Essay about Miscegenation in “Desiree’s Baby”

“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.

In her short story named “Désirée’s Baby”, Kate Chopin gives readers an inside view of the concept of race in the pre-Civil War era of Louisiana. Chopin’s protagonist, Désirée, clashes with societal standards because of her mixed-race child and unknown racial origins. Race becomes a major conflict throughout the story and drives Désirée’s husband to blame her for the child. The ironic ending of the story not only gives a surprising twist but also makes a stand against the concept of biological race. While the racial issues of “Désirée’s Baby” were set in the past, these social concepts still occur today in the modern era.

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.

According to the article, married American women were deprived from owning property and did not have political rights such as the right to vote or participate in a jury. Therefore, the role of a married woman was to only serve her husband and take care of her children. Even if they were not consider slaves, the rights that they have were limited at best. The article states that Black Americans did not have human rights and even if they were free, they were consider as not “citizen.” Even if congress granted certain rights to Black Americans they could not be enforced as they were not “citizens.” The article has information that would help to understand the position in which Armand was put on by having a color skin baby. This article will be supporting the claim that during that time a social status was more important and that Desiree did not have any way to defend

In late 19th century Louisiana, sexism and racism are highly prevalent in society. An orphaned child, Desiree, falls in love with Armand who is the owner of a plantation. After they marry, Desiree gives birth to a boy who will carry on Armand’s name. When it shows that the boy has dark skin, Armand’s pride hinders his love for his family. Kate Chopin displays the theme of pride through the use of color, conflict and imagery in her short story “Desiree’s Baby”.

The short story Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin provides a sobering depiction of how the dark forces of prejudice and social hierarchy tore apart a plantation owning family in the state of Louisiana. Desiree’s character is that of a lady who carries the burden of being submissive to a domineering husband, a role she keeps until the very end of the narrative. Desiree is portrayed as an agent of light so to speak throughout the plotline but is seriously blinded by her doglike allegiance to her husband Armand, who is in essence her master and her livelihood. The struggle for female independence is a signature theme in a number of Chopin’s works and was a struggle for women in the South during this

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.”

The story Desiree’s Baby is about a young woman who is adopted by a two wealthy french creoles that live in Louisiana. Monsieur and Madame Valmonde adopted Desiree when she was found as a young infant by a pillar near the gate of their estate. The story then follows Desiree as she matures into a young woman and is married to a man named Armand whom which she loves very much. Armand and desiree soon have a child and both are extremely happy about the child but Armand soon pulls away both his compassion and happiness when he see’s something wrong with the child. Armand realises that the child is has some black in it, which happens to be the skin color of slavery. Shamed Armand blames Desiree for his child being part black seeing that Desiree’s

But even that little bundle of joy brought sadness. In the text, Armand stated “that the child is not white; it means that you are not white.” Race should have never been a factor towards the child because that child was his bundle of joy. Armand comes from a biracial background but he just does not know yet, his mother is a part of that race that Desiree and the baby a part of. It states, “I thank the good God, for having so arranged 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.” (page,5) So why Armand ever forgive or go back to Desiree after finding out about his mother race? He was brought up on this high horse that blacks are just below them and his mother is a part of that race. The color of the skin should never matter in love, but as stated before love does not have a specific definition, I guess his definition of love is to only love the color of his skin.

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”.

“Desiree’s Baby” provides insight into the application of the hypodescent rule in plantation-era Louisiana, depicting individuals of mixed race who are marked and assigned to the subordinate social group. In her short story, “Desiree’s Baby,” Kate Chopin addresses the practice as it was applied to the “one-drop rule,” the notion that an individual with white complexion may be deemed black by society given the presence of any African ancestry. Desiree, the story’s protagonist, is eloquently placed at the intersection of the two races, victimized in order to highlight the flaws and inadequacies of the rule. Desiree’s ultimate removal from white society and possible death may indicate a text working to criticize racial prejudice; however,

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

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 Baby" is not a mere tragic short story by which a reader may be entertained by its ironic and catastrophic ending. It is a story of a crime and brutality against women of all generations to come, depicting vividly how a woman may suffer and conceal her anguish for the sake of others. It is a story of innocence slain mercilessly by the unscrupulous power of harshness that directly governs human societies.

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.