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Interracial Relationships In Desiree's Baby By Kate Chopin

1193 Words5 Pages

Nowadays there are interracial relationships everywhere. Although, there are more interracial couples than same race couples. In the past interracial couples were illegal in certain states, now they are common throughout the entire world. During this era there was many white people that were prejudice towards African Americans. Whites treated the blacks like dirt because they didn’t like the color of their skin. The blacks were simply hated by the whites for no apparent reason. In the story Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin, she discusses how modern day interracial relationships face the same prejudices that they did in the nineteenth century. In the story Armand Aubigny had fallen in love with desiree, “as if struck by a pistol” (“Desiree’s Baby” page 1). Armand soon married Desiree and began their lives together in love. As their love for each grew stronger, they had decided to have a baby. Once the baby was born, Armand noticed something strange about the baby. Their baby was darker than both of them, which then made Armand …show more content…

True love is when you feel depressed and sickly when you're not with her ("True love"). Armand did not feel depressed, he was glad that Desiree left because he didn't try to work it out. If he really loved her, he wouldn't have left her because of the child being darker. He would have at least took care of them and try to figure out why their baby was colored and not white. If Armand would have stayed with her, he would have found out later that baby is darker because Armand's mother is part black. True love is telling her you want to spend the rest of your life with her ("True love"). Not kicking her out and telling her to leave with her child. Love is that you would do anything and everything for her ("True love"). Yet, Armand gives up on her because his child is colored and not white like him. If they really had true love, he would have looked past the color of his child's skin and loved both of

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There could have been multiple possibilities of why the baby was not “White,” but due to Armand’s first intuition that Désirée was not white, he is showing that he has authority of the situation and that what he says goes. Because the husband and wife in both stories allow this particular type of destructive relationship, where the wife is submissive and the husband treats his wife like his own property, both stories progressively deteriorate by the

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Armand’s father had brought him home from paris, when he was eight, after his mother died. He came from a wealthy family. According to the Armand’s father thought of Desiree didn’t seem like he was happy because the way he grew up, he wanted someone from the same wealth as them. After they had gotten married and they were expecting a baby, the day had come of the birth of the child Mrs. Valmonde was surprised about the baby when she saw it because perhaps the kid didn’t look like one of the parent’s. “ Marriage, and later the birth of his so had softened Armand Aubigny’s imperious and exacting nature greatly.”

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In the short story “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, A woman named Desiree supposedly takes the life of herself and her child after “discovering” that she is biracial, and that her child is also of mixed race. Although, in the end of the story, we discover that the baby’s father, Armand, is really the biracial parent, it still seems logical to remember the story as if Desiree were biracial, since that is what both she and Armand believed, up until the very end. Many believe that Desiree’s decision to kill herself and her child was justified, because of the shame and ridicule that would come to the child, and the fact that she herself believed that neither her nor the child would have a happy future. Many believe that Desiree’s actions were justified because of the few options she seemed to have at the time, and the fact that all she could think about was how shameful she felt for being biracial, and

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Look at my hair, it is brown; and my eyes are gray, Armand, you know they are gray. And my skin is fair,”seizing his wrist. “Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand,” she laughed hysterically.” When Desiree proves to Armand that she is white, it is easily recognized that he can not stand being defeated. When Armand reacted saying, “As white as La Blanche’s,” he returned cruelly; and went away leaving her alone with their child.”

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Another way on how culture influenced the story was that Desiree would rather unlive herself and her baby than live as black person .´´Oh, Armand is the proudest father in the parish, ". (Desiree's Baby slide 18)This shows how Armand was admiring his son at first until he found out the baby was not white .

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Armand lost his love for them both and felt resentment towards them. The audience assumes as well that Desiree's background had caught up to her and is now naturally being punished because her assumed black heritage in the racist South. What the audience later finds is that ironically the baby looks the way it does not because of Desiree but because of Armand. Desiree is found abandoned by her unknown parents as a baby, a wealthy white couple finds her and adopts her

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He got upset easily and would always be mad. After a while, Armand had started to notice that the baby didn’t seem to look like him. The baby had a darker complexion than Armand and Desiree. Armand and Desiree fought about it for a

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This shows that Desiree’s baby uncovers the racist wickedness within Armand Aubigny. Another example is that racism was conveyed in Southern Louisiana as if one person has one drop of black blood he, or she is black. On page 2 it says “when the baby was about three months old, Desiree awoke one day to the conviction that there was something in the air menacing her peace”. Therefore the author Kate Chopin’s use foreshadowing to let the reader know that Armand was a racist supremacist; using the baby from the wagon. From these examples it is clear that if a married individual

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They end up having a kid but the boy turns out to be not white. Armand angry and upset kicks out both Desiree and her baby because of her mixed race. That night, Armand burns all of Desiree’s possessions. While doing this, he finds a letter that his mother wrote to his

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During the era in which this short story was written, southern authors had a major influence on the way the culture was going to grow with racism, and also the way people loved each other. Kate Chopin, a traditional author who believed in southern ways, exemplifies how race and the characteristics of conditional love played a role in her story. In “Desiree’s Baby,” the author, Kate Chopin, provides an illustration of conditional love exemplified by the character, Armand, towards his wife and child; furthermore, Chopin provides instances of irony, elements of surprise, foreshadowing, and symbolism to prove that Armand’s love for both of them was not the unconditional love typically felt and portrayed by women, such as Desiree, during this era. Throughout the story, the readers notice different times where Chopin uses elements of surprise. One major surprise is when Armand opens the letter from his mother and finds out that he has African American in his bloodline.

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Soon after he began to notice that the baby 's complexion became darker and made the assumption that the child is not his or his wife was of mixed race. The sad truth of the situation was received when he soon later discovered he was the one of mixed race, he then regretted telling his wife to leave with the baby (Chopin). Kate Chopin uses the different characters to create a storyline that the conflict of the story has ironic. (LitCharts)

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Armand knew his heritage because he yelled at desires and ignored her multiple times because she was of African American origin. When people found out that Armand and Desiree’s baby was one fourth black when meant Armand or Desiree was part black Armand immediately blamed Desiree for being part black and yelled at her repeatedly saying that she was not white” It

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He and his family are neighbors of the Valmondes. Appearances and money are very important to him because of that, he becomes selfish and rude person. When he fell in love, he became a new person. Armand went from mean to kind. From possessive and selfish to loving and open.

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Armand’s mother tries to spare him the burden of knowing his actual origin by keeping it from him all those years. She thinks by hiding it from him it will solve many of his problems to come although it may be the reason as to why this all happens. Chopin’s use of irony is what makes this short story so popular. As a reader, plot twists make the story very entertaining and keeps the reader on the edge of the seat wanting to know what will happen next. This is one of the reasons she uses it in some of her short

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