Desiree's Baby By Kate Chopin: An Analysis

Racism between the cotton pickers and Armand was clearly present. The slave of darker pigmentation was outside working in the field. Zandrine and La Blanche’s son had a light complexion and were allowed to do work in the home. Armand treatment of the slaves indicated that he look at them more as a possession than black human beings (Cummings). Armand conviction of Desiree race was racist. Armand went to the extremes of abandoning his wife and child conveys acts of racial discrimination towards the blacks.

Imagine finding out that your entire life was a lie, and that every single thing you knew about your identity and your family was completely false! Armand Aubigny, one of the main characters in Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin, experiences this exact dilemma throughout this short story. Desiree’s Baby is a story about a young man and woman, who fall in love, but Desiree, who does not know her birth parents, is considered nameless. When she and Armand have a child, they are both very surprised because the child’s skin color is not white as expected. It is obvious that the child is biracial, and immediately, Desiree is blamed for the color of the child’s skin because of her uncertain background. The truth, however, is that it is Armand who has

In Desiree’s Baby, Kate Chopin shows how over valuing of white race and status can destroy a relationship and a family. Race and status are intangible ideas humans make up to segregate one another and should not be valued higher than a human life, but this is not the case in "Desiree’s Baby.”

Community is built of two main elements. First, community requires communal caring. Members need to put themselves in positions where they are able to relate to other members and does everything “within reasonable limits of self-sacrifice” (65). The second is communal reciprocity. Individuals will serve other members of the community, not for exchange of goods, but to provide generosity and support. These elements of community appear in the lives of all individuals, even the most capitalist ones. Humans are entirely capable of these.

The short story “Desiree’s Baby: by Kate Chopin is my favorite story so far in what we read in class. Why? Well because Chopin Shows how far a man will go just to save his family’s name and reputation. This interested me because I couldn’t believe a man would go that far keep his reputation and how Chopin address real life issues and shows how one emotion can be your down fall at the same time.. The man in Desiree’s baby who took his words and actions to far is named Armand Aubigny . Chopin made Armand make his decision based on assumptions, racism, anger and male dominance.

Desiree's Baby by Kate Chopin Desiree's Baby is a short story written by Kate Chopin. It is set in 19th century Louisiana. The story starts with Madame Valmondé going to visit Desirée and her baby. She thinks back on her memories of Dé

“Unfortunately, making some inferences can have serious consequences.” There are is a lot of foreshadowing throughout the short story that tells us that Armand has black ancestry. There is a key part of foreshadowing, there is another form of foreshadowing when Madame Valmonde says, “the child has grown, has changed.” This is another monstrous form of foreshadowing, that there is something different about this child and that we will find out what is different later in the story.

Armand claims he fell in love when he first lay eyes on his wife named Desiree, they have a baby together then a dramatic change in Armand’s behavior towards his wife and child. Kate Chopin uses character, theme and tone in the short story Desiree’s Baby to show that a family name is not what always make us who we are, but it’s up to us to decide on whether we want to be better than that. And that pride may be more important to others than the love for their family.

“Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin is a short story, which takes place in Louisiana during the mid-nineteenth century. Desiree was abandoned as a child and found and adopted by Monsieur and Madame Valmondé. She then meets, immediately falls in love with, and marries the son of a wealthy plantation owner, Armand. They have a child together and soon notice the child’s skin color is darker and similar to a boy who is a quarter African American. This is unacceptable during this time period. Since Desiree does not know her family background, Armand immediately accuses her of being African American and his feelings towards her entirely change. Desiree writes her mother and her mother tells her to come back to their plantation with the baby. So, Desiree leaves and is never seen again. After this, Armand burns all of Desiree’s items, including letters from her. In the process, he finds a letter written by his mother to his father, which reveals he is the one who is part African American (due to his mother), not Desiree.

Kate Chopin is best known for her ability to express her feelings of the time and is well known feminist of her time. She has wrote many inspiring novels about women having little to no voice in the antebellum era. Kate hated being a mother and a wife because she felt like she had no power . Thus, she wrote one of her greatest novels Desiree’s Baby. In Kate Chopin’s Desiree's baby she introduces a theme of male supremacy by her execution of literary devices such as symbolism and irony to prove that it is more important to be male than white in the Antebellum era.

What would you do if you, your wife or husband, thought you were both white and then had an interracial child? Chopin’s story Desiree’s baby is a story that is largely about race. When Desiree gives birth, the reader begins to become aware that there is a mystery about the child’s parentage. Robert Ebert once said “Parents and schools should place great emphasis on the idea that it is alright to be different.” In the story “Desiree’s Baby” Chopin builds a mystery in order to provoke the characters and readers anxieties about race. The fact that Desiree wrote a letter to her mother stating that if she is not fully white that she would kill herself because she couldn’t live with the fact that she wasn’t “pure”. This shows Desiree’s anxiety about her race.

One of Chopin’s short story is Desiree’s Baby, published in Vogue on January 14, 1893 which emphasizes three controversial topics namely racism, prejudice and love. Chopin’s purpose for writing this story is to expose the inequities of prejudice towards the black race and female subjugation; and to broaden the views on a woman’s place in the world (Godlin). Some readers and critics on the web find “Desiree’s baby” to be much more than an examination of a distinct cultural place (Peel). The story targets important issues that still afflicted Chopin’s South, particularly the prevalent and destructive yet equivocal nature of racism. When talking about race, the difference of being white and being black shows importance in the characters’ lives throughout the story.

While many adhere to this vantage point, the concept of self-hatred and a lack of self-acceptance in society challenges the belief that man-kind’s most severe problem is pride. Another common interpretation of the impact of self-love in humanity, is that self-love is needed to love others. One important detail that the reading addressed was the difference between the words self-care, self-respect, and self-love when analyzing human actions, motives and thoughts.

When an individual is presented with negative circumstances that threaten their self-identity, most will presumably assume that they will react selfishly. By acting selfishly they will thus protect solely themselves however on the contrary when a dramatic event occurs people don’t act selfishly and instead work together to survive. The ability for people to unite together is what defines humankind’s identity to be good. One's ability to think of others before themselves shows human kindness at its purest. This has been shown throughout history numerous times as certain individuals threaten the existence of others but through resistance and resilience, we are able to preserve through hard times. Civil rights movements, marches, and campaigns

The enslavement of African Americans in America dates back as far as 1619 beginning in the first colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The purpose of their seizing was for them to tend to the popular cash crop of the time, tobacco. As years progressed, African American labor was used for more than just the care of tobacco crops. Labor of Africans went towards other crops such as cotton, taking care of their master’s home, and other miscellaneous tasks. Although slaves managed so many different tasks, being African American was the lowest status any person could hold. They often faced merciless beatings mistreatment, vicious beatings, and barbaric raping for years at a time. In “Desiree’s Baby” Kate Chopin demonstrates the hostility against African Americans during the nineteenth century.