Kate Chopin’s short story “Desiree’s Baby” overtly and bluntly covers the topic of race relations and identity in America. Even in the pluralistic social milieu of Louisiana, being racially mixed is a taboo. The story also shows how the very concept of racial purity is a joke, a social construct and a manufactured category. Written in third person, the story opens with Madame Valmonde, Desiree’s adopted mother, wistfully reflecting on how she found Desiree. Madame Valmonde then ponders the romance that blossomed between Desiree and Armand, who eventually had the titular baby together. Back to the present moment, Madame Valmonde approaches Armand’s family estate, L'Abri, which is described as a “sad looking place.” The scourge of slavery still leaves its mark on L’Abri. Madame Valmonde’s impressions of L’Abri presage the events that unfold in the story. Desiree also reveals that Armand has the tendency to treat his black servants cruelly, for she whispers to her mother, “he hasn't punished one of them--not one of them--since baby is born.” Yet Desiree notices her husband’s demeanor change, as he becomes more violent with his slaves. Desiree also senses that the household servants are talking behind her back. One day it dawns on her why: her baby looks like a “Quadroon,” a person who is a quarter black. The realization of her baby’s mixed-race heritage drives a wedge between the couple, causing the racist Armand to abandon his wife, and causing Desiree herself to run away with her baby into the bayou. In this manner, Chopin reveals detail after detail slowly and with poignant irony,...
In one crucial scene, Desiree tries to reason with Armand, who cannot be reasoned with. Desiree speaks to him “in a voice which must have stabbed him, if he was human. But he did not notice.” The narrator here clearly starts to make the social commentary that is integral to “Desiree’s Baby.” Chopin gently leads the reader towards a deft understanding of how troublesome Armand’s attitude is, and how racism impacts generation after generation. The blindness with which Armand makes his judgments becomes ever more ironic when the reader discovers with Armand the truth about his heritage.
It is the way Chopin structures her narrative and plot that create the underlying suspense that drives the story forward. Chopin leaves little clues for the reader, almost making the story resemble a mystery. The first clue is the cruelness that Armand is prone to when dealing with his black slaves. Desiree loves her husband too much to notice, and slavery has become so entrenched in the southern society that Desiree has become desensitized. Yet Desiree is not so desensitized as to not care, for she is thrilled when her husband ceases to treat the slaves cruelly and is devastated when, upon suspecting that his baby is a Quadroon, Armand again resorts to projecting his self-hatred onto the slaves.
Armand’s anger and aggression are directed at African Americans, as he is projecting his self-hatred onto…
