Desiree's Baby Short Story Essay

This essay will focus on the short story by Kate Chopin and its use of symbols, setting and characters. Desiree’s baby was perhaps one of the best stories I’ve ever read. Analyzing it was not easy at all. Its use of symbols was very hard to comprehend. At first, it doesn’t make sense. But as you think critically, all the symbols, and setting and the characters in this literature plunge together in one amazing story.

"Desiree's Baby" is Kate Chopin's most well-known short story and most anthologized piece of work. The story takes place in southern Louisiana and her writing reflects her Creole-French descent. Chopin begins the story with a descriptive quote, "when she reached L'Abri she shuddered at the first sight of it, as she always did. It was a sad looking place...Big solemn oaks grew close to it and their thick leaved, far-reaching branches shadowed it like a pall" (185). The preceding quote gives the reader an eerie feeling and foreshadows an unpleasant ending to the story. Throughout "Desiree's Baby," Kate Chopin uses symbolism to convey her themes of racial prejudice, unequal gender roles, and

In the short story, “Desiree’s Baby,” Kate Chopin exposes the harsh realities of racial divide, male dominance, and slavery in Antebellum Louisiana. Although written in 1894, Chopin revisits the deep-south during a period of white privilege and slavery. Told through third-person narration, the reader is introduced to characters whose individual morals and values become the key elements leading to the ironic downfall of this antebellum romance. As Chopin takes the reader through the unfortunate circumstances and unexpected twists of Desiree’s life, a Southern Gothic tale emerges. While Armonde is Chopin’s obvious villain, one should not assume that the other characters are not antagonists themselves, as

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.

In the short story called “Desiree’s Baby” written by Kate Chopin, the author used many different literary elements to describe and build up many characters. But two of the one that stands out the most was the foreshadowing and symbolism. These elements helped to build up Desiree Valmonde, one of the main character in the short story.

All in all, the insight that can be drawn from reading “Desiree’s Baby” is that Kate Chopin personified some aspects of herself in the character of Desiree and she uses this to express her feministic views. Although Kate Chopin’s feminist views are very well documented, in the case of “Desiree’s Baby”, Chopin uses a character that shares characteristics

‘Desiree's Baby’ is southern feminist writer Kate Chopin's emotional short story and most well-reputed piece of work. The story takes place in southern Louisiana and her writing reflects her Creole-French heritage. Chopin was a southern feminist writer who often entwined her stories with the struggles of social injustices and her writing style is deep, eloquent and rife with symbolism. She seemingly tethers each element of her stories with elements she faces every day. In this story, Chopin uses symbolism to imbibe the seemingly simple imagery of Armand’s home, the field in which Desiree and the baby departed, and the fire which consumed the evidence of their existence with deep, powerful connotations to convey her themes of the injustice of

In the fictional story “Desiree’s Baby”, written by Kate Chopin, a young lady by the name of Desiree elicits the attention of a man named Armad, who marries and has a child with her. However, that child soon becomes a source of conflict, leading to the lovers and their relationship into a downward spiral. Chopin foreshadows the baby’s being a quadroon when Desiree’s mother visits and, in startles tones, exclaims that hat is not the baby!” In this, it is established that the baby looks nothing like what she expected, and at this point she is very likely suspicious. That isn’t all that was hinted at, though. Early on in the story, the reader learns that Armand’s house is “...a sad looking place, which

Throughout time, humans struggled with issues of conformity and individuality. In the modern world, individuality is idealized, as it is associated with strength. Weak individuals are usually portrayed as conforming to society and having almost no personal ideas. In “Desiree’s Baby”, a short story, the author Kate Chopin deals with the struggles of African descendants in the French colonies during the time of slave labor. The protagonist is a white woman named Desiree who is of unknown origin and birth as she was found abandoned as an infant at an aristocrat’s doorstep. Eighteen years after her discovery, she and a fellow aristocrat, Armand Aubigny, fall in love and get married. They soon have a child, yet conflict arises when the child

After reading the story Desiree’s baby by Chopin Kate, at first I had a hard time understanding the story but once I realized what the story was, I was totally shocked. In the beginning I thought it was going to be a nice story about Desiree and her newborn baby but when I saw her reaction after finding out that her baby was mixed, it was very frightening. She acted as it was the end of the world. She even started to compare herself and how the baby clearly doesn't look like her. Since she she was adopted, even her husband blames her. I guess he noticed that baby was mixed before Desiree did because he starts to ignore her and his love for wasn’t the same. He realizes that baby was different and blames in on Desiree, which clearly makes sense

Moreover, when Aubigny knows about his child, his manner toward Desiree changes dramatically; `when he spoke to her, it was with averted eyes, from which the old love-light seemed to have gone out. He absented himself from home; and when there, avoided her presence and that of her child, without excuse.' Desiree dares not ask him about this change because she fears his anger. He should have thought of her questioning him, later on, about the baby being colored or not; his blind irrationality precludes him from taking assimilating that if his wife hadn't been white, she would not have asked him about the child. If anyone examines his behavior, they would definitely conclude that it is not the appropriate behavior toward a woman, and above all, his a devoted wife.

After marriage, Desiree and Armand conceived a child, which Desiree’s mother, Madame Valmonde, was coming to visit for the first time. Upon arrival, she noticed something off about him just like many others had. She began to compare the child's face to one of the family’s slaves. After analyzing the child carefully, Madame Valmonde came to realization that the baby was of African American descendants. After this, Armand wanted nothing to do with Desiree or the child, assuming the black gene was passed along from Desiree.

"Desiree's Baby", by Kate Chopin, begins with a woman by the name of Madame Valmonde driving to L'Abri to visit her daughter Desiree and her new baby. While on the way, she remembers times of when Desiree was a child and especially the day that Desiree was found by Monsieur asleep in Valmonde's gateway. The only thing the baby could do was ask for "Dada" because she was so young. People had suspicions as to how Desiree ended up at Madame Valmonde's house but she knew in her heart that Desiree was sent to her by Providence because she couldn't bear children of her own. Eighteen years later, as Desiree is standing beside the same gateway that she was found at as a child, Armand Aubigny catches a glimpse of her and instantly falls in love

“Desiree’s Baby” starts with Madame Valmondé going to visit Desiree and her baby. While on the way, she recollects how Desiree was brought into the family. Madame Valmondé then explains how Desiree met her husband, Armand. Armand did not know Desiree’s exact origin, but he was so in love that it did not matter. Madame Valmondé then arrives and Desiree explains how kind Armand has become because of the child. But when the baby is three months old, Armand begins to act unsympathetic and different. One day, Desiree notices that the baby does not look fully white. She asks Armand what it means, and he accuses Desiree of not being fully white. Soon after, Desiree leaves Armand because he does not want to be with her anymore. At the end of the

Kate Chopin used Desiree’s Baby to reflect on the challenges that were facing her society through combining, prejudice, love and rejection. It is a story that ends with tragedy although the author takes the audience through the journey perfectly to finally reveal the details of the story and the finale in the final part of the poem. It is a poem that has been perfectly developed and creatively connected by the author and depicts different elements of a story but presented within a poem. It is a story that starts with noble beginnings but turns as the story develops to become a tragedy. The poem tells of Armand a wealthy landowner who falls in love with Desiree whose heritage and past is unknown to everyone in the town having been raised by