Racism And Slavery In Desiree's Baby By Kate Chopin
Desiree’ Baby
“Desiree’s baby” is a short story written in late 1892 by Katherine Chopin about racism and slavery, and the effects it has on the development of individual’s personality.
According to Tonette Inge and Grant, Katherine Chopin was a half Irish half creole author born in 1851, in St. Louis, in a rich, aristocratic family. She received her formal education at the Academy of The Sacred Heart in St. Louise, her main interests being music, reading, and writing. She was fluent in French and German and enjoyed reading in the original languages whenever possible, although her passion was writing. (Web) “Desiree’s baby” is a story of a young woman who was adopted by a wealthy family after being abandoned at their gateway. Desiree …show more content…
grows to be a beautiful and affectionate person and marries a wealthy plantation owner. They are very much in love with each other and their life seems to be a fairytale until she gives birth to their child. Although they wished to have a baby together her husband Armand starts being suspicious of her background once the baby starts to grow and show similarities to one of the octoroon children. He accuses her of having black ancestry, something that he does not accept in his family. Armand asks Desiree and the baby to leave and disposes their belongings. Although Desiree’s adoptive mother tells her to come back home with the baby, she disappears in the bay out, without returning. While going through her belongings he comes to find a letter from his mother to his father that states that he is the one that “belongs to the race that was cursed with the brand of slavery”. (McMahan, Day, Funk, Coleman, Print)
Desiree’s baby is a story that expresses the powerful implication of racism in the development of individual’s personality and the way they perceive life.
Desiree’s background is unknown due to the fact that she was too young to remember anything about her family when she was abandoned at the Valmonde’s gateway. She is described as a “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere” person that despite her unknown origins she is accepted by the Valmonde’s family as a blessing because they are unable of having children. Madame Valmonde even believed that “Desiree had been sent to her by a beneficent Providence to be the child of her affection, seeing that she was without child of flesh.” They do not care if she is white or black; they just love her the way she is. When Desiree tells her mother about Armand’s suspicious about her origins, she tells her to come back home and assures her that she is loved and is welcomed home with her baby, not even mentioning the racial controversy. (Erickson, Web) She seems to have noticed something as well when she expresses her amazement at seeing the baby after a long period of time. Madame Valmonde exclaims: “This is not the baby!”, “The child has grown, had changed”. According to Gibert “both Desiree and most readers wrongly assume that she was talking about the way the baby looked now and not how fast the baby was growing. Desiree is represented as a figure that does not hold prejudices typical to her era and community. (Web) When she realizes her child has African characteristics, she assumes they come from Armand and she desires to be white. This is not out of shame but because she knows that he will not accept her. Korb states that the Valmonde on the other hand demonstrate the ability to look beyond the connotations of African blood and are willing to accept their daughter and grandson no matter their background and the stigma attached to it. (Web)
Armand’s father also reveals to be superior to standard ideas of racial inequality, because he married a woman of African descent. The Aubigny’s joint decision to hide this truth from Armand shows their understanding of the racism that most of their contemporaries feel. (Korb, Web)
According to Gilbert the reader may suspect that the reason why Armand’s mother never became the mistress of L’Abri is because the marriage would have been illegal at the time in Louisiana and Armand would have been an illegitimate mixed-race child with no rights of inheritance. (Web)
Although Desiree seems to be the main character at the beginning of the story, it is Armand’s personality that is most described towards the end of the story through his actions. He is first characterized as gentlemen full of genealogical pride. (Gibert, Web)
“Armand looked into her eyes and did not care. He was reminded that she was nameless. What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?”
He married Desiree because he fell in love with her despite her obscure origins and that made him look like a very kind and loving man. According to Toth falling in love improves Armand’s temper “his dark handsome face had not often been disfigured by frowns since the day he fell in love with her” (Web)
But his love is conditioned by her being white and as soon as he becomes suspicious about her racial origins he stops loving her and the baby “because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his name “. He blames her for tainting his bloodline with that of African ancestors. (Korb, Web) Armand shows how dark and evil he is by hurting the woman that loves him desperately, putting her in the same spot as La Blanche, his ironically named octorron mistress (Inge, Web); moreover, he thinks that “Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him, and feels somehow, that he is paying Him back in kind when he stabs thus into his wife’s soul.” She tries to convince her husband that she is not the one that has black ancestry by showing him proves that would exclude her from belonging to that race. He responds her cruelly and leaves her behind. Desiree’s baby is also a strong illustration of the cruelty of slave-masters and the destructive effects of slavery to individual’s perception.
Our character, Armand, feels that his slaves are his property and treats them very badly. Unlike his father who was more indulgent to the slaves, “Young 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.”
Although he seems to get better after he marries Desiree, he soon goes back to his old rules when he realizes that his wife must have black ancestry and that she caused damage to his name by giving birth to a child that has mixed-blood. He starts treating her same as his slaves, embarrassing her by saying she is equal to his octorron mistress, La Blanch. Miner suggests that Armand insists upon a wide gap between positions of power and powerlessness; he assumes determinative power over his wife and children, deciding who bears his name, which belongs to his family. (Miner, …show more content…
Web)
Armand fits the stereotype of the cruel slave-beating plantation owner down to the last detail of possessing an octorron mistress. (Inge, Web)
Gibert suggests that the two allusions to La Blanche could be interpreted as indicators that Armand was “paying regular visits to La Blanche’s cabin in order to have sexual intercourse with the woman, and that he probably fathered her quadroons” that looked so much like her own child. Also “the resemblance could have been not only racial, but also due to the fact that the two boys were half-brothers.”
This suggests that Armand believed that he is the master of the slaves and that he is able to do whatever he desires with them, even use them for sexual pleasures. The sad story also presents the vulnerable position of both women and non-white in American society. They are supposed to serve the men and ultimately the white, who are perceived as superior human beings. (Gilbert, Web)
As a good wife that she is, Desiree listens to her husband and leaves the house with her baby, disappearing in the bay out, and never returning. Armand disposes of their belongings, finds out from a letter from his mother to her father that he is the one that “belongs to the race that was cursed with the brand of slavery” and the story takes everyone by surprise, expecting a twist into Desiree’s tragic ending. Her lack of individual identity is underscored by his treatment of her as a possession instead of a beloved but human partner. (Korb, Web)
The Aubigny’s decision to keep secret about his origins do not help at all, and becomes the opposite of his parents , as he judges by appearance rather than essence destroying his family, his life and eventually his own happiness.
In conclusion, we learn that racism and slavery does not only affect the person that’s acting upon, but also the people around them, destroying their lives and the loved ones. Word count: 1516
Works Cited
Erickson, Jon. "Fairytale Features in Kate Chopin 's 'Désirée 's Baby, '." Modes of Narrative: Approaches to American, Canadian and British Fiction. Ed. Reingard M. Nischik and Barbara Korte. Konigshausen & Neumann, 1990. 57-64. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale
Foy, Roslyn Reso. "Chopin 's 'Désirée 's Baby '." The Explicator 49.4 (Summer 1991): 222-223. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Vol. 68. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Gibert, Teresa.
"“Textual, Contextual and Critical Surprises in ‘Désirée’s Baby’”." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 170. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.roup, 2001. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Inge, Tonette Bond, and William E. Grant. "Katherine Chopin." American Short-Story Writers, 1880-1910. Ed. Bobby Ellen Kimbel and William E. Grant. Detroit: Gale Research, 1989. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 78. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013
Korb, Rena. "Critical Essay on 'Désirée 's Baby '." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Miner, Madonne M. "Désirée 's Baby: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013. McMahan Elisabeth, Day Susan, Funk Robert, Coleman Linda. “Literature and the writing process”. Ninth Edition 2011. Print
Toth, Emily. "Kate Chopin and Literary Convention: 'Désirée 's Baby, '." in Southern Studies 20.2 (Summer 1981): 201-208. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb.
2013.
“Desiree’s baby” is a short story written in late 1892 by Katherine Chopin about racism and slavery, and the effects it has on the development of individual’s personality.
According to Tonette Inge and Grant, Katherine Chopin was a half Irish half creole author born in 1851, in St. Louis, in a rich, aristocratic family. She received her formal education at the Academy of The Sacred Heart in St. Louise, her main interests being music, reading, and writing. She was fluent in French and German and enjoyed reading in the original languages whenever possible, although her passion was writing. (Web) “Desiree’s baby” is a story of a young woman who was adopted by a wealthy family after being abandoned at their gateway. Desiree …show more content…
grows to be a beautiful and affectionate person and marries a wealthy plantation owner. They are very much in love with each other and their life seems to be a fairytale until she gives birth to their child. Although they wished to have a baby together her husband Armand starts being suspicious of her background once the baby starts to grow and show similarities to one of the octoroon children. He accuses her of having black ancestry, something that he does not accept in his family. Armand asks Desiree and the baby to leave and disposes their belongings. Although Desiree’s adoptive mother tells her to come back home with the baby, she disappears in the bay out, without returning. While going through her belongings he comes to find a letter from his mother to his father that states that he is the one that “belongs to the race that was cursed with the brand of slavery”. (McMahan, Day, Funk, Coleman, Print)
Desiree’s baby is a story that expresses the powerful implication of racism in the development of individual’s personality and the way they perceive life.
Desiree’s background is unknown due to the fact that she was too young to remember anything about her family when she was abandoned at the Valmonde’s gateway. She is described as a “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere” person that despite her unknown origins she is accepted by the Valmonde’s family as a blessing because they are unable of having children. Madame Valmonde even believed that “Desiree had been sent to her by a beneficent Providence to be the child of her affection, seeing that she was without child of flesh.” They do not care if she is white or black; they just love her the way she is. When Desiree tells her mother about Armand’s suspicious about her origins, she tells her to come back home and assures her that she is loved and is welcomed home with her baby, not even mentioning the racial controversy. (Erickson, Web) She seems to have noticed something as well when she expresses her amazement at seeing the baby after a long period of time. Madame Valmonde exclaims: “This is not the baby!”, “The child has grown, had changed”. According to Gibert “both Desiree and most readers wrongly assume that she was talking about the way the baby looked now and not how fast the baby was growing. Desiree is represented as a figure that does not hold prejudices typical to her era and community. (Web) When she realizes her child has African characteristics, she assumes they come from Armand and she desires to be white. This is not out of shame but because she knows that he will not accept her. Korb states that the Valmonde on the other hand demonstrate the ability to look beyond the connotations of African blood and are willing to accept their daughter and grandson no matter their background and the stigma attached to it. (Web)
Armand’s father also reveals to be superior to standard ideas of racial inequality, because he married a woman of African descent. The Aubigny’s joint decision to hide this truth from Armand shows their understanding of the racism that most of their contemporaries feel. (Korb, Web)
According to Gilbert the reader may suspect that the reason why Armand’s mother never became the mistress of L’Abri is because the marriage would have been illegal at the time in Louisiana and Armand would have been an illegitimate mixed-race child with no rights of inheritance. (Web)
Although Desiree seems to be the main character at the beginning of the story, it is Armand’s personality that is most described towards the end of the story through his actions. He is first characterized as gentlemen full of genealogical pride. (Gibert, Web)
“Armand looked into her eyes and did not care. He was reminded that she was nameless. What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?”
He married Desiree because he fell in love with her despite her obscure origins and that made him look like a very kind and loving man. According to Toth falling in love improves Armand’s temper “his dark handsome face had not often been disfigured by frowns since the day he fell in love with her” (Web)
But his love is conditioned by her being white and as soon as he becomes suspicious about her racial origins he stops loving her and the baby “because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his name “. He blames her for tainting his bloodline with that of African ancestors. (Korb, Web) Armand shows how dark and evil he is by hurting the woman that loves him desperately, putting her in the same spot as La Blanche, his ironically named octorron mistress (Inge, Web); moreover, he thinks that “Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him, and feels somehow, that he is paying Him back in kind when he stabs thus into his wife’s soul.” She tries to convince her husband that she is not the one that has black ancestry by showing him proves that would exclude her from belonging to that race. He responds her cruelly and leaves her behind. Desiree’s baby is also a strong illustration of the cruelty of slave-masters and the destructive effects of slavery to individual’s perception.
Our character, Armand, feels that his slaves are his property and treats them very badly. Unlike his father who was more indulgent to the slaves, “Young 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.”
Although he seems to get better after he marries Desiree, he soon goes back to his old rules when he realizes that his wife must have black ancestry and that she caused damage to his name by giving birth to a child that has mixed-blood. He starts treating her same as his slaves, embarrassing her by saying she is equal to his octorron mistress, La Blanch. Miner suggests that Armand insists upon a wide gap between positions of power and powerlessness; he assumes determinative power over his wife and children, deciding who bears his name, which belongs to his family. (Miner, …show more content…
Web)
Armand fits the stereotype of the cruel slave-beating plantation owner down to the last detail of possessing an octorron mistress. (Inge, Web)
Gibert suggests that the two allusions to La Blanche could be interpreted as indicators that Armand was “paying regular visits to La Blanche’s cabin in order to have sexual intercourse with the woman, and that he probably fathered her quadroons” that looked so much like her own child. Also “the resemblance could have been not only racial, but also due to the fact that the two boys were half-brothers.”
This suggests that Armand believed that he is the master of the slaves and that he is able to do whatever he desires with them, even use them for sexual pleasures. The sad story also presents the vulnerable position of both women and non-white in American society. They are supposed to serve the men and ultimately the white, who are perceived as superior human beings. (Gilbert, Web)
As a good wife that she is, Desiree listens to her husband and leaves the house with her baby, disappearing in the bay out, and never returning. Armand disposes of their belongings, finds out from a letter from his mother to her father that he is the one that “belongs to the race that was cursed with the brand of slavery” and the story takes everyone by surprise, expecting a twist into Desiree’s tragic ending. Her lack of individual identity is underscored by his treatment of her as a possession instead of a beloved but human partner. (Korb, Web)
The Aubigny’s decision to keep secret about his origins do not help at all, and becomes the opposite of his parents , as he judges by appearance rather than essence destroying his family, his life and eventually his own happiness.
In conclusion, we learn that racism and slavery does not only affect the person that’s acting upon, but also the people around them, destroying their lives and the loved ones. Word count: 1516
Works Cited
Erickson, Jon. "Fairytale Features in Kate Chopin 's 'Désirée 's Baby, '." Modes of Narrative: Approaches to American, Canadian and British Fiction. Ed. Reingard M. Nischik and Barbara Korte. Konigshausen & Neumann, 1990. 57-64. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale
Foy, Roslyn Reso. "Chopin 's 'Désirée 's Baby '." The Explicator 49.4 (Summer 1991): 222-223. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Joseph Palmisano. Vol. 68. Detroit: Gale, 2004. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Gibert, Teresa.
"“Textual, Contextual and Critical Surprises in ‘Désirée’s Baby’”." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 170. Detroit: Gale, 2012. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.roup, 2001. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Inge, Tonette Bond, and William E. Grant. "Katherine Chopin." American Short-Story Writers, 1880-1910. Ed. Bobby Ellen Kimbel and William E. Grant. Detroit: Gale Research, 1989. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 78. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013
Korb, Rena. "Critical Essay on 'Désirée 's Baby '." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Miner, Madonne M. "Désirée 's Baby: Overview." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb. 2013. McMahan Elisabeth, Day Susan, Funk Robert, Coleman Linda. “Literature and the writing process”. Ninth Edition 2011. Print
Toth, Emily. "Kate Chopin and Literary Convention: 'Désirée 's Baby, '." in Southern Studies 20.2 (Summer 1981): 201-208. Rpt. in Short Stories for Students. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 13. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 24 Feb.
2013.