Conflict In Desiree's Baby

In the short story, “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, Desiree a young lady, who was abandoned as a child was found and taken in by the Valmonde’s, grew up and met a man by the name of Armand Aubigny. Mr. Aubigny came from a family of great fortune. He was a harsh, but hard working man, who also had slaves working for him. As time went on Desiree and Armand ended falling in love for each other and decided to get married. Shortly after they gave birth to a newborn, whose Desiree 's mother, Madame Valmonde, was coming to see for the first time. Madame Valmonde had noticed something a little off about the newborn, just as many others did. She then compared the baby to that to the family of slaves, and came to realize that the baby inherited african american traits. Once Armand was aware his child had african american heritage, he wanted nothing with it or Desiree.

There are several types of different conflicts in literature, but “Desiree’s baby” uses mainly person vs person. A conflict is a problem or struggle between two opposing forces in a story.(Glossary of Literary Terms) The two opposing forces would be Desiree, and Armand. They both seemed to be living a very happy life. 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). Do to Armands quick assumption he sent away his family blaming Desiree for the baby not being white. After Armand reads the letter written by his mother depicting the truth, conflicts between Armand and Desiree inflate to do Armands belief that it was Desiree that carried the heredity of the black