Desiree's Baby: Armand's Own Self Hatred

In Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby” race and prejudice is a prevalent subject that surrounds the entire piece. The amount of hostility Armand shows toward Desiree after the realization of the baby’s mixed heritage stems from Armand’s own self-hatred. He resents his heritage; he wants nothing more but to continue on his family name but cannot without having a child that appears full white. This ultimately leads to Desiree’s suicide as well as the death of her young child. While the ending is obviously ironic, Chopin does not go into any details of Armand reaction. There is no reference to possible shock on Armand’s part; the text simply reads “He read it.”(202) This seems unusual since one expect the author to show Armand’s remorse; to show he is aware of the injustice of his actions. Chopin ambiguity leads to the conclusion that Armand was already fully conscious of his mixed heritage. Desiree is found in “asleep in the shadow of the big stone pillar.”(199) It is no coincidence that the same place that Desiree is abandoned is the very place Armand falls “in love with her.” (199) The shadow that Desiree sleeps in foreshadows her death; the big stone pillar is the tombstone she never receives since she drowns to death in the bayou. With this large pillar representing her death, the fact that Armand is struck by infatuation while Desiree leans against the pillar also foreshadows the death will be of Armand’s doing. Armand’s harsh treatment and overly prideful sense of self leads to her demise. Another reason Chopin uses this juxtaposition is to highlight Armand using Desiree for her “obscure origin.”(199) The pillar also represents Desiree’s lack of a past; she is supposedly found by Armand where she was lost. “Armand Aubigny riding by and seeing her there, had fallen in love with her. That was the way all the Aubignys fell in love, as if struck by a postil shot.”(199) When Armand realizes he can use her ambiguous ancestry, he seizes the moment instantly and falls in love with the fact that Desiree liberates him from his own black heritage.
Armand’s treatment of the slaves furthers the concept that he is aware of his African American descent. “Young Aubigny’s rule was a strict one, too, and under it his negroes had forgotten how to be gay ...” (199) While Armand’s father loved his wife despite her race, Armand hates himself for having inherited such a curse. This inward hate expels itself outward with his hostility shown toward the slaves the same way his father’s love for his mother allowed the slaves to live an “easy going and indulgent lifetime.” (199) With the birth of his child, Armand is more lient on the slaves. As Desiree says “…he hasn’t punished one of them—not one of them—since the baby is born.”(200) He does his because that self-hatred has somewhat diminished; this child Desiree has supplied him with releases him from the guilt of his race. Desiree was never a person to Armand, but rather an object and prize that would free him from the mental bondage he endured from being half black.
Madame Valmonde instantly realizes the baby is of mixed heritage, “’Yes, the child has grown, has changed [she] said slowly…’What does Armand say?’” (200) Madame Valmonde asks what Armand says because she understands Armand will not accept the child if he is of mixed race. This foreshadows Armand’s further treatment of Desiree in the story. As several others begin to realize that the child is a “quadroon”(201) Desiree remains completely unaware while Armand self-loathing returns as “an awful change in her husband’s manner, which she dared not ask him to explain.”(200) This self-disgust once again is shown through his treatment of others. Armand begins to avoid Desiree, the child, and the home, “the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealing with the slaves.”(201) Now that Armand is aware that the baby does not appear wholly white, he again begins to take that resentment out on the slaves.
When Desiree demands Armand to “tell me what it means!”(201) in reference to the baby’s skin tone, “he answer[s] lightly, ‘that the child is not white; it means that you are not white.’”(201) Desiree’s reaction is one of hysterically and she even compares her skin to his “look at my hand; whiter than yours Armand.” (201)This foreshadows Armand’s actually nationality; how could Desiree be black if her features were that of “gray eyes” and “fair skin?” The description of Armand earlier in the short story is limited to calling his face “dark”(199) and “handsome.”(199) The only judgment we can make on his skin tone is that it is in fact darker than his wife.
In the climax of Armand’s treatment towards Desiree, Armand finds himself just in his actions:
“He thought Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him; and felt, somehow, that he was paying Him back in kind when he stabbed this into his wife’s soul. Moreover, he no longer loved her, because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and name.” (202)
The unjust cards God had handed him were not that Desiree was black, but that she was not white enough to save Armand from himself. God had given Armand what appeared to be a perfect opportunity to hide his secret, but even then, Desiree failed. The “unconscious injury” (202) again is not Desiree’s accused race, but rather her unknown inability to produce an offspring that did not appear a quarter black. Had Desiree’s baby been a child that appeared only of white origin, it can be concluded Armand would still be overjoyed, still treating the slaves without overly harsh treatment. Instead, he reverts to his old self at the disappointment of his colored child.
The position of the letter revealing Armand’s origin is also symbolically significant. “…back in the drawer…but it was not Desiree’s; it was part of an old letter from his mother to his father.”(202) The fact that the letter is hidden behind all of Desiree’s love letters suggests Armand had already read the letter and tries to push back out of reach from even himself. Desiree’s letters pile in front as she represents this hope that will save his family name; he hopes he can hide behind Desiree. Essentially, Armand makes Desiree his salvation and when she unable to cover his sin, he ultimately rejects her.
Had Armand been completely unaware of his race, the ending would be more tragic, the reader would feel small amount sympathy for him. Instead Chopin subtly suggests throughout the entire text that there is no reason to feel any pity; Armand was not shocked with the letter revealing his mother’s race simply because he was aware far prior to the conclusion.

Works Cited
Kate, Chopin. "Desiree 's Baby." The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. 8th . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2011. 199-202. Print.

Cited: Kate, Chopin. "Desiree 's Baby." The Story and Its Writer. Ed. Ann Charters. 8th . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2011. 199-202. Print.