Desiree's Baby: A Literary Analysis

In late 19th century Louisiana, sexism and racism are highly prevalent in society. An orphaned child, Desiree, falls in love with Armand who is the owner of a plantation. After they marry, Desiree gives birth to a boy who will carry on Armand’s name. When it shows that the boy has dark skin, Armand’s pride hinders his love for his family. Kate Chopin displays the theme of pride through the use of color, conflict and imagery in her short story “Desiree’s Baby”.

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

In the story “Desiree's Baby” Kate Chopin uses Slavery and Racism in the theme for this story. In Desiree's baby, the servants noticed how the child had something wrong with the skin tone and that caused the conflict between the mother and the father. The author uses human vs human conflicts while also including racism and sexism to the theme.

In many important works of literature, setting is important in establishing a sense of time, place, and lifestyle. It does so by relating such details as the time period and location of the story. From these details, the reader is able to develop a sense of the moral codes and social customs that dictate attitudes and behaviors in the story. Furthermore, the reader is able to sense whether or not characters fit into their surroundings, which could create tension and conflict in the story if they do not. Setting plays a major role in Kate Chopin’s short story “Désirée’s Baby,” a story centering on human relationships in the Southern United States. Set sometime in the nineteenth century before the American Civil War, “Désirée’s Baby” takes place on the L’Abri plantation in Louisiana. This information alone is enough to give the reader a sense of the central conflict of the story: race relations. Chopin uses the setting, which includes the time period, location, and social stigmas of the time, in “Désirée’s Baby” to create an environment that directly influences the interactions between all characters.

After a while of staying at the house she started to get lazier and rest most of the time. During the day when John and his sister think that the narrator is resting she is actually study the wallpaper in the room. She is starting to feel uneasy in the room once more and wish that John would take her away from the house but John would not listen and he would say that the house was doing her good. The only way that John would leave is if he believe that she was in any

Life is an obstacle-ridden disarray of sharp, unpredictable twists and turns. One turn may lead to love, happiness, and bliss, whereas the next turn could just as easily deliver hatred, heartbreak, and despair. To capture this jumbled reality in writing is the sole aspiration of many authors. Kate Chopin, an author from the late 1800s known for writing incredible short stories based in Louisiana, not only succeeded in encapsulating this reality but also in sharing modern, advanced ideas about sexuality, racism, and women’s rights in her work. One of Chopin’s short stories that featured life’s disparities, as well as its unexpected twists and turns, is “Desiree’s Baby.” Published in Vogue in 1893, “Desiree’s Baby” presents a story detailing

The short story, "Desiree's Baby", written by Kate Chopin, set in Louisiana's 1892 slave era, was influenced by the irony of love and prejudices. In the story, Chopin depicts how racial bias overthrows the love a man had for his wife and child. An analysis of the story proves the irony by illustrating judgment on appearances, through racism, and self-destruction.

Many of Kate Chopin’s short stories deal with women in search of love, self-knowledge, and a sense of belonging, however, in “Désirée’s Baby” we see a much more apparent theme of miscegeny, slavery, and racism. In her critical essay on “Désirée’s Baby,” Rena Korb asserts that “Désirée’s Baby” mainly focusses on a woman seeking only a place of belonging. Upon reading “Désirée’s Baby” one could come to the conclusion that this story is much more concerned with expressing the effects of slavery and degradation of a race in all aspects of society. Désirée and Armand have their own view of African Americans especially when it comes to miscegenation, the treatment of them and even their own ideas of association with them.

Her original idea was that she could get a scary house to stay in for the summer. Little did she know her husband John had a different agenda. Her stress disorder skews her views but all at the same time she is still very sharp. Obviously, she was smart enough to write and know when she could do it and not be seen. When she moves into the house, John orders her to be on bed rest. Because she is a bit delusional she thinks that the room she is kept in is just an old nursery or gymnasium. The room is very large with a lot of windows. But, the thing that bothers her the most is the yellow wallpaper that she describes as an “artistic sin” (Gilman 381). Her husband is too worried about his own reputation to really help her. Throughout the story the reader can see that the narrator wants to be a strong independent woman. But, in the time that the story took place that was not okay with

The structure of the house, and especially the room where she stays, itself highlights the narrator’s confinement. Furthermore, the narrator’s lack of a name reinforces the idea that she is speaking as all the women, rather than as an individual, and more than likely it represents the absence of the females’ identities. The main character’s illness, gives an insight into her, and other women’s, situation in society and in marriage. The woman's descriptions of the wallpaper seem to be symbolic of the progression of her illness, and through the paper, she sees herself.

     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.

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.

In Kate Chopin’s small story, “Desiree’s Baby”, she proves how social pressure played a main part in people’s lives in the 1800’s. Kate Chopin is very effective in getting her readers to feel disturbed and

Kate Chopin, a short story writer with powerful feminist views wrote the story of Désirée’s Baby in 1893. She grew up in St. Louis, Louisiana and was surrounded by many Creoles, which is where the French Creoles inspiration in the story came from. In the story of Désirée’s Baby, as an infant, Désirée, was abandoned by a stone pillar and later adopted by a French couple, the Valmondé’s. Désirée later marries a plantation owner, Armand Aubigny, and bears his only son. As the child gets older by day, his complexion seems to get darker, as if he was black. Since no one knew of Désirée’s origin, Armand blamed her immediately for the child being black, assuming it could not have been him. After a heated conversation, Armand demands Désirée and her child to leave his home for good. They walk into the bayou never to be seen again, assuming they had both died. After a few weeks pass, Armand stumbles upon a letter written by his mother stating that she is of black and so is Armand. The

Kate Chopin’s Desiree’s Baby is a short story about a girl named Desiree who is abandoned, then adopted into a wealthy family. Young Desiree soon grows up and falls in love with a slave owner, Armand,with whom she conceives a son with only to discover that her child's appearance consists of African descent characteristics. Chopin narrates the issues of oppression and loss of identity during a historical period of time through Desiree’s character. Derek Foster and Kris LeJeune's critique, focusing on the feminist standpoint of Desiree’s Baby, attempts to demonstrates how Desiree’s act to flee into the bayou is her first accomplishment of independence.