Desirees Baby by Kate Chopin - Research Paper Example

A Research Paper on Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin Introduction Kate Chopin’s reputation as a storyteller goes unquestioned in the world of American literature. In Chopin we find a deep inclination to depict the issues of women empowerment, racial conflict and identity and the condition of American slavery and miscegenation. The story “Desiree’s Baby” is an exemplary illustrating this estimation. The backdrop of the story is the Creoles of Louisiana. The practice of slavery and plantation life was a reality in Louisiana. The focus of the story is on the mixed racial identity that was a common phenomenon in the nineteenth century America. In the story the human relationships are explored in the context of the admixture of races and interracial marriages. It is set against the backdrop of the civil war. Kate’s family kept slaves in those times and her knowledge about slaves is well reflected in this story (Desiree’s Baby). She depicts Désirée's husband having an illicit relation and a baby with his slave La Blanche. This was common during those times. She also deals with the individual psychology. (Chopin, Wilson and Seyersted, 26) “Desiree’s Baby” is a reflection on the racial prejudice, biased gender roles and social hierarchy in male dominated society. The story opens with a brief account of the orphan, Desiree and how she was adopted by the Valmonde family. Desiree grows up to be an attractive woman courted by the rich scion of a Creole family. The duo, Armand and Desiree after the courtship period enters into a marital relationship and Desiree gives birth to a baby boy. Madame Valmonde is eager to see the boy child and it is unbelieving for her that Desiree has attained her motherhood. She exclaims, ‘it seemed yesterday that Desiree was a little more than a baby itself’. (Chopin, 147) Here Chopin perhaps celebrates the bliss of motherhood. As we find her saying “Desiree had been sent to her by a beneficent Providence to be the child of her affection, seeing that she was without child of the affection” (Chopin, 147-148). The romantic relationships and the sight of first love are celebrated in the story. When for the first time caught a glimpse of Desiree he was in a state ‘as if struck by a pistol’. (Chopin, 148) He “swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all the obstacles” (Chopin, 148). This shows the versatility of a writer who can encompass the all the domains of emotions and feelings. With the passing of time she has become’ increasingly moralistic’ and speaks of matrimony in a better light. She has stated that love should be an absolute harmony and a woman who is caught in the viscous circle of a failing marriage must give way to temptation. The woman must try to make the marriage work. She also rejoices motherhood and friendship. (Seyersted, 100) Chopin at the same also enlightens his readers of the practice of slavery in America. In the story it is stated that under the young Aubigny’s strict rule the ‘negroes had forgotten how to be gay’ (Chopin, 149). Chopin’s reference to the young mother, Desiree lying on ‘soft white muslins and, laces upon a couch’ (Chopin, 149) may be an oblique way of stating of adhering to the identity of the white and its superiority over the black race. Madame Valmonde is startled to see the child and says, ‘This is not the child!’(Chopin, 150) The skin color of the boy is black and even being a grandmother she cannot hide her racial prejudice. On the other hand, Desiree relates to her mother that his husband is too happy to have a boy child. She also says that her husband has said that even it is a baby girl he would have been equally happy but she knows ‘it isn’t true’ (Chopin, 151). This is a reflection on the patriarchal structure of the society and Chopin’s approach to feminism. Armand’s consciousness about his son’s black color in the process hampers their conjugal felicity and he becomes indifferent towards his wife and son and ‘the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the save’ (Chopin, 152). To Armand, Desiree has caused an ‘unconscious injury’ (Chopin, 156) to his family for not being complete white and she leaves her husband’s place. Apart from the racial biasness, the incident echoes the sayings of Joan Zlotnick- Chopin’s women “young and old are often faced with rejecting or fleeing from marriage”(Boren and Davis, 97). Some weeks after Desiree’s departure, Armand’s mother died and an old letter of his mother is recovered and Armand experiences an epiphany that he is partially black. This is like the reversal of fortune. In the end of the story, Armand fails to give Desiree ‘the oldest and proudest’ name in Louisiana (Chopin, 148). This throws light on the concept and practice of miscegenation which blows the notion of one –drop rule. Desiree looks white but is considered black but Armand has a black appearance and then also considered white. However, kind of poetic justice operates in the story. The formula of one-drop rules enables Armand to keep Blanche as a slave but causes him to lose Desiree as a wife. Armand himself at the end is deprived of his complete whiteness and is an outcaste to the one-drop system (Bloom, 78). Conclusion In the story, Chopin had tried to show how the African Americans were considered inferior in respect to the whites and often served as slaves to the family of the wealthy whites. The writer explicitly negated the illogical basis of racial discrimination. The revelation of Armand’s mixed identity abolished the vanity of racial pride that was imbibed in him. Chopin portrays Desiree as a lady whose self-worth is controlled by Armand, her husband. This was what we called male subjugation. Towards the fag end of the story we find a change in Desiree. She valued her self-respect and moved away from the household of Armand. This was Chopin’s feminist approach to women emancipation. Therefore, in the end we may draw a conclusion that Chopin in her works has touched upon social issues and has also delved deep into the psychology of the human mind. References Chopin, Kate, “Desiree’s Baby” Bayou Folk, BiblioBazaar, 2009 Chopin, Kate, Wilson, Edmund and Per Seyersted, The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, LSU Press, 2006 Seyersted, Per, Kate Chopin: A Critical Biography, LSU Press, 1980 Boren, Sue, Lynda and Sara deSaussure Davis, Kate Chopin Reconsidered: Beyond the Bayou, LSU Press, 1999 Bloom, Harold, Kate Chopin, Infobase Publishing, 2007 Désirée's Baby, Kate Chopin International Center, available at http://www.katechopin.org (accessed on November 24, 2009) Read More