Who Is Desiree's Baby '?

Kate Chopin, a renowned 17th century writer, gained posthumous fame for her unorthodox literary techniques and her controversial themes. Her work often broached the topics of gender roles, women’s sexuality, and white privilege, yet, it remains relevant today. “Désirée’s Baby” contains many of the same features that characterize other works by Chopin, including the use of surprise endings. Through deep analysis of “Désirée’s Baby,” the reader better grasps Kate Chopin’s foreshadowing the story’s O. Henry ending, otherwise known as a surprise ending, of Armand’s racial heritage and Desiree’s death, through the use of symbolism, characterization, figurative language, and elements of surprise, and ultimately provides the reader with a relatively

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.

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.

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 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.

These insights are on the topic of Chopin’s view of feminism. Chopin portrays Desiree as a very virtuous and woman. However, Armand Aubigny is portrayed as an individual to be feared and not a very likeable character in general. Armand falsely accused Desiree for the blackness in their baby, as he knows well that he “belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery” (Chopin 632). In the heated argument between Armand and Desiree, Desiree pleads to Armand that she is not black and is white to which Armand rudely responds “As white as La Blanche’s” (Chopin 631). Furthermore, Chopin’s portrayal of the other women is positive with no glaring character flaws in Mme. Valmondé and Armand’s mother. Valmondé is described as a loving mother to the orphaned Desiree. Furthermore, her loving attributes are highlighted as she asks Desiree to return home. Overall, in “Desiree’s Baby”, the description of the female is much more positive than that of the male as portrays the respectable characters of Desiree and Aubigny who are contrasted with despicable characters like Armand.

‘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

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).

When thinking of American authors that have always received great praise, one might not think of Kate Chopin. Nevertheless, in the literary world, Kate Chopin is one of those authors highly commended, treasured, and spoken about, but that always was not the case. In her time of writing, the works she published did not go without severe judgement. With her wide array of literary devices, Chopin’s style of writing hinted at things such as adultery or slavery, which were highly taboo subjects during her time; however, as times have changed her works have become of a higher value in the realm of literary works. In the story of Desiree’s Baby, Chopin not only uses forms of foreshadowing and irony to show the emptiness of Desiree and Armand’s broken

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

In Kate Chopin’s short story “Desiree's Baby”, there are many literary elements. The two most prominent elements are character and imagery. Kate Chopin uses graphic, lifelike imagery to deeply express the character of Armand. Character and imagery convey Armand's interesting and complex character, due to Kate Chopin using such vivid imagery.

     In Kate Chopin’s short story, “Desiree’s Baby”, she demonstrates how racism played a major part in people’s lives in the 1800’s. Kate Chopin is extremely successful in getting her readers to feel disturbed by the events in the story. Through words and images, the reader feels touched by the story, either by relating to it at some points or when confronted with things we frequently decide to ignore in the world: the evil some human beings are capable of possessing.

However, if the mother was pale and the child was not, the roles could be very different. In the case of Desiree, Armand wanted nothing to do with her and wished for her to leave the house. He could not believe his wife was not as pure as he and wanted to get rid of her sins from his home once she was gone. He knew very well that Desiree had no name, no background, and no story beyond the one give to her, but agreed to be with her when she was white. With the questioning of her whiteness, all love for her disappeared and he could only see her as tainted.

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.

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.