Desiree's Baby

Desiree’s Baby is a short story written by Kate Choplin. The summary of the story is as follows. Desiree was a baby when she was found by Monsier and was adopted by him and his wife Madame Valmonde. Desiree falls in love with the son of a French creole family. Armand. They married and had a son. The baby had been born with dark skin since the baby had African ancestors. Considering the time of this story, this was a big problem for those who considered themselves white. Because Desiree did not know her real parents, Armand immediately thought her ancestors were of color. This led to Armand cruelly rejecting Desiree to the point that she disappeared with her son. Armand proceeds to burn all the letters and trinkets from their marriage, but

Desiree main conflict between herself revolved around the possibility of her being mixed. This worried her since it was of utmost important to come from pure-white parents. This was caused by the period she lived in; where people of color were treated horribly. In the story, she pleads with Armand trying to convince him that she is indeed white. “It is lie; it is not true. I am white!”, (Choplin 4). It is seen here how much she tries to convince Armand that she is white, but it is more than likely that she could be trying to convince herself since her birth parents are unknown. It can be inferred from this line just how big the social gap is between the two races. In fact, Desiree’s total change in character prove this. She had a rather dynamic change. She went from being happy and gentle individual to a gloomy character afraid of her race. All her fear was influenced by the nature of society at the time. This was due to blacks being merely property of white

In the story, Armand can be considered a cruel individual who, for the most part, remains the same throughout the story. Making him a rather static character. In page 1 of the story Chopling describes Armand attitude towards the slaves. Choplin describes Armand’s rule as a “strict one” and how black had forgotten to be “gay” during his rule (Choplin 1). This gives insight on how society was at the time. Basically, as a white person, Armand could treat the slaves however he please, being indifferent towards their happiness. While he did show some change after Marriage, he reverted to his old ways after Desiree’s apparent “betrayal”. Choplin wrote, “Moreover he no longer loved her, because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name” (Choplin 3). This perfectly illustrates how important it was to be white during this specific time. It was so important the Armand, who loved Desiree dearly, could no longer bear to be with