Patriarchy in "Desiree's Baby" and "No Name Woman"

Introduction: Patriarchy as a Universal System

Socialization into the social system we call patriarchy starts at birth, when we dress "beautiful" and "angelic" girls in pink and "handsome" and "tough" baby boys in blue. We hold baby girls so they can look into our faces as we talk to them; we hold baby boys so they can survey what is happening in the room. That is how the process begins. We are the recipients, either willingly or unwillingly, of a patriarchal legacy. What probably began in prehistoric times as a cooperative system for survival has become an albatross. We are left living in a patriarchal society in which women are oppressed — and this is certainly not a local phenomenon.

"Desiree's Baby" and "No Name Woman" are two stories from very different cultures, yet patriarchy as a system is as fully in evidence in those settings, if not more so, as it is here. This essay compares and contrasts the two stories, exploring the nature and resolution of the conflict in each, as well as their characters, settings, and themes.

Conflict and Resolution in Both Stories

In both stories, the birth of a child triggers the central conflict. In "Desiree's Baby," a baby born into a wealthy plantation family turns out to be Black in a society where enslaved Black people are treated as the lowest and most contemptible of all human beings. In "No Name Woman," the child is illegitimate — the result of adultery — and is believed to be the cause of poor harvests, illness, and bad fortune in the community. In both stories, the mother is blamed.

Desiree, who simply "appeared" one day on a doorstep when she was very young, is assumed to be the carrier of African ancestry. Because the baby appears Black, it is concluded that Desiree — whose background is unknown — must be the source. In "No Name Woman," the narrator's aunt had sexual relations with someone while her husband was away working; whether this was consensual is never established. In both stories, the fathers themselves blame the mothers. In "Desiree's Baby," the husband grows to hate his once-beloved wife out of shame and social embarrassment — the cruel irony being that he is actually the carrier of the gene that presents itself in the baby. In "No Name Woman," the father is someone within the community and is very likely present during the violent destruction of the family's home, yet he never acknowledges responsibility for the child.

Neither father is willing to take any responsibility for his child. Similarly, in both stories the conflict is resolved through the self-destruction of the woman. Desiree and her baby disappear into the wilderness and are never seen again. The aunt in "No Name Woman" drowns herself in the family's well.

Setting and Its Role in Patriarchal Control

In both stories, the setting contributes greatly to the action. Desiree lives on a plantation where enslaved people are kept as property and receive no compensation for their labor. American slavery was a system in which it was acceptable for a master to impregnate his enslaved women in order to produce more enslaved people at no cost, yet it was entirely unacceptable for him to marry a Black woman or for his legitimate heirs to be Black, because doing so would elevate Black people socially — and slavery depended on the domination of one race over another.

Patriarchy, as these stories illustrate, is more than the relationship between men and women. It is a system that organizes the entire social world around domination, control, and competition. The Chinese village in which "No Name Woman" is set is a superstitious community where people rely on the gods to favor their crops and their fertility. When a man and woman are believed to have displeased the gods by breaking the rules, a sacrifice must be made to appease them. Who is sacrificed reveals the difference in value that the community places on men versus women. Moreover, it is a system of control devised by men — they are not going to sacrifice themselves.

Conclusion: Toward a New Consciousness

We cannot help the fact that patriarchy exists or that we were born into it and have participated in it. Participation in patriarchy does not make us evil, as though men had maliciously intended to oppress, exploit, and mistreat women or to use them as scapegoats. But living as we do within a patriarchal system — whether we are men or women — we cannot avoid being shaped by it.

Faced with monumental environmental, social, and ethical problems, we need everyone to participate in saving the world we share from destruction. We need the balance of both masculine and feminine viewpoints. A new consciousness is required. Like Desiree and the No Name aunt, we need to learn to see the world — and ourselves — differently.