Desiree’s Baby is a short story written by Kate Chopin that highlights the theme of miscegenation, love and racial prejudice in the antebellum SouthSouth. The author wrote this story when slavery was accepted and legalized, and the story also tries to explain the negative consequences of practising racism to a family as well as an individual, as Armand and Desiree, his wife, are also experiencing their heartbreaking misfortune because of their different racial backgrounds. Some of the negative consequences of racism, explained by Kate Chopin, include shame, guilt and self-loathing. Through the assessment of this short story about morality, religion and race m, these themes explain insightful observations of the cultural and social norms during that time. In this short story, I argue that Kate Chopin wanted to explain how love transcends social boundaries and enables a better understanding of one’s true identity.
The story begins with Chopin explaining how Madame Valmonde drove to L.’Abri to see Desiree and the baby.in this case, the story provides a description of the place where this story happened and this description. According to the story, it is a metaphor for the oppressive nature of racial prejudices. Kate Chopin has described the plantation as “a somber and silent place”, and she also says the atmosphere is “oppressive”, which serves as a reminder of the oppressive nature of racism in the South South. In addition, the oppressive atmosphere and the quiet and sombre place were used to predict the heartbreaking issues in Desiree Baby’s short story (Chopin,1893).
Armand and Desiree are the main characters in this story who underwent through the oppressive atmosphere. Madame Valmonde adopted baby Desiree at a young age when she found her asleep in the shadow of the big stone pillar. She abandoned every speculation and believed Desiree was sent to her by a beneficent to the child of her affection. Desiree was unaware of her family, and the Creole family accepted her as white, and she grew to be most beautiful, sincere, gentle and affectionate(Chopin,1893). Armand comes from a history of racism and is deeply prejudiced against racism. When Armand saw Desiree, he was happy, and he viewed her as the figure of his family’whiteness and purity and how he showed her love was a likeness of his racism. Desiree and Armand fell in love and got married and the wonder is that he had not loved her before but had known her for quite some time.
Armand and Desiree have a son and the author tells us that Desiree is overjoyed. She says Armanda will be a happy dad because the child was born a boy and he will bear his name. When the baby was three months, his skin started to darken and there was an awful change in her husband’s behaviour towards Desiree, who accused her of not being white. The story tells us that Desiree and Armand’s lovely marriage life changed and Desiree wrote a letter to her mother about how her husband accused her of not being white and her mother told her to come home(Chopin,1893). However, Desiree discovered that Armand’s mother was not white, and she knew Armand’s racism was the cause of their child having dark skin and not her racism. Finally, Desiree left the plantation with her son in despair and shame and never returned to her husband. Armand was left in shame and a deep sense of guilt.
Kate Chopin claims racism leads to deep guilt and shame for Armanda and destroys his family. He had a prejudiced character by rejecting his son and wife because they were dark, which left him with regrets and shame. Chopin used Desiree and Armand as the main characters to explain the heartbreaking consequences of racism and reminds every reader that racism is destructive and leads to negative effects on those involved.
Reference
Chopin, K. (1893). Desiree’s baby. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/bitstream/handle/123456789/132722/Desirees_Baby_(Kate_Chopin_1893).docx.pdf?sequence=1
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