Race, Identity, and Assumption in Chopin's "Désirée's Baby"
This paper analyzes Kate Chopin's 1892 short story "Désirée's Baby," examining how perception, assumption, and racial identity intersect to destroy the Aubigny family. The essay traces how Armand's unexamined assumptions about his own whiteness lead him to banish his wife and child, while he remains blind to the truth revealed in the story's final twist. Through close readings of Chopin's imagery and symbolism — including Désirée's martyr-like banishment and the letter from Armand's mother — the paper argues that Chopin challenges the notion that race or social status should define a person's identity, using the Valmonde family as a counter-model of unconditional acceptance.
- Introduction: Perception and Identity in Désirée's Baby: Thesis: race and perception destroy the Aubigny family
- Perception and Its Influence on Characters: How perception shapes Armand's treatment of Désirée
- Symbolism and Imagery in Désirée's Banishment: Biblical symbolism in Désirée's exile from L'Abri
- The Role of Assumption in the Story's Tragedy: Armand's racial assumptions and their consequences
- Race, Identity, and Social Status: How race and heritage define identity in the story
- Chopin's Challenge to Race-Based Identity: Chopin critiques race-based identity through tragic irony
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What makes this paper effective
- The essay builds its argument progressively, moving from perception to assumption to identity — each concept shown to be an extension of the last, creating a coherent analytical chain.
- Close textual quotation is used throughout, with every claim tied directly to a specific passage from Chopin's text, demonstrating strong evidence-based literary analysis.
- The paper's treatment of the story's ironic twist — that Armand himself is the source of his child's mixed race — is connected back to the central thesis, giving the conclusion analytical weight beyond mere summary.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper models thematic literary analysis by identifying a set of related concepts (perception, assumption, identity) and systematically tracing each through the text. It also performs effective symbolic close reading, unpacking the Biblical allusions in Désirée's banishment scene to show how Chopin layers moral meaning onto narrative action — a technique central to advanced literary analysis at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a plot summary and thesis statement, then devotes individual body sections to perception, imagery/symbolism, assumption, and identity before synthesizing these strands in a conclusion that connects Armand's fate to Chopin's broader critique of race-based social hierarchy. Each body section opens with a topic sentence linking the new concept back to the thesis, and the conclusion reframes Armand as an embodiment of the hypocrisy the story critiques.
Introduction: Perception and Identity in Désirée's Baby
"Désirée's Baby" is an 1892 story by Kate Chopin that examines how the Aubigny family falls apart due to assumptions and misunderstandings. In the story, Désirée, an orphan whose parentage is unknown and whom the Valmonde family lovingly raises, marries Armand Aubigny, a man whose father comes from a prominent family. Désirée eventually gives birth to Armand's son, who later becomes the cause for Armand to banish Désirée from their home, as the child appears to have been fathered by a man who is not white. While Armand operates under the assumption that Désirée is not entirely white — because no one knows who her parents are, or because he suspects she may have had an adulterous affair — he does not consider that he himself may be the reason his child is not entirely white. In "Désirée's Baby," the consequences of perception, assumption, and identity in relation to social status and race are highlighted through Chopin's use of imagery and symbolism.
Perception and Its Influence on Characters
In "Désirée's Baby," perceptions heavily influence Armand's attitude toward Désirée before and after their marriage, and after she gives birth to their son. While Désirée's biological parentage is unknown — and people often speculated "she had been purposely left by a party of Texans, whose canvas-covered wagon, late in the day, had crossed the ferry that Coton Maïs kept, just below the plantation" — Armand had no objections to his bride before they were married (Chopin). The upbringing Désirée experienced at the hands of the Valmondes allowed her to present herself as an upstanding member of the community and a suitable wife, making her, in essence, "the idol of Valmonde" (Chopin). Likewise, Armand is considered to come from a reputable family because of his father's background and heritage. Furthermore, because Armand's skin color is light, others perceive him to be white, and he is thus instilled with authority based on his family name.
Armand also attempts to shape how others perceive him through his behavior toward his child. Désirée contends: "Oh, Armand is the proudest father in the parish, I believe, chiefly because it is a boy, to bear his name; though he says not — that he would have loved a girl as well. But I know it isn't true. I know he says that to please me" (Chopin). Because Armand carries himself as though nothing is wrong with their child, Désirée does not perceive her baby as a threat to their marriage.
Symbolism and Imagery in Désirée's Banishment
Chopin also shapes how these characters are perceived by the reader through her deliberate use of symbolism and imagery. Désirée's banishment from the Aubigny plantation, for instance, carries heightened meaning through these literary devices. Chopin writes:
Désirée 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. She did not take the broad, beaten road which led to the far-off plantation of Valmonde. She walked across a deserted field, where the stubble bruised her tender feet, so delicately shod, and tore her thin gown to shreds.
In a sense, Désirée is being cast out into the wilderness. She is stripped of all material possessions and left with nothing but the "thin white garment" and the slippers she wears. The martyr-like qualities Chopin assigns to Désirée at this moment are difficult to overlook. The thin white garment she wears resembles the white robe in which Jesus Christ is often depicted. Additionally, the sun illuminating her uncovered hair suggests the appearance of a halo or crown, thus emphasizing her innocence. The symbolism of the desert is also two-fold: it alludes to Biblical references of being forced to wander after expulsion from society — evoking both the exile from Eden and the Israelites who roamed the desert for forty years following their exodus from Egypt.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. "Désirée's Baby." PBS. Web. 17 October 2012.
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