Desiree's Baby Essay

Which is more powerful: love or racism? Kate Chopin’s short story “Desiree’s Baby,” is excellent proof that racism can overpower love. “Desiree’s Baby” is about Armand Aubigny, a man with a proud name, who falls in love, marries, and has a child with a woman named Desiree, whose past is unknown due to being abandoned as a child. As Armand’s and Desireee’s child grows, people start to notice the child is of mixed ethnicity. Armand accuses Desiree of being part African American, which causes her to commit suicide, taking their child with her. Afterward, Armand finds a letter to his father from his mother, who died when he was a child, revealing that she was part African American. Kate Chopin used a variety of strategies to create a theme about

The first person to recognize that the baby was not completely white was Desiree’s mother, Madame Valmondé. When she realized it, she was completely shocked and chose not to bring it to Desiree’s attention. If racial inequality was not present in this situation, “Madame Valmondé would not have kept the reality of the child’s background from Désirée despite recognizing the truth herself.” (Champlin) The next reaction we see in this narrative is Armand’s. Armand noticed and without saying anything to Desiree, started distancing himself from her and the child. When Desiree realizes this and brings it up to Armand, she is extremely confused and asks him what it means. Armand blames her and says that the only possible reason is that she must be part African American. This discovery causes Armand to tell Desiree to leave because he can not possibly love her anymore. Desiree is full of so much shame that she gets her child and disappears into the bayou. The shame of being African American and being supposedly beneath white people or having any kind of positive relationship with someone who is, caused Madame Valmonde to keep her discovery a secret, Armand to banish his love, and Desiree to take her life and her child with her. Another way that we see that being African American is shameful for some people is the way that Armand’s mother chose to hide that she is the one that is African American. She would not have chosen to do that if she thought her family would not have been thought of as less than others because of it. The idea that a person’s skin color depicts who they are as an individual can make people lie to and turn on the people they