ipl-logo

Short Story 'Desiree's Baby'

537 Words3 Pages

In the short story “Desiree’s Baby” , The parents were confused about why the baby was the color he was. The baby boy was black , but the mother and father weren 't black . The husband Armand was blaming Desiree for the reason of the baby’s color. Armad was a big slave owner and it wouldn 't be right for him to have a black baby . It wouldn 't look good on his name. He didn 't want the baby. The author used for showing to show how at the end everything had changed. On page 3 the author states, “A quick conception of all that this accusation meant for her nerved her with unwonted courage to deny it. “It is a lie; it is not true, I am white! Look at my hair, it is brown; and my eyes are gray, Armand, you know they are gray. And my skin is …show more content…

On page 3 it also states “My mother, they tell me I am not white. Armand has told me I am not white. For God’s sake tell them it is not true. You must know it is not true. I shall die. I must die. I cannot be so unhappy, and live.” This shows that Desiree had asked her mom did they have any black in them. She didn 't want to be blamed because of the baby color , so she thought it was better to just kill herself and the baby so they wouldn 't have to go through the criticism . The mother offered her to come back home . Armand didn 't care if the baby and her had left or not because he didn 't want to have a black baby . Desiree had begin to see that it wasn 't her fault the baby was black. She was way whiter than Armand , but he was the same color as the baby . She believes that in his family that they had black somewhere down the line .
In the end of the story Armand had found out he was black and it wasn 't his wife . For example it states in page 4 “But, above all,” she wrote, “night and day, I thank the good God for having so 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.” This shows Armand didn 't know much about his family . He was really young and he didn 't know the colors of people he just saw whites and blacks and he was closer to the

Show More
Related

Comparing Désirée's Baby 'And The Birth-Mark'

1367 Words | 6 Pages

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

Read More

Comparison Of Loving V. Virginia And Desiree's Baby

784 Words | 4 Pages

Signifying that Armand had calmed and settled down once he meet her, he was so in love with Desiree. After a while and 3 months had passed y of the baby’s birth Armand’s attitude had changed she didn’t want to ask but it made her unhappy. Armand didn’t want his family legacy to be ruined because the baby wasn’t white which he believes Desiree wasn’t white either which isn’t the women he fell in love with. This can conclude the fact that people weren’t supportive of interracial relationships and how because of the baby’s skin color Armand’s attitude changed just cause he didn’t want his reputation to be ruined.

Read More

Desiree's Baby Argumentative Essay

570 Words | 3 Pages

This meant that she had no desire to live. Many believe that she is just prolonging her agony by living, and therefore came to the conclusion that her actions were justified, and that killing herself and her baby was a valid option that makes sense. In this time period, nobody who was white wished to marry a mixed woman, or even to be around a mixed woman. Therefore, Desiree would be an outcast. Many believe that this could easily be solved if she just, perhaps, moved to the North and met new people, or reunited with Armand.

Read More

Foreshadowing And Allusion In Desiree's Baby By Kate Chopin

1203 Words | 5 Pages

Desiree says good-bye to Armand and goes to the deserted field with her child and never came back. Armand was burning all of Desiree’s and the child’s materials into the bonfire. Then he found some letters from Desiree, but one was from his mother to his father, the letter said that she was grateful that Armand would never find out his mother was of slave heritage (Chopin). In “Desiree’s Baby, “ Kate Chopin uses imagery, foreshadowing and allusion to develop the ominos, mystery and sad story.

Read More

Tone In Desiree's Baby

1072 Words | 5 Pages

“Desiree’s Baby” is a short story by Kate Chopin. “Desiree’s baby” is a story about a family in the era where the colored were neglected and treated poorly. Desiree was abandoned and left as a baby. When she was adopted she grew up in a very wealthy family. Armand and Desiree have known each other ever since they were little so when they grew up they got married.

Read More

Examples Of Irony In Desiree's Baby

1267 Words | 6 Pages

This is shown when Armand’s mother writes, ‘“night and day, I thank the good God for having so 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,”’(Chopin. Par 6). This shows how Armand was racially mixed himself. Armand's mother's words show the degree to which the American racial tension has conquered even the black mind. She considers her race “cursed with the brand of slavery” (Chopin.

Read More

Prejudice And Racism In Kate Chopin's The Awakening

295 Words | 2 Pages

With the denial of his past and of his race, comes hatred and racism into Armand’s heart and actions. This goes hand and hand with the denial aspect with the usage of characterization from Chopin’s part. Racism ran high in most people’s characteristics of this time because Chopin put this story’s in pre-Civil War times. With the treatment of his slaves, you can really see how Armand feels about others from the race that he sees as less than, even though he is really one of them. The substandard treatment of Armand’s slaves only stops once Desiree gives birth to the baby, but when there was a chance of Desiree being of an African descent, Armand sent her and their child away without thought, saying “Yes, I want to go” with no emotion showing in his voice or actions (3).

Read More

Literary Devices In Desiree's Baby

1326 Words | 6 Pages

When she finally saw the baby, she felt odd about the child’s appearance. Soon, things took a turn and the people of L’Abri started to think differently about the child. Armand did not like the fact that the child looked at though it was from African American ancestry and shunned both the infant and Desiree. After things become too much to handle for Desiree, Armand banished her and the baby to never be seen again in the town.

Read More

Theme Of Irony In Desiree's Baby

1210 Words | 5 Pages

Desiree’s Baby is a short story by Kate Chopin. “Desiree’s Baby” takes place before the Civil War in a time when black people were neglected and mistreated by the whites. Desiree was abandoned and left behind by her parents when she was a toddler by a big stone pillar. She was found and declared adopted by Madame and Monsieur Valmonde. Armand a man that was really harsh to blacks falls in love with Desiree and gets married with her without knowing anything about her ancestry.

Read More

Unconditional Love In Desiree's Baby

1012 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

Desiree's Baby Literary Analysis

1283 Words | 6 Pages

The irony of this short story was that it was Armand who was of mixed raced and not his wife. He was the one who tainted the baby, he found out after fining a letter from his beloved mother that was written to his father (Chopin). Irony is a surprising interesting twist at the end on a story. I am sure that after he read this letter that he soon figured out why his father was so kind to the slaves and how it was wrong of him to treat his wife the way he did and immediately regretted his choices. Thus, she was no longer there and he could not get her back, he thought she went back to live with her stepmother, and if he goes to look for her or the stepmother went to look for her and the child they would both find that Desiree never went to her original destination.

Read More

Irony In Desiree's Baby

1293 Words | 6 Pages

“Desiree’s Baby” is a twisted and heart wrenching story that takes place during a time of great racial inequality. The Devil seems to be very busy throughout the world as he escalates situations and spews lies into the thoughts of men, tearing them from their beloved families. The story “Desiree’s Baby” summons up a very saddening irony that the prejudiced Armand learns that it was his mixed parentage and not that of his wife which produced their mixed-race child whom he detested and rejected. Desiree’s child brings both Desiree and Armand together in love.

Read More

Compare And Contrast Desiree's Baby And The Story Of An Hour

568 Words | 3 Pages

In the short story “Desiree’s Baby”one of the problems

Read More

Theme Of Racism In Desiree's Baby

1280 Words | 6 Pages

As a reader, you will notice the impact racism has in the everyday life .Many decisions were impacted do to thought of blacks being inferior to whites. When reading Kate Chopin’s “ Desiree’s Baby” the reader will be introduced racism and the use of local color all throughout the story. In Kate Chopin’s “

Read More

Indirect Characterization In Desiree's Baby By Kate Chopin

1067 Words | 5 Pages

" His position in a place of power demostrates how influential his actions and decisions are on the livesof others around him, as well as highlight the discrepancy between an unknown origin or namelessness and the possibility of having black ancestry." (wordpress.ClarkU.edu) The story "Desiree's baby " shows the characterization of all the character. In conclusion characterization makes more realistic the story because it describe how the caracter is. This characterization helps the reader to visulize the character more and know how the character is and that's why characterization is

Read More

More about Short Story 'Desiree's Baby'

Related Topics

Open Document