Literary Analysis Of Desirée's Baby By Kate Chopin

Literary Analysis Research Essay There are many themes that run through literature but the one of the ones that I think is often the most forgotten in early literature is feminism. Most people these days have a bad view of feminism, or they think that it is a new concept that started in the sixties. Feminism within literature has been around for quite some time but some people don’t easily recognize it. Kate Chopin is often seen as a feminist writer of the late 1800’s, but some might not see the works of Tennessee Williams as feminism. Although Kate Chopin’s “Desirée’s Baby” and Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” explore sexuality and the treatment of women, the intended outcomes of both stories are very different. “Desirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin is story that explores and deals with racism, prejudice, and love. Most people see this story as addressing racism, but there is an undercurrent of feminism throughout. It is set in southern Louisiana before the Civil War, where Desirée is

Searching for a feminist voice in Chopin’s work is much easier now because of all the groundwork that feminist activist have done over the years. Chopin’s stories often depict women as silent, passive and incapable of expressing themselves or their desires in her earlier work but as she grew as a person and author women changed into being more vocal and active (Cutter). Her work as a whole usually shows a pattern of women’s voices being repressed, such as in Desirée. Women today can take away from Chopin the relationship between men and women in her stories and how little women had any say in their lives. It also shows the reader how far the evolution of feminism as