Désirée’s Baby is a mid 19th century, American short story. The story takes place on two Louisiana plantations: Valmondé and L’Abri. Désirée’s Baby involves love, race, and prejudice. While reading the story it is clear that Désirée and the baby are the protagonist and Armand is the antagonist. The American short story is about Désirée who was adopted as a young girl by a wealthy Creole couple known as the Valmondé’s. She ends up falling in love with Armand who is also from a wealthy Creole family. They get married and having a child together. Désirée gives birth and three months later Armand becomes mad because he realizes the baby has dark skin. This is the start of the conflict because Désirée doesn’t understand why her husband, Armand, …show more content…
Regionalism is a type of literature that focuses on a certain region and portrays the region’s characteristics and customs. This is shown throughout the story when Chopin discusses racism in Louisiana and the treatment of slaves during that time. Chopin pointing out the different cultural characteristics and customs was not meant to divide people, but rather bring American citizens together in unity despite the differences. Local color can also be found in this short story. Chopin investigates the dangers of mixed women in a racist society, and she examines the complex changes taking place in women’s lives. Désirée’s Baby also represents naturalism because Chopin focuses on how interracial mixing was forbidden during the post-Civil War era. Yes, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution abolished slavery, but that doesn’t mean discrimination against African Americans came to a halt. This story represents the discrimination they continued to face, and the baby represent African Americans as victims in society. From a historical perspective one would assume that this short story was written during a time when slavery was legal, but it wasn’t. Kate Chopin wrote Désirée’s Baby twenty-seven years after the Thirteenth Amendment was passed. During the Reconstruction Era African Americans were still facing discrimination. This story was written as a reflection of the
“Desiree’s Baby” can represent a timeframe status of how slavery and race were a factor that defined people. Armand was very ambiguous by the tone he would had towards Desiree and by his action. Desiree was faithful to her husband, in the other hand we are able to understand or presumed that La Blanche’s boy looked very alike as Desiree’s baby, which most likely Armand might be the father of both kids. Armand was in love at first, but then his pride and ambiguous.
The short story “Desiree’s Baby” written by Kate Chopin, tells of love, betrayal, and loss. The story begins by pulling in the imagination by the introduction of Desiree, who was found by Monsieur Valmonde as she slept in the shadow of the stone pillar. Desiree’s unknown origin would later come into the story only to give the reader a sense of false knowledge of Desiree’s origin when Armand Aubigny, the rich plantation owner of L’abri, falls madly in love with Desiree the moment his eyes set upon her, as she stood in the shadow of the same stone pillar. They marry and have a baby boy. When the baby reaches 4 months old his skin begins to show the appearance of a quadroon. The skin color of the child sets forth the end of Armand’s love for
In “Desiree’s Baby”, the weight placed on race and color is what determines the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Mystery surrounds the reader as they struggle trying to figure out who is the protagonist and antagonist. In our modern world, where skin color is no longer a big issue, it is shocking and appalling to see how it affects the characters in Chopin’s story.
“Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible – it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could” are words deeply moving and thoughtful to love and life. In Kate Chopin’s Desiree’s Baby, it seemed Armand Aubigny’s love for his baby and wife had done exactly that, transformed him into a happier plantation owner. His wife, Desiree Aubigny, thrived in the love he was pouring out because “she loved him desperately.” Their love was immediate as was his parent’s love when they lived in Paris. It seemed Armand and Desiree’s life was to be a fairytale from their “pistol shot” love and marriage to their newborn boy that would carry – on the Aubigny’s family name. This fairytale was tragically short – lived, the newborn baby carried African American characteristics. Armand quickly turned on Desiree and proceeded to kick her off the plantation. The last time he saw her was when “she disappeared among the reeds and willows . . . and she did not come back.” He blamed her due to her questionable heritage of being an orphan before she was welcomed into the Valmonde’s home. When in truth, he held the African American trait in his blood on his mother’s side. Chopin shows one that in true love there is colorblindness; but in others, it relies completely on the blood beneath the skin.
Grace Paley’s “Samuel” and Kate Chopin’s “Désirée’s Baby” both deal with tragic deaths caused by peoples’ actions both directly and indirectly. These two short stories have similarities whose narrator tells the deaths of two young and innocent people who were the victims of a harsh and unsuspecting society. Paley’s “Samuel” is about a group of boys who are having fun on a subway train leaping from platform to platform between the cars. The adults are watching the children with mixed emotions. The men watching the boys reminisce back to memories of their childhood; while the women are angrily showing discontent on their faces directed at the boys. The action of one of the passengers causes the train to come to a halt throwing one of the boys
“Désirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin shows the importance of knowing who you genetically in aspect to who your ancestors are. In the story “Désirée’s Baby” we learn about the heartbreaking story of a woman and her husband preparing for the best celebrating moments of their life, welcoming a child into the world. Once the healthy baby boy is born and is a couple months old, Désirée’s husband Armand begins to question Désirée about who the true father of the baby is because of the child’s skin tone. Out of anger Armand evicts his wife and son from their home and burns all of their belongings. While destroying Désirée’s belongings he finds a letter from his mother stating, “But, above all,” she wrote, “night and day, I thank the good God for having
In “Desiree’s Baby,” a short story by Kate Chopin, there were three major themes: identity, racism, and gender roles. Armand has demonstrated his actual true character. He was a coldblooded, one-sided, and non caring man who was not worthy of Desiree and her kid. Armand broke his marriage promise to Desiree and his parental obligation due to his prejudgment toward the child's race. Chopin also noted a lady’s place in marriage in the mid-nineteenth century. They had nothing to do with money related transactions, political, or social issues. Everything had its place with the man including the
The story Desiree’s Baby takes place in the pre-civil war era in New Orleans on the plantation of L’Abri. The story takes on multiple themes such as racism, sexism, and classism. One of the most significant themes is racism. Desiree’s husband, Armand Aubigny, rejects hid beloved wife and son causing her to kill herself and her son. Only because his son is biracial and anyone with a drop of black in their blood are black according to the antebellum south rules. Armand is having an illicit affair with his biracial slave. His position as a wealthy white man allows him to have control of his possession, a poor black woman. The inequality between race, gender, and
In the fictional story “Desiree’s Baby”, written by Kate Chopin, a man called Armand Aubigny falls for a nameless girl and later decides to make her his wife. Armand is part of one of the oldest and proudest families in Louisiana; therefore, his reputation must be held with high regard. When Desiree and Armand bring a child into the world and the baby is of color it was assumed that Desiree was of mixed blood ;yet, in the end it was Armand all along. The fact that Desiree was an orphaned girl with a race that as unknown foreshadows the theme of self-worth based on skin color, and the drastic measures one takes to convince themselves of a false identity that seems better than reality to develop an engaging plot
Application of the hypodescent rule, while not yet written into law, had been a tradition in American racial categorization since the start of slavery. In her short story, “Désirée’s Baby,” Kate Chopin addresses the practice as it was applied in 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. Chopin eloquently places Désirée, the story’s protagonist, at the intersection of the two races, highlighting the flaws and inadequacies of the one-drop rule. The plots progression, culminating in Désirée’s removal from white society and possible death, may indicate a text working to criticize racial prejudice; however, such interpretations become increasingly difficult to maintain in light of Chopin’s heavily racist undertones. Placing the dominant theory of racial assignment under a microscope, “Désirée’s Baby” works toward the conclusion that the one-drop rule is not only flawed by the unfortunate repercussions the method leads to, but essentially doomed by the absurdity of the concepts it stands upon. While it may seem contradictory, Chopin’s conclusion is strengthened by the use of an implicitly prejudiced text, a tactic allowing for the further scrutiny of social mores within a system they were designed to uphold.
When Désirée had the baby, her mother noticed immediately that something was wrong with the baby; Madame Valmonde screamed “This is not the baby!” It wasn’t until when the baby was 3 months old that Désirée noticed the appearance of the baby and demanded an answer from Armand. Armand noticed this early already, so he told Désirée that she was at fault for the baby being black, “It means,” he answered lightly, “that the child is not white; it means that you are not white” (424). Désirée believed this because no one knew of her past. This distinctly shows how Désirée’s character lives to learn how close racism and male dominance can get in Southern life. For instance, when Armand says, “The child is not white; it means that you are not white” (424). This is when Armand realizes his wife is not the same as he is, and from this moment on, wants nothing to do with either her or their child. In the beginning of the story, Armand was deeply in love with Désirée, and still was, until the moment he realized their baby was not white. This is a glimpse of how life was in the South. Chopin offers a compelling vision of the class-based and racial prejudice of the South. As many critics would agree, Chopin’s stories have “the freshness which springs from an unexplored field—the quaint and picturesque life among the Creole and Acadian folk of the
She tries to prove to Armand that she is white, “whiter than you.” With this discovery she instantly sends a letter to her mother. When the letter returns, Desiree learns that she is adopted and cannot prove that she is white. Her mother tells her to come home to her and that she will treat her no different than before. Desiree then realizes what is to happen and that she must protect her son. She knew there was only one option for her, so she took her baby to die with her, she “disappeared among the reeds and willows that grew thick along the banks of the deep, sluggish bayou; and she did not come back again.”
In "Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin, the author begins the story by describing how Desiree had been found as a child by her adoptive parents. Her biological mother and father were unknown and her origin was never discovered. This obscurity allows the reader to infer that perhaps she's of mixed race and that's why her baby did not appear white. Her husband Armand Aubigny becomes hostile towards her when he notices the baby did not appear white. He makes her feel miserable about not being white even though she tells him that her eyes were grey and her skin was white. He points out that she was as white as one of his slaves who could also have been of mixed heritage. Armand stops treating her with respect and this causes Desiree to go get her son
There was once a time when women were treated more like property than like people. In Kate Chopin’s short story “Desiree’s Baby”, the reader is introduced to young named Desiree who has a seemingly perfect life for a woman in the 19th century. One day Madame Valmonde finds a beautiful baby that has been left behind by a passerby. Desiree grows up to be a beautiful young woman, she then marries a prestigious plantation owner named Armand. Although Desiree’s blood line is not known but that does not turn Armand away. As the story moves forward the author presents Desiree as having a perfect marriage. That image is short lived when her and Armand’s child begin show signs of having black in his blood. At the end of the story, Chopin reveals that
In the fictional story “Desiree’s Baby”, written by Kate Chopin, presents a story of a woman, Desiree, and her husband, Armand, who has a baby with secret’s of on of their origins. With Desiree abandoned as a baby, with no name or origin, everyone suspected her to be the fault of creating a baby of color. It wasn’t until it was too late, that Armand found out the truth of why the baby was black.