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Desiree's Baby Literary Analysis

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Desiree's Baby Literary Analysis
“ Desiree's Baby” “Desiree’s Baby,” is a fictional story written by Kate Chopin. The story features Desiree who is a young broken-hearted, desolate, and blameless woman. Desiree disappears into the woods, but why? Could her husband, Armand, be the one to blame for her vanishment? From the very beginning, Desiree is a girl who has a very mysterious birth because no one knew about her origin.
One day, a woman named Madame Valmonde found the infant Desiree near her “big stone pillar.” Madame Valmonde, not being able to have children of her own, takes her in and raises her as her own.
Desiree grows up to be a beautiful young girl and one day a man named Armand Aubigny sees the 18-year-old Desiree and falls in love with her.
Armand and Desiree

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