Desiree's Baby Symbolism Essay

This symbolizes that she knows that stealing is wrong but she is going to steal the money from her mother in order to help her father. "I looked out the window and saw only an ash-grey sky." Pg. 4. The author uses the describing term "ash-grey" to connect with the main character and her connection with her father. "In the coldness and stillness of the night,..." Pg. 4. This is the author showing that the cold is representing the fact that she knows stealing from her mother could tear her family apart even more she does it for the love and faith she has for her father. The dark sky symbolizes that she feels bad about taking the money but she has to choose between to very important things in her life, and she chooses to help her father by taking the

In “Desiree Baby”, author, Chopin emphasizes racism by selecting certain words to symbolize the association between light and darkness, and the slaves on the plantation.

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

What sets Desirée apart in terms of her subjugation by Armand? It is not race, but the lack thereof. Desirée is unable to hide anything about herself because her origins are unknown (Chopin 401). She is a willing captive to Armand as a result of her love and her marriage, but she is not an unwilling captive to race; she is an unwilling captive to her otherness. She does not have doubts about her race, but must live with the reality that “Armand has told me I am not white” (Chopin 404). Because her origins are unknown and she does not have a name, she must acquiesce to the whims of Armand, who had at first decided to be unconcerned about “the girl’s obscure origins” (Chopin 401). Armand is the power here. He makes all of the decisions regarding the lives of those within his circle of power, and he does so because he is allowed to do so. Madam

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.

‘Desiree had not changed the thin white garment nor the slippers which she wore. Her hair was uncovered. . . She walked across the deserted field, where the stubble bruised her tender feet, so delicately shod, and tore her thin gown to shreds’ (83). Through this happening Desiree’s softness is contrasted with the rough and unforgiving terrain which represents just how vulnerable she is in this situation as well as in this patriarchal world. The terrain is rough and unforgiving, and she is wholly exposed, unsheltered, and susceptible to the rugged, cruel environment in which she finds herself. Chopin knew this cruel environment all too well and probably had her own scars to prove it. She was writing from experience; possibly channeling her emotions. The world was a threat to Desiree, there was torment in every step. The contrast of the softness and whiteness of Desiree against the rugged and marshy terrain symbolizes the innocence and vulnerability of a victim of persecution in a world overpowered by the oppressive

The text is very descriptive and loaded with symbols. The author takes the opportunity to relate elements of setting with symbols with meanings beyond the first reading’s impressions. The house that the characters rent for the summer as well as the surrounding scenery are introduced right from the beginning. It is an isolated house, situated "quite three miles from the village"(947); this location suggests an isolated environment. Because of its "colonial mansion"(946) look, and its age and state of degradation, of the house, a supernatural hypothesis is implied: the place is haunted by ghosts. This description also suggests stability, strength, power and control. It symbolizes the patriarchal oriented society of the author’s time. The image of a haunted house is curiously superimposed with light color elements of setting: a "delicious garden"(947), "velvet meadows"(950), "old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees"(948) suggest bright green. The room has "air and sunshine galore"(947), the garden is "large and shady"(947) and has "deep-shaded arbors"(948). The unclean yellow of the wallpaper is

Differences between people create conflicts between people.  This is especially true between men and women, since throughout history society has viewed women as subservient to men.  Kate Chopin’s feminist short story, Desiree’s Baby, illustrates man’s domination over woman.  Since Desiree meekly accepts being ruled by Armand, and Armand regards Desiree as his possession, the master/slave relationship that exists between Armand and Desiree is undeniable.

Many female writers write about women's struggle for equality and how they are looked upon as inferior. Kate Chopin exhibits her views about women in her stories. The relationship between men and women in Kate Chopin's stories imply the attitudes that men and women portray. In many of Chopin's works, the idea that women's actions are driven by the men in the story reveals that men are oppressive and dominant and women are vulnerable, gullable and sensitive. Chopin also shows that females, like Desiree and Eleanor, undergo a transformation from dependent and weak to stronger women free from their husbands by the end of the story. In the short story 'Desiree's Baby,' Kate

First, Desiree’s identity changes constantly throughout her life. In the story, Desiree goes from being abandoned and having no identity, to being taken in by a loving family, to taking the identity of Armand’s wife, and then back to having no identity. Having taken on so many identities clearly affects her at the end of the story when she decides to kill herself because of her inability to try to find a new identity and see life outside of Armand. One quote that shows an identity change is, "Desiree, truly belongs nowhere. Found abandoned in front of the gates to the valmonde plantation," (Essays 3). As a child Desiree was abandoned and had no identity, but when she was taken if by that

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.

Desiree's life is full of indescribable and pitiful events; first, she was lift alone when she was a baby, nameless and no one knows who her family are - this generally refers to the personality of a woman which is, metaphorically, has no presence in the society. Moreover, throughout the story no decision is made by her but

Desiree is betrayed by Armand because he has too much pride. I believe pride is what keeps Armand from loving Desiree the way she wants to be loved. The betrayal endured from her husband causes her to be depressed and feel hopeless. Desiree told her mother, “I cannot be so unhappy, and live” (541). She has a happy life and a family she adores and cannot live with anything less. I disagree with the hopelessness portrayed by Desiree but understand the depth of her pain. Desiree’s husband is a prideful man who chooses name over love and family.