The Concept Of Race In Désirée's Baby By Kate Chopin

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.

Thesis statement: During the 19th century social class was more important than values, as the story focuses on Armand being ashamed of his baby due to his color, which creates conflict for him.

In the time period that this story was written, a person’s background meant something as a name was a sense of wealth and worth. Since Desiree was adopted, her background was unknown and when Armand decided to marry Desiree he didn’t care because he would give her his name as all he cared about was his affection for her. For a little while all was well in the household. Desiree and Armand were happier than ever, and Armand treated his slaves better. This soon took a drastic turn as everyone noticed that their son had begun to show qualities of a Negro. Once these features were noticed, Armand’s attitude towards his wife and his slaves changed for the worst. In Armand’s eyes Desiree was at fault for giving the child those features since her history was unknown. Even after Desiree gives her husband evidence that she may not be a carrier, she and her child are still banished from the home and sent on their way.

Sometimes the hardest thing for an individual to do is taking a stance against the culture they live in, and sometimes the people who take the stance are underappreciated. Sadly, this is story of a talented writer named Kate Chopin; who took a stance against her environment with her writing, most notably in her short story, “Desiree’s Baby”. Chopin’s short story “Desiree’s Baby” uses the themes of naturalism, realism, and the usage of irony to expose the hypocrisy of racism.

The racial elitism that existed in Southern culture at the time served as the foundation for the social structure on the Aubigny Plantation and Chopin details how this societally engrained prejudice cruelly affects both servants and master. “Young Aubigny’s rule was a strict one, too, and under it his negroes had forgotten how to be gay, (Chopin 416)”. This excerpt from Desiree’s Baby implies that Armand Aubigny fits the stereotypical description of many slave owners of the time and

Yet it is not until Armand believes that Desiree is black that he fully dominates her simply by thinking that he is superior.  At this point, “when he spoke to her, it was with averted eyes, from which the old love-light seemed to have gone out” (317).  Armand feels that he is too superior to Desiree to devote his full attention to her.  Since he no longer expresses his love for Desiree, she feels further pushed into a slave-like position in the relationship, and, “was miserable enough to die” (318).

(176). It becomes apparent that Armand?s actions and words greatly affect Desiree when she says, ?My mother, they tell me I am not white? (176). Desiree?s powerless situation can in many ways be blamed for her unresolved uncertainty about her racial identity.

The environment is a reflection of our thoughts and attitudes. Desiree lives in a society of racism and stereotypes; so she finds it hard to define who she is. The composer connotes loneliness in the imagery of the ‘stone pillar… she had lain asleep’. The alluding uncertainty portrays how she is questioning herself. The personification of ‘air menacing her peace’ suggests a threatening feeling. Society is sceptical because of her unknown race. Desiree is unwelcomed because of derogatory terms like ‘negroes’ and ‘quadroon’. The disparity in the story is ironic, since Armand was the one who was half black. It is paradoxical when he realises that he ‘belongs to the race…with the brand of slavery’ but is no use as his arrogance already got in the way. It was the environment of bigotry which made her revaluate her

With Desiree and the baby gone, Armand decides he must destroy the rest of their belongings. He tells the slaves to burn anything that belonged to Desiree and the baby. The last thing to go was letters that Desiree had written to Armand before their marriage. While gathering those letters, Armand discovers a letter his mother wrote to his father. It read, “I thank god for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race this is cursed with the brand of slavery” (244). Armand’s parents knew what they were doing to the family name, but they did not care because they truly loved one another, so much so that they kept Armand’s race a secret as to keep up the family’s reputation. But Armand could not do the same for his own family because he valued his status and white race so highly. After

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

Armand's pride comes out to rear its ugly head. He blames Desiree, saying that she is not white and that he wants her to leave. Because Desiree's background is unknown, others will judge and point fingers. But not her husband- this should be a time for him to stand up for his family and defend them against all opposition. The sad truth is that pride is not rational; it is selfish. Armand went from passionately loving his wife to stabbing her soul with the cruel request that she leave him. "He no longer loved her, because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name."(p.33) Pride closed Armand's eyes and heart to Desiree's pain. Armand thought only of what it would do to his family name when it became known that he had a black child. He was so fooled by pride that Armand thought, "Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him."(p.33) Armand had a beautiful wife and healthy baby; was this injustice?

He could not bear the sight of her after he had the notion that Désirée was the reason of the child’s color. Not only was he concerned with the child’s color but with the fact that Désirée brought shame upon to him and his name for falling in love with a Negro. He might have loved his wife but he didn’t love her more than himself. The word “proud” comes up a numerous amount of times within the story. In the beginning when his future wife was nameless Armand will give her the proudest name in all of Louisiana. When his son was born he was the proudest man in the parish. And in the end when Désirée hurt his ego he treated her horribly because he wasn’t proud anymore.

Without racial comparisons, the story would only be a tragedy, reading as a criticism of hasty racial categorization because of the suffering it brings, but with them it is a depiction of a flawed system that has rewarded a black man. Chopin first contrasts Armand’s tendency to take on “the very spirit of Satan” in dealing with slaves with the more relaxed relationship they had with his father (441). Looking upon L’Abri, Madame Valmonde is troubled to realize that under Young Aubigny’s rule “his negroes had forgotten how to be gay, as they had been during the old master’s easy-going and indulgent lifetime” (440). Additionally, Madame Valmonde’s sadness upon seeing the estate may indicate that Monsieur Valmonde, a white man like Armand’s father, lacks young Aubigny’s cruelty. Armand’s lack of compassion is seen again upon realizing his son’s black heritage. Feeling that “Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him” by giving him a quadroon child, Armand asks Desiree and the child to leave L’Abri (442). In contrast, Monsieur Valmonde’s treatment of Desiree as “the idol of Valmonde” depicts his compassion toward a child who may potentially be black (440). Chopin’s racist undertones are realized as the dark-skinned Armand, characterized by volatility and callousness, is meant to be looked upon much less favorably than the story’s compassionate white slave owners.

The story by Kate Chopin called Desiree’s Baby (1894) focuses on the slavery days of America. It takes place during Antebellum in Creole Louisiana. Kate Chopin’s purpose in this story is to show how too much emphasis on skin and racial heritage could destroy a loving family. Lying is never an okay thing to do, especially during the days when race could make or break you. Armand’s parents did wrong by lying to Armand, making him believe he was white. This caused the self-destruction of his family, owning with harsh treatment of slaves and lived a life as someone he never was to begin with.

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.