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February 3, 2011

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Kate Chopin’s Desiree’s baby is a love story that ends with a bitter twist. The American dream is portrayed during the beginning of the story in which a young couple falls in love, and they soon marry. Armand Aubigny is a rich land owner in Louisiana. He could have chosen anyone from the same wealthy class to marry, but he fell in love with someone quite different. Desiree, his future wife, was abandoned as a toddler and raised by Madame Valmonde. Desiree’s identity was somewhat a mystery, but Armand was fascinated with her beauty and charm. Despite the criticism he encountered concerning Desiree’s background Armand was in love, “as if struck by a pistol shot.”

The couple married and things were puzzle perfect for quite some time. The new bride, that was once left alone; who was raised by a considerate caregiver, lives in a mansion with servants at her slightest demand. Armand and Desiree are rich. Armand inherited all of his father’s wealth. He never really knew his mother who was from France. “His father brought Armand home from Paris when he was eight years old after his mother died. The birth of the son was exciting for the couple who have suffered hardships during their own childhood.

Joy turns into a melancholy atmosphere in the Aubigny mansion. The son that they both adored has everybody on edge as he begins to grow. The skin color of the baby appears to be black. How in the world can this be? Armand is white and Desiree is white. Armand questions Desiree’s background that he vaguely knew anything about. She lost her original and received her adoptive name. Could Desiree have black in her blood? Armand begins to avoid Desiree and the son. Armand a man of wealth and power is now shameful of the child that bears his last name. Desiree is fed up with the tension and ill treatment of her son and herself. She decides to comfort Armand concerning the matter. Armand who once was madly in love with his new bride is filled with anger and hate. A powerful slave master will not accept a son the same skin color of his servants. Desiree questions Armand’s background. She argues the point that her skin is lighter than Armand’s skin color. Could Armand possibly have black blood as he accused Desiree of having?

Desiree sought answers concerning her background from Madame Valmonde. Madam Valmonde requested that Desiree and the boy baby move back home with her. Armand told Desiree to “go. Armand was emotionless toward Desiree and the child. Desiree took the child, and they left the Aubigny estate. The place she once called home is now a place she is no longer welcome.

Armand decides to burn all of Desiree and the baby’s belongings weeks after they left. As he burns away all the memories of a woman and child he loved, he is surprised with an old letter that his mother had written to his father. Armand was told that his mother died in France while he was a youth. The letter revealed a shocking secret that Armand would never forget. Armand‘s mother was praising God that Armand would never know that his mother was “cursed with the brand of slavery.” Armand must know joggle the fact that his mother was once as the slaves he owns, and his son’s black blood actually is a product of his heritage.

I can understand the shock that Armand had to deal with concerning the color of his son’s skin. He probably had questions concerning his wife’s heritage as well as her faithfulness. Racism has always been around all over the country, but in the South it has proved to have a dominant effect. Desiree also suffered doing the events that transpired. The apparent reason that she was unaware of her heritage troubled her very much.

The generation of today is much different from the days of Kate Chopin and the 1960’s and 70’s. Years ago, interracial couples had to have a secret relationship like Armand’s parents. Today, interracial couples are very prevalent as well as the children they have.

The irony about Armand’s mother being black really added spice to the story and opened the imagination of her readers. Chopin also leaves the readers with a mystery. Will Armand seek his family to return after the truth about his son is revealed?

Works Cited

Peel, Ellen. “Semiotic Subversion in Desiree’s Baby.” American Literature: A

Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 62.2 (1990): 223-237.

MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 3 Feb. 2011.

Baym, Nina.ed,. “Desiree’s Baby.” Chopin, Kate. The Norton Anthology

American Literature, 7th ed. (2008): 1615-1619.

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