Desirees Baby Analysis
In "Desiree’s Baby," Kate Chopin uses irony throughout the whole story. She used irony without the reader actually knowing what was going on, so that she could build up to the end and then you could understand the true irony in the situation. It’s in the end when we learn the fact that with his deep hatred of the slaves, that he too is part "of the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery", along with Desiree and their child (Chopin, 363).
Our first example comes through the eyes of Desiree’s mother when she is coming for visit. "When she reached L’Abri she shuddered at the first sight of it, as she always did. It was a sad looking place — Aubigny’s rule was a strict one, too, and under it his Negroes had forgotten how to be gay, as they had been during the old master’s easy-going and indulgent lifetime" (Chopin, 360). The irony in this situation is he himself, being more of the Negro race than his own father, treated the slaves much worse than his father had. His father was a man who was more easy going and as we know, had a love affair with a woman of the Negro race. Armand himself had a great hatred for the salves and was extremely cruel to them. The slave’s that were there under Armand’s rule were also there under his father’s rule. They all probably knew that his father had the love affair with one of the slaves and they could look at Armand and tell that he had the Negro race in him. It was as if whenever he looked at them it would stir some deep hatred in him that he probably could not understand. This feeling that he had made him despise them even more.
Another example is when Desiree’s mother comes to visit and she is describing what the situation has been like, in the house and on the plantation, since the baby was born. Desiree says,’Armand is the proudest father in the parish, I believe chiefly because it is a boy who can carry on his name.—And mama, "She adding drawing Madame Valmonde’s head down to her, and speaking in a whisper, he hasn’t
Our first example comes through the eyes of Desiree’s mother when she is coming for visit. "When she reached L’Abri she shuddered at the first sight of it, as she always did. It was a sad looking place — Aubigny’s rule was a strict one, too, and under it his Negroes had forgotten how to be gay, as they had been during the old master’s easy-going and indulgent lifetime" (Chopin, 360). The irony in this situation is he himself, being more of the Negro race than his own father, treated the slaves much worse than his father had. His father was a man who was more easy going and as we know, had a love affair with a woman of the Negro race. Armand himself had a great hatred for the salves and was extremely cruel to them. The slave’s that were there under Armand’s rule were also there under his father’s rule. They all probably knew that his father had the love affair with one of the slaves and they could look at Armand and tell that he had the Negro race in him. It was as if whenever he looked at them it would stir some deep hatred in him that he probably could not understand. This feeling that he had made him despise them even more.
Another example is when Desiree’s mother comes to visit and she is describing what the situation has been like, in the house and on the plantation, since the baby was born. Desiree says,’Armand is the proudest father in the parish, I believe chiefly because it is a boy who can carry on his name.—And mama, "She adding drawing Madame Valmonde’s head down to her, and speaking in a whisper, he hasn’t