Gender Roles in Chopin's Desiree's Baby and A Point at Issue

Yet it is not until Armand believes that Desiree is black that he fully dominates her simply by thinking that he is superior.  At this point, “when he spoke to her, it was with averted eyes, from which the old love-light seemed to have gone out” (317).  Armand feels that he is too superior to Desiree to devote his full attention to her.  Since he no longer expresses his love for Desiree, she feels further pushed into a slave-like position in the relationship, and, “was miserable enough to die” (318).

The story Desiree’s Baby is about a young woman who is adopted by a two wealthy french creoles that live in Louisiana. Monsieur and Madame Valmonde adopted Desiree when she was found as a young infant by a pillar near the gate of their estate. The story then follows Desiree as she matures into a young woman and is married to a man named Armand whom which she loves very much. Armand and desiree soon have a child and both are extremely happy about the child but Armand soon pulls away both his compassion and happiness when he see’s something wrong with the child. Armand realises that the child is has some black in it, which happens to be the skin color of slavery. Shamed Armand blames Desiree for his child being part black seeing that Desiree’s

It was not until the very end of the story that she finally came realize who and what she looked like. She never noticed how similar they appeared and was shocked to realize that maybe her husband only loved her because of how similar she looked to the girl. Now she has to keep living with the thought of her husband only being with her because she looked so much like the girl. In the story “Desiree’s Baby”, Desiree was also faced with a troubling problem. Though she was white and her husband had the appearance of being white, their baby is black. It was not through the fault of Desiree that her baby was part black, but through the fault of her husband, Armand. Armand sends them away to Desiree’s mother’s but instead they head into the forest. Desiree and her baby disappear and are never heard of again. Soon after, Armand realizes that it was his fault that the baby is part black. When opening a letter, he reads, “I thank the good God for having so arranged

Desiree is portrayed as a very dependent character throughout the short story Desiree’s Baby due to her response to the conflicts that are presented to her. When Armand and Desiree realize that their Baby appears to have “Negro” characteristics, Armand rejects Desiree which leads her on a downward spiral to her own suicide. This shows that Desiree has become so overly dependent on Armand that she would not be able to live without him in her life, so she would rather kill herself than deal with the disapproval from him. As Desiree begins writing to her mother about the accusations of her being of black descent she uses the terms “they” and “them” as a reference to the community and society since Desiree knows that the society will reject her

Desiree is portrayed as a very dependent, fragile, and weak character throughout the short story Desiree’s Baby because of her response to the conflicts that are presented to her. Desiree’s Baby illustrates this when Armand rejects Desiree because their baby appears to have “negro” characteristics. Desiree depends on Armand so much that she wants to kill herself because he does not approve of her anymore since he believes she is of African descent. This highlights that Desiree cannot be independent anymore because she is willing to kill herself for not being able to be with Armand anymore. Next, Desiree is a very fragile character, which is also shown from not being able to handle the rejection from Armand.

“Desiree’s Baby” written by Kate Chopin, is a mind boggling story that gives the reader a true reflection of how cruel American history was to everyone especially when slavery existed. This story suggests that if we surrender ourselves to anything except love, it will open us up to ignorant behaviors, hatred, and lies; thus eventually destroying ourselves and becoming a lost soul not knowing and being aware of one’s whereabouts. Desiree’s Baby was about a young man that goes by the name of Armand Aubigny who fell in love and married a young girl by the name of Desiree. Unfortunately Armand’s bias behavior and cold hearted feelings began to change during their marriage after the birth of their child. About three months after the baby was born, Armand and many of the neighbors throughout L’Abri

Although, the father, whose race was Creole, did not love the baby who was a mulatto because he did not understand his own race. Desiree, on the other hand, was Caucasian, yet after Armand saw the baby’s appearance, he accused his wife of not actually being white and sent the baby and Desiree away. Afterwards, Armand burned anything that reminded him of Desiree, in which he found a box of letters that his mom once sent to his dad that read: "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." As a result, Armand now knows his ethnic background and perhaps feels bitter about how he treated his son and

Madame Valmondé, Désirée’s mother, wrote to her daughter saying “My own Désirée: Come home to Valmondé; back to your mother who loves you. Come with your child” (3). The letter illustrates the way Madame Valmondé accepted Désirée no matter what her origin was, black or white. When Armand is presented with the letter, he “ran his cold eyes over the written words. He said nothing” (3).

In the very beginning Desiree was left on a stone pillar at the Valmonde estate; it is also here that Armand Aubigny sees her and falls instantly in love with her. The stone pillar is a symbol of firm, forced male dominance in a patriarchal society. It is how men were of superior to anybody else. Desiree grew into a beautiful and gentle-hearted young woman and soon found a wealthy suitor asking for her hand. This young suitor was Armand Aubigny. He had known of Desiree’s past but was in love and did not care. Armand Aubigny’s character in this story was racist and despicable but the young bride was in love and looked past his faulty character.

Armand begins to change as the black complexion of his son becomes more clearly recognized discloses that the color of his son was dependent of his love towards him and his wife. Particularly, “When the child darkens, Armand's feelings for Desiree change at the same pistol-shot speed with which he ostensibly fell in love... The callous treatment of his wife upon their baby’s ‘metamorphosis’ suggests he never loved her” (Bauer 142). The speed in which Armand stops loving Desiree makes known that his love for her was conditional and is solely built upon the color of Desiree's skin and blood.

Kate Chopin’s story Desiree’s baby is a short narrative in which a woman struggles with her identity. She finds herself in love and with a young child who is found to be “cursed” with “black blood”. Chopin illuminates the theme of Identity through word choice, characters’ values, as well as names.

Désirées, the wife of a plantation owner, appears to be white and lives to believe that she is white, is drowned with confusion when her baby has a different skin complex. In fear that things will change when she finds out this new set of information, she panics and begins telling herself and her husband, “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 fair. Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand” (2). Although she might not be white to the eye she could have some African American descent in her history. Fingers are pointed to the wife when speaking of having African American descent because men had superiority above women. Race depicts society but so do the boundaries between men and women as men had social authority in the past. During this time, it was considered to be better to be white, so her husband evidently did not want to take blame for their child 's skin color and does not take blame. Furthermore, this new information that was revealed to the wife could mean several things. Back in the 1800’s in society, plantation owners were above African Americans in society. The wife panicked because she knew from that point on her life had the possibility of dramatically changing.

Désirée is a young 18-20 year old girl who appears to be white, but really she's not. As a baby, she was discovered by Madame Valmondé. Later on in her life, she had a baby with her husband, Armand, who turned out to not be the color they expected. She and her baby left her husband because of their race. Armand was white and she was not.

By following the life of Desiree, a new mother living on a plantation with her husband Armand, in Desiree’s Baby, the reader sees the changes in Armands personality towards the African-American race. When Armand soon discovers Desiree’s baby is a mulatto, he kicks Desiree and their child off the plantation making the assumption that she is of African-American descent. Soon after her leaving, Armand discovers that it was not Desiree of African-American descent, but Armand himself, showing the irony of his ill will towards blacks. Upon reading Desiree’s Baby, it can be concluded that Kate Chopin is showing readers how prejudices can change the personalities of people and of society as a whole.

First, Desiree’s identity changes constantly throughout her life. In the story, Desiree goes from being abandoned and having no identity, to being taken in by a loving family, to taking the identity of Armand’s wife, and then back to having no identity. Having taken on so many identities clearly affects her at the end of the story when she decides to kill herself because of her inability to try to find a new identity and see life outside of Armand. One quote that shows an identity change is, "Desiree, truly belongs nowhere. Found abandoned in front of the gates to the valmonde plantation," (Essays 3). As a child Desiree was abandoned and had no identity, but when she was taken if by that