Desiree's Baby By Kate Chopin Essay

Kate Chopin was an author from the nineteenth century, who is considered to be one of the great American authors. Kate created several literary masterpieces in her career, but they would not be truly appreciated until long after her death. Her work was ahead of its time, covering sensitive topics such as the roles of women within society. “Desiree’s Baby” is one of many pieces of literature that address Kate’s views on society. In this story, Chopin uses irony, symbolism, and the element of surprise to demonstrate the bias and hypocrisy of society. She uses the character Armand to show these qualities as the story unfolds. She also delves into the difference between real love and conditional love as she describes Armand's and the Valmonde’s

Kate uses an excellent examples of irony to make this clear. Although Desiree did nothing wrong in the story, she still receives harsh treatment because of speculations of her race. The word Desiree in French means desired, but she does not feel this way as the story comes to an end. Her husband abandons his affections for her and asks her to leave his home, because he feels that she has disgraced his name by supposedly being of mixed origin. It’s ironic because her name literally means the opposite of how she was being treated. The only thing more ironic than that is the fact that she is not of mixed origin in the first place, Armand is. Of course he does not know this at the time, but Kate reveals this at the end of the story when Armand finds a letter his mother wrote stating, “I thank the good God for having arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery” (4). At this point, it is too late to save poor Desiree from her demise. She suffers a cruel and undeserving fate at the hands of the bias and hypocritical