In the two stories, “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “Desiree’s Baby,” the two authors portrays a identical story about a wife and husband whom love each other with love, affection, and devotion. But all good things must come to the end; especially when someone dies. All things were good for the couples until they didn’t stay committed, but they broke apart.In the story “Desiree’s Baby,” written by Kate Chopin, Desiree, the wife in the story, is the adopted daughter of Madame Valmonde. She was found by Armand, who is later on her husband, and he fell in love with her. Furthermore, the two couple are married and have a child. When the baby starts getting its color and starts growing, Armand realizes the baby has African ancestry. This becomes to …show more content…
In the stories, both husbands tell their wives something, which causes the climax in the story. For an example, Armand, the husband in the story “Desiree’s Baby,” tells Desiree that she is the reason why the baby is a quadroon, and that having this baby can ruin his reputation, and ruin his imperious look. “Look at my skin, it’s whiter than yours,” said Desiree. As white as La Blanche’s, said Armand as he looks cruelly. Furthermore, Desire was dealing with a lot of stress from the mistreatment from her husband; she ask him if he wanted her to leave and he said yes. Later on, she dies to kill herself and the baby. This portrays at men needing to show more attention, and to show more respect to our women. It tell us to be careful of what we say because anything could happen. This also describes be careful who you love. In “Desiree’s Baby,” Armand met Desiree by a pillar and it was love at sight. He didn’t care about who she was or what was her name because he came from a rich family. He could give her his rich Louisiana name. This tells us that we need to get to know our lover, so we won’t be looking shock when we realize something about them in the last minute. Likewise, in the story “Lamb to the Slaughter,” the story does not clearly say what the husband said, but it’s clearly good enough to make his wife very upset to where she literally kills him with a lamb. This portrays how the similarities of the two stories relate to the theme which enhances the meaning of being careful of what you say, and be careful who you
Lamb to the Slaughter is a short story written by Roald Dahl (1953) which the reader can analyze using a feminist lens and Freud’s Psychoanalytical criticism. Mary, the protagonist, is a pregnant housewife who learns from her husband that he is going to leave her. The author describes Mary’s reaction to this terrible news by depicting her as going into a state of fugue in which Mary murders her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, and later destroys the evidence by feeding the cooked lamb to the police officers who come to investigate the murder. This characterization is typical of the attitude of the society of the time of a women, pregnant, presented with a situation she cannot control. Mary’s first instinct is to reject her husband’s news
In the two well known stories, “Lamb to the Slaughter” and “The Lady or the Tiger,” both deal with relationships that have gone wrong. The story for “Lamb to the Slaughter,” starts out with Mary Maloney, who is pregnant and sews and waits for her husband to come home everyday. When her husband comes home one day and tells her that he is leaving her, she gets upset and ends up killing him with a frozen lamb leg. By the end of the story she is able to also get away with doing it. As for “The Lady or the Tiger,” this story deals with a King, whose daughter has fallen in love with a man who is not of the same status as she is. When the king finds out of this, he sends him to their version of a court system, which consists of choosing between two doors. One that has a tiger that will kill them and one that has a girl that the man will get to marry. The princess knows which door has each option in it and has the power to tell him which one to choose. Although in the end, the story never actually tells you which one she picks, and leaves it up to you to imagine what she does. Both of these stories have a lot in common, such as dealing with complicated relationships, as well as both of these women end up losing no matter what they choose.
Desiree is a lady who completely relied on her husband for any type of support. Desiree became powerless when Armand rejected her and the child when he noticed the infant’s change in skin color. Without having Armand in Desiree's life, she had low self-esteem and did not have the will to live anymore. For the most part there was a large amount of racism in the story as well as the feeling that ladies too are not equivalent to men.
Kate Chopin utilizes irony in “Desiree’s Baby” to warn people of the dangers of racism and how it can victimize not only the hated race, but also the one who is racist. “Desiree’s Baby” is a tale about a young slave owner, Armand, with a well-respected name in Louisiana. He marries an adopted woman named Desiree and once they have their child, he notices that the baby has black features. He assumes that since he does not know his wife’s racial background that his wife must have some sort of black heritage, but it is his “inferences [that] lead to tragedy." Armand did not want his wife to be around because of her assumed race, so she took the baby and left. Months later when Armand is burning Desiree and the baby’s possessions, he finds a letter written by his mother stating, “But, above all…night and day, 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.” Chopin’s irony was embedded in the fact that Armand hated who he is without knowing it. He assumed that his wife was the one with the black genes and that she needed to leave. Armand lost everything he had and loved because of the hate he held in his heart. The author proved through her use of irony that Caucasian and black people are the same. Besides physical features, it is impossible to tell from which race one has descended.
Imagine finding out that your entire life was a lie, and that every single thing you knew about your identity and your family was completely false! Armand Aubigny, one of the main characters in Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin, experiences this exact dilemma throughout this short story. Desiree’s Baby is a story about a young man and woman, who fall in love, but Desiree, who does not know her birth parents, is considered nameless. When she and Armand have a child, they are both very surprised because the child’s skin color is not white as expected. It is obvious that the child is biracial, and immediately, Desiree is blamed for the color of the child’s skin because of her uncertain background. The truth, however, is that it is Armand who has lived his entire life as a biracial person without even knowing his true heritage! This problem frames the rest of the events in the story, and the ultimate demise of both of these characters.
In 'Desiree?s Baby,' Chopin illustrates her idea of the relationship between men and women by portraying Desiree as vulnerable and easily affected, whereas Armand is presented as superior and oppressive. Throughout ?Desiree?s Baby,? Kate Chopin investigates the concept of Armand's immense power over Desiree. At first, Desiree tries to conform to the traditional female role by striving to be an obedient wife. Later in the story, this conformity changes after Desiree gives birth to her part-black son.
Throughout the years many variations of the ideas on race, class, and culture have been presented based upon different factors. In earlier times people’s views were not nearly the same as they are presented today. Ideas that women belong in the kitchen or that African-American’s were an inferior race were common. Those views were very popular during the time of Kate Chopin’s book “Desiree’s Baby.” Chopin’s book explores the controversial areas of race and class as well as touching on the subject of culture. “Desiree’s Baby” shows the life of Desiree from a young child through adulthood. The young Desiree was found by a rich family alone on the streets. Even in a time where race and social class was important the wealthy, a rich couple took in young Desiree without knowing her ancestral background. Desiree lived a good life with the family. The story then switches to when Desiree was a young adult and falls in love with Armand Aubigny. Armand also comes from a wealthy background and still falls for Desiree without knowing her racial background. Eventually, the young couple has a baby but to their surprise the baby comes out with African traits. Armand is not happy and rethinks whether she has African in her background or if maybe she had an affair with a slave. Desiree’s mother offers to have her and the baby come back and stay with them but when Desiree leaves she disappears and is never seen again. Later, Armand finds out that it may not have been Desiree that carries African roots but himself, from his mother’s side. Overall, Chopin’s work looks into the controversial issues of race, class, gender and culture using ironies and the story-line to infer the views of these topics.
“Desiree Baby” by Kate Chopin is a very thought provoking short story that deals with racism, prejudice, and love. The story takes place in southern Louisiana, where Armand, a prominent landowner, marries a girl of unknown origin named Desiree. The story has a twist when their baby is born and is discovered to be of mixed race. Armand knew all along that he was OF mixed race, and I will prove it by analyzing characterization, diction, and imagery.
In “Desiree’s Baby,” Kate Chopin writes about the life of a young lady and her new family. In this short story, the fond couple lived in Louisiana before the American Civil War. Chopin illustrates the romantic atmosphere between Armand and Desiree. Chopin also describes the emotion of the parents for their new born. When the baby was born, Armand’s heart had softened on behalf of others. One afternoon, Desiree and the baby were relaxing in a room with a young boy fanning them with peacock feathers. As they were relaxing, Desiree had sniffed a threatening scent. Desiree desired Armand’s assistance as she felt faint from the odor that she could not comprehend. Armand had denied the request his wife sent. Therefore, he cried out that she nor the baby were white. Thus, Desiree took the baby and herself and walked into the bayou and they were never seen again. In this short story, Chopin illustrates the psychological abuse Desiree faces from her husband.
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.
In her story, Desiree’s Baby, Kate Chopin underlined the contrast between lust and love, exploring the problem of a man’s pride that exceeded the love he has for his wife. Armand, the main character of the story, is a slave owner who lived in Louisiana during the era of slavery. He married an adopted young woman, Desiree, and together they have a son who eventually became an obstacle in the way of his father’s happiness, thus removing out the true character of Armand. Desiree’s Baby, by Kate Chopin is a love story, love that ultimately proved to be a superficial love, a story that shed light on the ugly relationships between people. “Lust is temporary, romance can be nice,
In these two stories “Desiree’s Baby” and “Harrison Bergeron” bothe the authors, Kurt Vonnegut, and Kate Chopin use a unique way of writing each of their text. Each story has their own unique way of expressing emotion throughout the text;using imagery throughout the text to give readers and idea of how things were in those two text. The most important thing about these stories is how creative they were which make them enjoyable to read.
"Lamb to the Slaughter," by Roald Dahl, was published in September, 1953. and "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, was published June, 1948. Although these stories are very different, they both share one common theme. That theme would be violence. In "Lamb to the Slaughter," Mary Maloney kills her husband over the fear of him leaving her. Then she feeds the evidence to the police. In "The Lottery," the entire town participates every year to see who will get stoned to death. A difference in these short stories is the fact that in "Lamb to the Slaughter," she knows that killing her husband is wrong, but she still does it; while in "The Lottery," the whole town believes that it is alright to kill someone like this every year. Although, in both stories,
“Desiree was happy when she had the baby and Armand was as happy and nice to the slaves then before but after he saw his child growing to be mixed it changed his whole attitude” (Griffin). This shows how the story takes place during slavery time, since the husband was a slave.
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 is discovered to be black. The young family is destroyed when the baby’s father, Armand, refuses to accept the child. In “Desiree’s Baby”, Chopin demonstrates through Armand’s conflicts how weak humans conform to environmental norms.