The plantation owner that inherited all the land from his father whose ruling was lax wants to set himself apart and let people know he is serious. Gaining respect is vital in running a business, so it enables readers to visualize the difficulties and stress and the darkness of the plantation
Kate Chopin, an author during the antebellum period, discusses the importance of women throughout many of her works. During the antebellum period, women had no rights compared to men and African Americans had even less rights. Women were stereotypical supposed to stay home and care for the children. Kate Chopin viewed women differently, her works put women in a position of power, which cause great controversy during this time. Throughout the short story entitled “Desiree’s Baby,” Kate Chopin includes many examples of racial and gender bias through irony, element of surprise, and symbolism to support that Armand was unaware of his past and ethnic origin, only learning about his parentage from reading a letter discovered at the end of the story.
This helps show the main points and helps give the reader a better understanding. All of the information displays literary analysis shown in the story which lets us know the implications to each event that occured. Due to Armand not knowing his wife’s descendants nor her origin he came with the conclusion of her being the cause of “his life being ruined” as he mentioned in the story. Armand is left feeling guilty when he finds a letter from his mother to his father stating that she is the one with black heritage. After reading the letter he knows that it was never Desiree’s fault of their son having a darker skin
She goes to him and pleads that she is not black, even comparing her hand color to his. Her attempts to persuade Armand are useless, and he continues to believe she is black and that his heritage is permanently damaged. Chopin writes that “Moreover he no longer loved her, because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name (Chopin 3).” He swiftly dismisses Désirée and his son from the plantation due to the “damage” she has brought upon him. Soon afterwards, in an ironic turn of events, Chopin writes that Armand discovers a letter from his mother to his father while burning Désirée’s possessions. Upon reading this letter, it is revealed that Armand is truly the one with black heritage, as his mother had been black.
Southern authors during the Antebellum era, such as Kate Chopin, author of several southern gothic short stories, published many works that changed the common ideals of southern culture, providing many literary instances that influenced the thoughts about gender bias and racial identity. This made especially evident within Chopin’s short story “Desiree’s Baby.” In this story, she introduces a new and nontraditional concept of thought regarding gender and race, as well as their effects on daily life during the 19th century. Kate Chopin 's "Desiree 's Baby" exhibits several crucial thematic messages, one of which ultimately proves the impact of both racial and gender identities on social judgement, made evident by her use of symbolism and irony, proving that race not only attributes to social class, but gender does as well.
Yes he did know because he acted like he hated Desiree because of her black origin and he treated his slaves badly. Armand knew his heritage because he yelled at desires and ignored her multiple times because she was of African American origin. When people found out that Armand and Desiree’s baby was one fourth black when meant Armand or Desiree was part black Armand immediately blamed Desiree for being part black and yelled at her repeatedly saying that she was not white” It
Armand was very proud of his wife and child, and would do anything for them. He soon came to a change of heart, which would cause Desiree to become worrisome. Desiree had found out that Armand was upset, because he found out his baby was partially black. Armand came to an assumption of Desiree not being white as stated in the short story,”Tell me what it means!” Desiree cried disdainfully. “It means” he answered abruptly,”that child is not white; it means that you are not white”(Desiree’s baby).
Armand a man that was really harsh to blacks falls in love with Desiree and gets married with her without knowing anything about her ancestry. They end up having a kid but the boy turns out to be not white. Armand angry and upset kicks out both Desiree and her baby because of her mixed race. That night, Armand burns all of Desiree’s possessions. While doing this, he finds a letter that his mother wrote to his
When Armand is getting rid of Desiree’s things, he finds a letter from his mother stating that he is the son of a slave. An analysis of Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby” shows the ways in which gender inequality, class and race play a large theme in mid-nineteenth century Southern culture. The gender inequality Chopin insinuates in her story is one that women still battle today. By buying Desiree corbeille gifts and fine clothes, she is treated as a possession by Armand. He seems to believe that by gifting these items to her, he can buy her – and her love.
The simple imagery used her foreshadows the inevitable quick disappearance of Armand’s love as it creates a stigma of provisionalism in his emotions. Armand’s love for Désirée is reflected in the change of his mood and behavior towards her, the baby and the slaves on his plantation. It is first said that Armand is the proudest husband and father around; that he is always seen with a happy, smiling face. After marrying, he seems to be kinder to the slaves, no longer punishing them as he had before, even so in the instances that