Désirée’s Baby

Allison S Curseen100 Comments

Kate Chopin’s Désirée’s Baby, published in 1892, follows the story of Désirée and is intended towards an upper class white audience. Désirée was abandoned as a baby, but then adopted by Madame Valmonde and her husband. Years later, Armand Aubingy, a plantation owner, falls in love with Desiree. The couple gets married and have a son together; however, while comparing her son to another boy around the house, Désirée realizes her son has a darker complexion than expected. Armand, infuriated and conscious of his reputation, immediately attributes their son’s darker complexion to Désirée and her unknown ancestry, even though her skin is lighter than Armand’s. Ashamed, Desiree denies Madame Valmonde’s suggestion to come home, and disappears into the wilderness with her baby. After she’s gone, Armand finds an old letter from his mother to his father explaining how his mother “belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.” This story addresses themes of hypocrisy, ego and the dehumanization of the black race. Armand refuses to accept the possibility that he contributed to their baby’s complexion; furthermore, he believes that he is so superior to black people that it is impossible for him to be a part of the race, which readers learn later its not the case. Armand represents the upper class, white society as a whole during the time which this story is set, in the way that he alienates the black race and refuses to accept them as human beings like himself.

This text is organized in a chronological order and uses descriptive language to set the tone of the story. For example, Desiree feels “something in the air menacing her peace” the day she figures out her son’s complexion is dark. Chopin intentionally uses certain words to build the tension and severity of the story.

I like this story because it reflects common mindsets from the antebellum period and continuing in to modern day. I feel like Chopin does a good job with including themes of ego and dehumanization, but also of gender roles, as Desiree is manipulated/forced to accept Armand’s “accusations.” I also think it is compelling how Chopin creates a mysterious ancestry for Desiree, which creates ambiguity on the “source” of the baby’s complexion, rather than sole “blame” on either parent. Through this, Chopin suggests that all humans, regardless of race, are more closely related than what white people of the antebellum period would like to think.

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