Desiree's Baby Literary Analysis

One of the first notable feature in “Desiree’s Baby is the naturalistic feeling weaved throughout the entire story. Desiree a young woman is damned by her own society just because of her possible African heritage. At this time in America having one-eighth African heritage was enough to put you on the bottom of the social caste system, especially if you were a female.

How can racism and arrogance destroy a whole family? In the short story "Désirée 's Baby" written by Kate Chopin reflects on how racism played a huge role before the American Civil War. Désirée was abandoned by her family when she was young and was adopted by, Madame Valmonde, a rich white family. One day Armand Aubigny was passing when he saw Désirée next to a stone pillar, where he falls in love with her instantly . They get married and have a baby boy. After three months later, her husband discoveries that the baby is not white and assumes that Désirée is from a black family. Armand didn 't want to bring shame to his family lineage and decides to kick Desiree and her baby out. One day while he was trying to burn Desiree things, to destroy memories and evidence, he discoveries a letter that was from his mom to his dad stating that his real mom is a black woman. Chopin 's short story "Désirée 's Baby" shows how judging people, being arrogant and selfish, and the consequences of racism could ultimately lead to the destruction of Désirée 's family.

Life is an obstacle-ridden disarray of sharp, unpredictable twists and turns. One turn may lead to love, happiness, and bliss, whereas the next turn could just as easily deliver hatred, heartbreak, and despair. To capture this jumbled reality in writing is the sole aspiration of many authors. Kate Chopin, an author from the late 1800s known for writing incredible short stories based in Louisiana, not only succeeded in encapsulating this reality but also in sharing modern, advanced ideas about sexuality, racism, and women’s rights in her work. One of Chopin’s short stories that featured life’s disparities, as well as its unexpected twists and turns, is “Desiree’s Baby.” Published in Vogue in 1893, “Desiree’s Baby” presents a story detailing

There is no mention of interracial concubinage in the story however scholars have assumed that La Blanche, who appears white is legal named as black, may be Armand’s mistress. This would add cruelty to Armand’s sarcastic retort “As white as La Blanche”. The air of mystery among the blacks’ cause Desiree’s child to be an outcaste. Desiree’s death wish, written to her foster mother, infers her lack of acceptance is hard on her and her child. In fact, two lovable characters elicit a strong empathetic response by the readers yet begin to reject their bleak fate that appears inevitable. “Among the many hypotheses that have been put forward about this short story, one of the most striking is the one propounded by Margaret D. Baier, who argued that Armand Aubigny had been aware of his own black heritage all his life and that his marriage to Desiree was part of a plan to have legitimate children that would pass for white, as he himself was passing” (Gibert 3). Chopin’s text would have reinforced the prevalent negative feelings towards racial differences. Desiree’s baby being presented as a stereotypical character of “a victim of a divided inheritance”.

In the story, Desiree’s Baby written by Kate Chopin, Armand was angry with Desiree because their baby was mixed. He believed she had black in her but by the end of the story, he had found a letter from his mother, the letter had said that Armand didn’t know that his mother came from a black family. Desiree had left Armand with the baby and drowned in a swamp. Since Desiree had the baby, she noticed how Armand started to change, she became discourteous and abroad towards her.

In Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin, the main character, Desiree, struggles with rejection and defamation after incorrectly being revealed to be biracial. These accusations ultimately lead Desiree to take her own life and that of her child by wandering into a swamp. Although the morality of Desiree’s actions is questionable, considering the time period and Desiree’s options, she made the right choice. By committing suicide, Desiree was ending her own struggles and preventing future adversity.

To be black is to be condemned to a life of subservience; to be white is to inherit mastery. “Desiree’s Baby” explores racism at its worst. The story takes place soon after Desiree had her baby. As the baby gets a bit older, it becomes obvious that he is not entirely white. Armand, believing that it is Desiree who carries the black in her blood, He send her and his child away.

Third, on one hot day, she was laying in her bed with her baby boy, while a little black boy stood naked fanning them. She kept looking down at the baby and then at the little boy over and over until it hit her. Her face had sweat dripping down it and her blood became very cold. She tried to speak black boy but he said nothing, until he heard a voice shout his name. Armand, had entered the room and walked right pass her and the baby and went straight to the desk of papers. Desiree, decided to get up angrily and stomp towards him like she was about to kill him. She grabbed his arm and told him to look at the baby and what did it mean. Armand said, "It means that the child is not white; it means that you are not white" (Chopin, 1893, para.

In “Desiree’s Baby,” Kate Chopin centers on race and miscegenation in the Creoles of Louisiana during the days when slavery was legal. Chopin brings together two characters, Armand and Desiree who are completely different. Armand is a cruel slave owner who comes from “one of the oldest and proudest families in Louisiana,” and Desiree is adopted and doesn’t know her biological ancestry. The two marry and have a son whose skin turns dark after three months. Chopin shows how human beings are valued through skin color, and she shows that interracial marriages and interbreeding are not acceptable. In the story, Chopin uses three main characters, Armand, Desiree and the baby to show that love and

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.

Back in this era of time the most respectable job for a woman was to be a loving wife in her husband’s household. In the short story “Desiree’s Baby” written by Kate Chopin, we have this setting of this older woman named Madame Valmondé is on her way to visit her adopted daughter Desiree who has recently given birth to her son by her husband Armand Aubigny. Everything seems to be going well at the plantation due to master of the house being so thrilled about having his son being born. As time progresses, Armand become very angry over the few months and eventually Desiree comes to notice that her son looks very similar to a young slave boy who who is one fourth black. Armand is angered and accuses his wife of not being completely white and most likely has black in her blood. Despite her pleas of being white, Armand claims that she is mixed race and will have to leave the plantation. Madame Valmondé expressed that she still loves her daughter and begs her to come home but instead Desiree takes the child and walks off into the swamps never to be seen from again. Eventually we come to find out that Armand is the one who has black in his blood and not his wife. Chopin offers a compelling critique of the class-based and racial prejudice that permeated the attitudes of the antebellum South. In addition, through the relationship between Désirée and Armand, Chopin explores the precarious status of both those without a family and those of biracial descent. Désirée is unlucky

In the story "Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin, a man named Armand severely dislikes African Americans. His wife, Desiree, just had a baby and Armand believes his wife and child's ethnicity is African American based on the infants looks. He believes his wife is the reason for his child's color, leading her to commit suicide. Soon after, he finds out the real answer. Both characterization and conflict impact the plot of the story "Desiree's Baby".

The story “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin’s involved a romance that gets ruined with racism. The racism began when Madame Valmonde visited her adopted daughter Desiree and her baby. As Valmode took the baby to a bright window, she realized the baby shared similar features to an African American slave named Zandrine. It was that moment where everything began to go down hill. This story was not just about one small, happy family, but instead, it was about prejudice, love, and racism.

Kate Chopin’s short story “Désirée's Baby” illustrates the consequences of racism through the language which she uses throughout the story. Not only does Chopin’s profound use of imagery in regards to the the distinction of black and white throughout the story describe the protagonist and antagonist, but she foreshadows many times over of the events to come. In the end, without racial prejudice and the shame it generates, the story’s tragedy would never have unfolded. “Désirée's Baby,” a short story by Kate Chopin takes place in the Bayou country of Louisiana before the Civil War. Although she does not directly state that in the story, several details from the story support this setting, such as the story’s theme and the inclusion of plantations, slaves, and French vernaculars.

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.