Desiree's Baby By Kate Chopin: A Literary Analysis

Improved Essays
The tragic story of “Desiree’s Baby” is full of twists and turns. It is filled with unification, love, and heartbreak. The love story of Desiree and Armand is dismantled by the effects of racism. Without race, it would have ended up like a fairy tale, happily ever after. However, due to the harmful effects of racism, Armand is unable to see past the fact that Desiree could be part black. Before the baby was born, Armand thought Desiree was beautiful and thought nothing of her unknown past. This is proven in the story when it states, “What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana” (Chopin 232). After the baby, Armand was willing to hurt the woman he once loved due to the simple fact that she could be different. Armand no longer saw the pure soul of Desiree, but rather the color of her skin. This proves that race is only as deep as one’s skin. …show more content…
Without racism, there is not separation of pure and impure skin. There would also be no separation of social class solely based on what the color of your skin was. In Desiree’s Baby, the resulting factors of racism are that Armand is left without a family, and Desiree is assumed dead. Neither side came out on top. In the end, the letter to Armand states that his mother belonged to the race that was cursed with the brand of slavery (Chopin 235). This proves that no matter what color you are, there is no one race that is better than everyone else. I also believe the character Desiree is synonymous with real life. If humanity continues down a path of racism and pain. The end result will be a disappearance of morals and ethics. Humanity may have started racism. But that does not mean that everyone has to follow it like Armand chose to do. He chose to abandon his own son and the woman he once loved based on a lie. As a society, we cannot give in to racism, because that will only lead us down a very long and painful path to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Sadly, love did not transcend color in liht of the discovery of his wife and son’s race. Once he found out his baby and possibly his wife were black, he simply erased them from his life. Before Armand married Desiree, he said he didn’t care about “the girl 's obscure origin” (Chopin). He loved her anyway and could cure her unknown background simply by giving her, “one of the oldest and proudest [names] in Louisiana” (Chopin). But, his name alone turned out to “not” be the cure to the unknown surrounding Desiree’s ancestry.…

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Desiree's Baby Case Study

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages

    My expectations throughout the reading did not lead me to believe a plot twist of such would occur. I also began to wonder what Armand would do with this new information of his ancestry. I do not believe that Armand was aware of his ancestry, because if he did, he would not have allowed Desiree to leave with no preparations or feeling as if it was her fault. I think if Armand knew, he would have let life with Desiree and her baby go on as usual without a hitch. 2.Compare and contrast Armand from "Desiree's Baby" with Alcee from "At…

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?” (Chopin). Desiree has a baby that changes Armand 's attitude for the better, but within a few months ' rumors began to spread and “unexpected visits” began to happen. The baby had changed in his appearance, he was not white as snow but was mulatto. The assumption in the story was that Desiree ' was not white but black, which made her husband furious with anger and hate.…

    • 1778 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Now Armand is left scared with his color and also with a broken heart. Armand was a hypocrite and his family background is what made him abandon Desiree and the baby. In the beginning of Desiree 's baby, Chopin uses strong imagery to give the reader a clear picture of the type of person Desiree was before she met Armand. (Imagery - Examples and Definition of Imagery (Literary Devices))…

    • 1423 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Coincidentally, it also plays into the character of Armand as his treatment of the slaves on his plantation changes as his child is born. Moreover, the pride Armand has as a father can be in part attributed to the child’s pigment, as it was at first the child appeared to be Caucasian, supported by paragraph sixteen where Desiree says, “Oh, Armand is the proudest father in the parish, I believe, chiefly because it is a boy, to bear his name; though he says not-that he would have loved a girl as well”. However, once the child began to show signs of being mixed, Armand grew viscous towards everyone, most likely due to the hatred and betrayal he must have felt at the thought that his wife had kept her mixed blood secret, effectively supporting the pigment theory through Armand’s severance of ties with the mixed child. Thereafter, Armand’s lack of empathy for his wife turned into a hostile atmosphere that lead to her killing herself. Undeniably, it was Armand’s destructive and cruel racism that hurts those closest to…

    • 761 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Even though the readers originally neglected The Awakening and The Storm for their not so naïve content, these writings are, after all, a genuine portrayal of women and their sexual awakening, true portrayal of their emotional and intellectual traits. Both stories take place in Louisiana, and seems like it was the environment of Louisiana that contributed to her imagination and her development as a writer. With her vivid local descriptions and beautiful imagery, Kate Chopin provokes and inspires our thoughts to seek for more. She was one step further from her generation and she knew that her writings are too controversial for them.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When people are young, they are taught “to not judge the book by its cover” because it can be misleading to what the book context is going to be about. Unfortunately for Armand, “the cover” was Desiree’s skin color. Armand Aubigny, a character in the short story “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, confronts an immense decision between love and race. He becomes furious when he notices his son’s skin color was not white and does not want to be in a relationship with his wife, Desiree. Armand is racist, has power and control of people, and shows arrogant behavior that causes Desiree to leave him.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Chopin used this story is to expose the public to miscegenation. Miscegenation was a man reason why many wives and children were disowned or killed during slavery. Desiree’s baby was a victim of this because of the unknown background of his father. Because of miscegenation, not only will the baby and Desiree suffer, so will Armand. Armand name is now tainted because of the color of his new born.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    People deserved that the child had black roots, which they regarded shame. Then, Armand gave up on his wife and child as he assumed that Desiree because of her unknown roots was part black. But at the end of the story he found out that he was the one who was part…

    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 6 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although his demeanor softens after the baby is born, he reveals his true nature when he discovers the child has Negro blood—“the child is not white; it means that you are not white.” Armand judges his wife by her appearances and “he no longer loved her, because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Similarly as a winged creature secured away a pen longs to fly, so does a man restricted to a part and controlled in a home. In the short story, "Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin, the lady is caught in a cold marriage and a constrictive house. Comparable topics are likewise found in "The Revolt of 'Mother '," a story composed by Mary Wilkins Freeman. Despite the fact that both stories share the topics of imprisonment and limitation, physically and inwardly, the ladies in the stories have diverse responses to their circumstances. One battles the confinements without holding back, procuring her opportunity, while alternate adopts an inactive strategy and is just liberated through the passing of her significant other.…

    • 1583 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As he begins to burn all of Desiree’s possessions, he discovers a letter that was mailed from his mother to his father stating, “ 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, 182) Upon reading this it takes me back to remembrance of when earlier in the novel it also states “Armand’s dark handsome face” (Chopin, 179) and when Desiree says, “look at my hand, whiter than yours, Armand” (Chopin, 180) Chopin builds up Armand as a mixed race character who looks white and upholds, if not imposes, the ‘rank’ to prove the falseness of Louisiana values. Armand is one of the main characters who upheld this white privilege, because he looks white, although he is part black. This short story has a strong racial theme that depicts the circumstances when slavery did exist and to show how people lived in the middle of it.…

    • 1106 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    During the antebellum period, the men were ranked above the women. Armand was able to provide everything from her lavish “soft white muslins and laces” and Zandrine, the nanny (Chopin 86). When Armand accused her of coming from African ancestry because of their quadroon baby, Armand had the power to strip Desiree from all he had given to her because of his developed intolerance of being with anyone who has a drop of African blood. This authority above Desiree was proven when “he absented himself from home, and when there, avoided her presence and that of her child, without excuse” (Chopin 87). This baby is no longer Armand’s child but, Desiree’s baby simply because of the dark skin…

    • 1409 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Racism is a major theme (Korb 79). Armand expressed racism towards all people of dark-skinned descent because he was a plantation owner and he did not see dark-skinned people as human beings. He believed that they were property. Armand became hostile towards Desiree because the baby was dark-skinned and he assumed that she was keeping her ancestry from him so he told her to leave. He based the worth of a person on their race instead of their personality, and if it was not a race he necessarily liked then he would behave cruelly towards them (Nader).…

    • 1369 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Things were great between the new family, but as weeks begin to pass the baby begins to grow and his characteristics begin to show his true origins. Leading Armand to question who he fell in love with and where she really came from. Armand, a slave owner is completely against the black…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays