Themes of Desiree's Baby Essay

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.

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 “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, Chopin describes a story of an older woman, Madame Valmondé, coming to see her daughter, Desiree, who is married Armand Aubigny, and her baby. Mme. Valmondé, at first, is astonished at the appearance of the baby. Later, the baby herself shocks because of its dark appearance. Desiree later asks Armand why the baby is black. Then, Armand gets very angry, because Armand, a person who perceives he is of European race, has realized that he is the father to a black baby. Armand goes on to accuse Desiree of being black and being the cause of this perceived imperfection. A very distressed Desiree asks for Mme. Valmondé for help. Mme.

Desiree?s words show that her life depends on the race, notions, and social class of her husband and consequently, she feels obligated to obey his every desire. Desiree is presented as vulnerable to whatever Armand wants and tells her to do when she says, ?Do you want me to go?? (177). Desiree displays through her actions that in many ways, her happiness only comes from pleasing her husband. Therefore, Desiree must decide whether to live completely separate from Armand, or to live with him in constant fear and unpleasantness. Desiree achieves personal freedom and independence from Armand when ?she disappeared among the reeds and willows that grew thing along the banks of the deep, sluggish bayou; she did not come back again? (177). It is not even an option and is unheard of that Armand, being a male holding a respectable background, could possibly be black. Consequently, Desiree feels compelled to leave because she wants to please him. When Desiree decides to kill herself and her child, she shows that she is sensitive and vulnerable to her husband?s thoughts and actions.

Everyone wants to have some sort of identity, they want people to know them and like them. One quote that kind of explained what identity is “...identity is not necessarily a fixed trait, but is derived as much from how others perceive a person as from qualities intrinsic to that person,” (Themes 6). You are not born with one identity that you have to live up to, you make your own identity through the kind of person you are. This want to have identity makes it even scarier that one’s identity can change so quickly and so drastically. In “Desiree’s Baby,” Kate Chopin uses the character of Desiree and the character of Armand to express the theme that one’s identity can change very quickly, very drastically, but can also have negative effects from the changes.

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

Instead of accepting this child a very stern Armand blames his wife for not being all white. Truth of the matter is later discovered

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.

Armand is an interesting, and complex character. The principal characters in this story are Armand, Desiree, and their baby. Armand interacts violently and viciously; so violent it is stated "His negroes had forgotten to be gay" (Chopin). Armand's actions, words, and thoughts reveal a deeply violent and passionate man. Armand changes throughout the story. He starts as a strict and angry man, "Young Aubigny's rule was a strict one, too" (Chopin), but as he falls in love his heart grows soft, "He hasn't punished one of them - not one of them – since baby is born" (Chopin). Three months later he notices his child's dark complexion, afterward he becomes more angry and malicious than ever before, "The very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take

From this, the reader understands that Armand is attempting to assume a persona of the powerful aristocratic slave-owner. However, in this attempt, Armand demonstrates his very weakness: he is insecure and so must prove his strength. Another example of Armand’s weakness lies in his attempt to destroy all evidence relating to his relationship with Desiree. Armand feels that a marriage to a potentially black woman could be damaging to his to his place in society so he burns all of the evidence of her presence in his life: “In the centre of the smoothly swept back yard was a great bonfire, “ (Chopin 13). Although it is true that during the setting of the story, such a marriage could have been damaging, if he truly were a strong character, he would have defended his own beliefs and maintained his marriage. A final example of Armand’s weakness is in his discovery of a letter from his mother to his father and the reactions implied by the author. The letter carries details about Armand’s own race and how he is actually black. Armand’s implied reactions are that he will in fact take no action: despite the fact that Desiree was not of African descent, she will live her life in the belief that she is. This is the ultimate example of Armand’s weakness as he is too fearful of establishing his own identity to truly do so. Armand has been shown to be a weak, socially malleable character because of his internal

"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.

In the end, Desiree decide to leave Armand but she wasn’t going to valmonde, she was going to bayou it was a place deserted and she took her son with her. After a couples of weeks later Armand was burning the objects left from Desiree in a bonfire but before he was done burning everything he found a few letters from his mother to his father in the letters she was saying, she was thankful to god because her son will never know the truth about his mother origin because she was a mixed race meaning she was a slave. Its irony how Armand was so strict with the slaves and he was believed he was white but in the entire time, Armand was a mixed race all the time and Desiree didn’t have anything to do with the color of the baby but in the end Armand

Désirée is a young 18-20 year old girl who appears to be white, but really she's not. As a baby, she was discovered by Madame Valmondé. Later on in her life, she had a baby with her husband, Armand, who turned out to not be the color they expected. She and her baby left her husband because of their race. Armand was white and she was not.

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.