Whiteness In Chopin

In Desiree’s Baby, Kate Chopin shows how over valuing of white race and status can destroy a relationship and a family. Race and status are intangible ideas humans make up to segregate one another and should not be valued higher than a human life, but this is not the case in "Desiree’s Baby.”

Chopin show’s that Armand is unable to welcome the knowledge that his mother “belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery,” (250). Not only is Armand unable to accept this fact but he is not will to take responsibility for his actions resulting in his knowledge of his heritage. Desiree seemed to be the perfect solution for Armand’s secret since her background is a mystery and she has such

Without racial comparisons, the story would only be a tragedy, reading as a criticism of hasty racial categorization because of the suffering it brings, but with them it is a depiction of a flawed system that has rewarded a black man. Chopin first contrasts Armand’s tendency to take on “the very spirit of Satan” in dealing with slaves with the more relaxed relationship they had with his father (441). Looking upon L’Abri, Madame Valmonde is troubled to realize that under Young Aubigny’s rule “his negroes had forgotten how to be gay, as they had been during the old master’s easy-going and indulgent lifetime” (440). Additionally, Madame Valmonde’s sadness upon seeing the estate may indicate that Monsieur Valmonde, a white man like Armand’s father, lacks young Aubigny’s cruelty. Armand’s lack of compassion is seen again upon realizing his son’s black heritage. Feeling that “Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him” by giving him a quadroon child, Armand asks Desiree and the child to leave L’Abri (442). In contrast, Monsieur Valmonde’s treatment of Desiree as “the idol of Valmonde” depicts his compassion toward a child who may potentially be black (440). Chopin’s racist undertones are realized as the dark-skinned Armand, characterized by volatility and callousness, is meant to be looked upon much less favorably than the story’s compassionate white slave owners.

In “Desiree Baby”, author, Chopin emphasizes racism by selecting certain words to symbolize the association between light and darkness, and the slaves on the plantation.

Chopin was a southern feminist writer who often related her stories back to the issue of discrimination across genders. She uses symbolism to analyze the gender roles of inequality between men and women in society. In the very beginning Desiree was left on a stone pillar at the Valmonde estate; it is here that Armand Aubigny sees her and falls instantly in love with her. The stone pillar is a phallic symbol of firm, forced male dominance in a patriarchal society. Throughout the story Desiree is submissive to her husband and obeys everything he says even when Aubigny sends her and the child away. Desiree left wearing a thin white garment and slippers and as she walked the sun beamed down giving off a radiant, golden gleam from her long, brown hair. Chopin uses Desiree's white clothing to symbolize the feminine element being introduced into society and the sun's shining rays seem to represent the shifting of power roles among genders. Chopin demonstrates the rising power of women in society and the establishment of equality among genders.

Furthermore in to the literary element, Chopin used symbolism to develop more on Desiree’s characteristic. The author was describing the way she dressed “Desiree had not changed the thin white garment nor the slippers which she wore. Her hair was uncovered and the sun’s rays brought a golden gleam from its brown meshes.” (Chopin, 52) The way that Chopin is describing Desiree, it is like she is describing an angel, so pure and innocent. Everything Desiree wore was white, she was wearing a thin white dress that people usually go to sleep in. Angel always wear white. Another point was that it was sunset, which symbolized that things is about to end, this is just like her life. Earlier though, Chopin was mentioned about a stone pillar at the beginning of the story “when Monsieur in riding through the gateway of Valmonde had found her lying asleep in the shadow of the big stone pillar.” (Chopin, 48) The stone pillar represent a big marker on Desiree’s timeline. Armand drove by her and see her sleep and fell in love and got married was afterward. Before that time period, we don’t know who Desiree really is, we don’t know her dad or what race until at the end of the story, we don’t know where she’s from or what is her origin. Chopin used this stone pillar as the starting point and then keep developing Desiree’s characteristic later on. The author used symbolism to develop Desiree’s characteristic.

If Desirée were actually black in the Antebellum south, she would know these things from early childhood. Desirée disappears “among the reeds and willows that grew thick along the bank of the deep sluggish bayou; and she did not come back again” (404). Desirée’s disappearance is not only her physical departure from L’Abri; it is the disappearance of the white woman that was Desirée. And none of these circumstances is decided by biology, but by what Marxists refer to as a “struggle for power between different social classes” (Gardner 145). Chopin is delivering a message that power transcends race.

‘Desiree had not changed the thin white garment nor the slippers which she wore. Her hair was uncovered. . . She walked across the deserted field, where the stubble bruised her tender feet, so delicately shod, and tore her thin gown to shreds’ (83). Through this happening Desiree’s softness is contrasted with the rough and unforgiving terrain which represents just how vulnerable she is in this situation as well as in this patriarchal world. The terrain is rough and unforgiving, and she is wholly exposed, unsheltered, and susceptible to the rugged, cruel environment in which she finds herself. Chopin knew this cruel environment all too well and probably had her own scars to prove it. She was writing from experience; possibly channeling her emotions. The world was a threat to Desiree, there was torment in every step. The contrast of the softness and whiteness of Desiree against the rugged and marshy terrain symbolizes the innocence and vulnerability of a victim of persecution in a world overpowered by the oppressive

Kate Chopin is a renowned author of the twentieth century. She is famous for her short stories that were written in the late 1800’s. Most of her works were published in magazines at the time but were a posthumous success because of societal dissent. The beliefs and values exhibited in her works of literature are far ahead of their time by representing women’s desire for independence from being a homemaker. One of her most popular short stories, “Desiree’s Baby,” shows how women had no choice over their own fate and were bound by the will of their husbands during Chopin’s lifetime. It was not well received by the public until years after Chopin’s death because the story draws sympathetic feelings towards the situation in which the main character Desiree finds herself in. In “Desiree’s Baby,” Chopin uses symbolism and irony to present the message of how the innocent suffer unjustly as a result of judgmental attitudes; she does this through the main characters of Armand and Desiree.

     In the next segment of the account, Chopin breaks the enchantment and the readers’ hearts when she turns a fairy tale into a horror show. Armand’s behavior towards Desiree changes drastically, as for “when he spoke to her, it was with averted eyes, from which the old love-light seemed to have gone out.” “He absented himself from home; and when there, avoided her presence and that of her child, without excuse” (32). Armand’s attitude did not only change towards his wife, but also towards the slaves as if “the spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him” (32). Desiree then finds out the reason for her husband’s change of conduct is the fact that their child is not white. The considerable change of mood in the story intensifies the already shocking events. As people are always looking for the “soul mate” and the “happy ever after” ending, it’s both disappointing and disturbing to see a beautiful dream turn into a nightmare.

In the short story, “Desiree’s Baby,” Kate Chopin exposes the harsh realities of racial divide, male dominance, and slavery in Antebellum Louisiana. Although written in 1894, Chopin revisits the deep-south during a period of white privilege and slavery. Told through third-person narration, the reader is introduced to characters whose individual morals and values become the key elements leading to the ironic downfall of this antebellum romance. As Chopin takes the reader through the unfortunate circumstances and unexpected twists of Desiree’s life, a Southern Gothic tale emerges. While Armonde is Chopin’s obvious villain, one should not assume that the other characters are not antagonists themselves, as

This essay will focus on the short story by Kate Chopin and its use of symbols, setting and characters. Desiree’s baby was perhaps one of the best stories I’ve ever read. Analyzing it was not easy at all. Its use of symbols was very hard to comprehend. At first, it doesn’t make sense. But as you think critically, all the symbols, and setting and the characters in this literature plunge together in one amazing story.

These insights are on the topic of Chopin’s view of feminism. Chopin portrays Desiree as a very virtuous and woman. However, Armand Aubigny is portrayed as an individual to be feared and not a very likeable character in general. Armand falsely accused Desiree for the blackness in their baby, as he knows well that he “belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery” (Chopin 632). In the heated argument between Armand and Desiree, Desiree pleads to Armand that she is not black and is white to which Armand rudely responds “As white as La Blanche’s” (Chopin 631). Furthermore, Chopin’s portrayal of the other women is positive with no glaring character flaws in Mme. Valmondé and Armand’s mother. Valmondé is described as a loving mother to the orphaned Desiree. Furthermore, her loving attributes are highlighted as she asks Desiree to return home. Overall, in “Desiree’s Baby”, the description of the female is much more positive than that of the male as portrays the respectable characters of Desiree and Aubigny who are contrasted with despicable characters like Armand.

Kate Chopin’s “Désirée 's Baby” was set in the days before the abolition of slavery, at a time when the ownership of another person was not only acceptable, but also economically impactful in the south. It was normal to see big plantations owned by whites and tendered by black slaves. We see all of this and more in “Désirée’s Baby”. One of the characters, Monsieur Valmonde finds an abandoned baby one day while out riding. His wife, Madam Valmonde, does not have a child of her own so she takes the baby in and names her Désirée. Madam Valmonde and her husband, Monsieur Valmonde raises the child, until she is old enough to become married. Her attractiveness and especially white skin attract Monsieur Armand Aubigny, a plantation owner, and they immediately become married and have a child. Désirée and Armand both originally associate themselves with the white class, but once the plot unveils their black heritage they are faced with uncertainty, and ultimately their lives become meaningless and not worth living. Throughout the story, Kate Chopin uses symbolism to convey her themes of racial biasness and social ladder in a society. The characters and the setting in this short story help provide the readers with more understanding of how racially charged our society was at that time.

Kate Chopin’s Desiree’s Baby is a short story about a girl named Desiree who is abandoned, then adopted into a wealthy family. Young Desiree soon grows up and falls in love with a slave owner, Armand,with whom she conceives a son with only to discover that her child's appearance consists of African descent characteristics. Chopin narrates the issues of oppression and loss of identity during a historical period of time through Desiree’s character. Derek Foster and Kris LeJeune's critique, focusing on the feminist standpoint of Desiree’s Baby, attempts to demonstrates how Desiree’s act to flee into the bayou is her first accomplishment of independence.