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What Does Desiree's Baby Mean

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Desiree’s Baby Kate Chopin’s short story Desiree Baby takes place in antebellum Louisiana. “Desiree Baby” contains examples of loving someone with different origins. One of the first examples is Madama Valmonde: “Madama Valmonde abandoned every speculation but the one that Desiree sent to her by a beneficent providence to be the child of her affection” (1). Kate Chopin shows despite Desiree’s obscure origin that Madama Valmonde still loves her. Eighteen years later Desiree stood by the stone pillar Armand Aubigny fell instantly in love with Desiree. Armand expresses his love by, “That was the way all the Aubigny fell in love as if struck by a pistol shot”(1). Kate Chopin uses this sentence to express Armand’s inner feelings for Desiree. Armand knew Desiree is the unknown origin, but he still married her: “Armand looked into her eyes and …show more content…

Armand takes vows to Desiree, giving her one of the proudest names in Louisiana. Desiree gives born to Armand first born son his mood started to charge, “Armand’s dark, handsome face not often been disfigured by frowns since the day he fell in love with her”(2). In the story, Desiree was blinded by the love of her baby that she did not notice her child was darker than her. Desiree did not realize her baby was a different origin until “Blanche’s little quadroon boy was half naked, and stood fanning the child slowly with a fan of a peacock feather. Desiree’s eyes had been fixed absently and sadly upon the baby” (2). Desiree could not understand, why her child skin was changing colors? Desiree asks Armand why their child skin color was not the

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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

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784 Words | 4 Pages

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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1573 Words | 7 Pages

Eighteen years later a man named Armand Aubigny saw her and fell in love with her not caring about Desiree’s origin. He marries her and gives her a family of her own. Desiree has a baby and Armand has becomes soft .The baby turns three months old and rumors and gossips around L’Abri plantation and suddenly the joy that Desiree and Armand once felt goes away. Armand questions Desiree about her heritage and accuses her of not being white since the baby they had is black.

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1210 Words | 5 Pages

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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922 Words | 4 Pages

In “Desiree’s Baby”is a short story written by Kate Chopin. Chopin displays the main characters Armand and Desiree struggling in their marriage due to the fact that their first child is dark skinned. Armand is quick to assume that his wife Desiree is the reason their child is dark skinned since her background is unknown. Armand ends up having to decide what he is going to do with his marriage. Kate Chopin uses direct and indirect characterization in order to enhance the story’s plot.

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952 Words | 4 Pages

In “Desiree’s Baby”, Kate Chopin writes about a young girl named Desiree, who is abandoned and taken in by Madame Valmonde and her husband, however Desiree’s new family has zero knowledge of Desiree’s background. As Desiree grows up she falls in love with Armand Aubigny, who ignores the mysterious background of Desiree and asks her for marriage. During their marriage, the couple is able to have a son; although, Desiree begins to notice that her son does not have the similar appearance as a white baby. Confused and heartbroken, Desiree rushes to her husband for help, yet Armand pushes her away and forces her to leave him by claiming that Desiree is not white. With Desiree gone, Armand finds a letter from his mother who hopes that

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520 Words | 3 Pages

Desiree’s Baby is a short story written by Kate Chopin. The story is about a Desiree, who marries Armand Aubigny .Armand is so in love with Desiree that doesn't care that she was adopted without knowing her family history. They have a child, which they discover a couple months later that it is not all white. The Armand kick’s Desiree and her child out to never come back, which he later discovers that he is the one with the black background.

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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.

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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.

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1488 Words | 6 Pages

Armand instantly blames the color of the baby on Desiree because of her unknown lineage. Distraught, Desiree writes to her mother who urges her and the baby to come home. Armand’s insistence that she leave, results in Desiree taking the baby and never being seen again. Later, while burning all of

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708 Words | 3 Pages

"Desiree's Baby" is Kate Chopin's emotional short story and most well-reputed piece of work. The story takes place in southern Louisiana and her writing reflects her Creole-French heritage. She was a southern feminist who often related her stories back to the issues of discrimination and oppression. Throughout "Desiree's Baby", Chopin uses symbolism imbibe the seemingly simple imagery of the darkness surrounding L’Abri, the field in which Desiree and the baby departed, and the fire which consumed the evidence of their existence with deep, powerful connotations to convey her themes of the injustice of racial prejudice and inequality gender roles. Early in the story, Chopin describes the home of Armand with a wonderfully symbolic quote, "when she reached L'Abri she shuddered at the first sight of it…

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591 Words | 3 Pages

By marrying her, he took a gamble on the skin tone of his children, because although two parents may seem white, their kid can turn out to be dark if one or both of the parents are part black. However, it was difficult to predict whether or not this would happen, because race was very ambiguous during the time. Chopin describes Armand as falling in love with Desiree as instantly as a bullet leaving a gun, but despite this strong love for her the reader see that as their child is aging, Armand’s love for Desiree is slowly turning to disgust. As children with dark complexion age, their skin starts light but grows darker. The reader can assume that Armand’s change in attitude toward Desiree is due to the realization that his child’s skin is growing darker proving that it is not fully white.

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1472 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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1076 Words | 5 Pages

The story “Désirée’s Baby” by Kate Chopin can be difficult to understand when and where the story takes place. “Désirée’s Baby” tells the story of a mother, Madame Valmondé, her daughter, Désirée, her baby and the daughter’s husband, Armand Aubigny, this story focuses on Désirée and Armand’s relationship after having the baby. When their baby begins to take on a darker color of skin, Armand accuses Désirée of being African American and does not want to be with her anymore. Désirée writes to her mother and Madame Valmondé wants her to come home to her. Désirée confronts her husband and ask if she should leave when he agrees, she disappears into the Bayou with her baby, never to be seen again.

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446 Words | 2 Pages

“When Madame Valmonde see’s Desiree is lying beside her baby, she is startled to see the baby’s appearance” (gradesaver). In Chopin’s story it also mentioned that Armand has a “dark, handsome, face” (Chopin), compared to Desiree having skin, “whiter than you, Armand” (Chopin). Desiree is undoubtedly fairer of the two. Thus, Armand had misleading conceptions about Desiree’s heritage.

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