in getting her readers to feel disturbed by the events in the story. Through words and images, the reader feels touched by the story, either by relating to it at some points or when confronted with things we frequently decide to ignore in the world: the evil some human beings are capable of possessing.

When asked by Madame Valmondé what Armand has to say about the baby, Desiree says he is a proud father. Time passes and Armand starts acting strangely towards Desiree and their baby. He becomes very cold and avoids her. Desiree notices one day that her baby looks similar to one the slave boys. She panics and runs to Armand and ask what does this mean?

Armand Aubigny is a very powerful man and the owner of l’Abri and seen as someone who has everything that life has to offer. His family name was “one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana”(NA 1606) and so he had no problem being a slave owner. At the beginning of the story we see him as a very passionate man and madly in love “as if struck by a pistol”(NA 1605) but later on we find out that he is cruel, domineering and haughty towards his Negroes. This is the kind of treatment that blacks had to go through in the 1800s. Racism played a major role in this story. If you will recall Armand was very happy and nice to his slaves when the child was born but when he found out that the baby is not white, his mood changed and Desiree’s too.

Kate Chopin’s “Désirée 's Baby” was set in the days before the abolition of slavery, at a time when the ownership of another person was not only acceptable, but also economically impactful in the south. It was normal to see big plantations owned by whites and tendered by black slaves. We see all of this and more in “Désirée’s Baby”. One of the characters, Monsieur Valmonde finds an abandoned baby one day while out riding. His wife, Madam Valmonde, does not have a child of her own so she takes the baby in and names her Désirée. Madam Valmonde and her husband, Monsieur Valmonde raises the child, until she is old enough to become married. Her attractiveness and especially white skin attract Monsieur Armand Aubigny, a plantation owner, and they immediately become married and have a child. Désirée and Armand both originally associate themselves with the white class, but once the plot unveils their black heritage they are faced with uncertainty, and ultimately their lives become meaningless and not worth living. Throughout the story, Kate Chopin uses symbolism to convey her themes of racial biasness and social ladder in a society. The characters and the setting in this short story help provide the readers with more understanding of how racially charged our society was at that time.

In the very beginning Desiree was left on a stone pillar at the Valmonde estate; it is also here that Armand Aubigny sees her and falls instantly in love with her. The stone pillar is a symbol of firm, forced male dominance in a patriarchal society. It is how men were of superior to anybody else. Desiree grew into a beautiful and gentle-hearted young woman and soon found a wealthy suitor asking for her hand. This young suitor was Armand Aubigny. He had known of Desiree’s past but was in love and did not care. Armand Aubigny’s character in this story was racist and despicable but the young bride was in love and looked past his faulty character.

The short story, “The Father of Désirée’s Baby”, is written by Kate Chopin. It tells the story of a girl named Désirée who was found on the sidewalk as a baby. Luckily, she was discovered by the Valmondés, a wealthy French creole couple, and adopted. At the age of eighteen, she catches the eye of a plantation owner by the name of Armand Aubigny and they get married. Later on, they have a baby and at first he’s an exceptional father towards the child but as the baby grows and his skin tone changes, Armand’s attitude also changes.

Kate Chopin’s Desiree’s Baby is a short story about a girl named Desiree who is abandoned, then adopted into a wealthy family. Young Desiree soon grows up and falls in love with a slave owner, Armand,with whom she conceives a son with only to discover that her child's appearance consists of African descent characteristics. Chopin narrates the issues of oppression and loss of identity during a historical period of time through Desiree’s character. Derek Foster and Kris LeJeune's critique, focusing on the feminist standpoint of Desiree’s Baby, attempts to demonstrates how Desiree’s act to flee into the bayou is her first accomplishment of independence.