The Eugenics of Rappaccini's Daughter and Desiree’s Baby Eugenics is about controlling breeding to have certain qualities in the human condition. Within the two stories of Rappaccini’s Daughter and Desiree’s Baby, they share the common ground of controlled breeding. In the story, Rappaccini focuses on the scientific aspects of mixing science into his daughter to make her become super natural, while Desiree’s Baby brings into the story the category of mixing with other races to be something unnatural. Both stories share the idea that eugenics could corrupt their reproductive and sexual behavior, which is seen as impure. In Rappaccini’s Daughter, Giovanni asked, “Was this garden, then, the Eden of the present world” when he first saw Beatrice in her garden (Hawthorne 9). Beatrice never leaves her home, and only stays in the garden like a caged bird with no freedom. The flowers in the garden represent women and also adds the element of controlling her sexuality. The garden is seen as Beatrice’s natural state, which is the idea that she is still a pure woman seen by Giovanni. There isn’t any science involved in the scene yet, which implies that Beatrice is still God’s creation of a pure human.
As the story progresses, Giovanni becomes more suspicious and starts to analyze the garden and see it as fierce and unnatural (Hawthorne
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This is evident in the story as Desiree is a privileged white woman in Louisiana who lives with her husband Armand who loves her. She had what “average” women in that era should have in that state: a home, a family, and slaves since that’s how average white people lived back then. Notably, when her child began to develop a little more is when her mother noticed the changes of the baby and exclaimed, “This is not the baby (Chopin 2)!” Desiree didn’t notice the changes in her baby that other people around her estate had
In Nikki Giovanni's poem, “Walking Down Park” Giovanni talks about things that used to be on the land of New York that is no longer there as well as, things that could have been there but didn’t have the chance. Giovanni begins the poem by saying “walking down park / amsterdam / or columbus,” these three names are streets located in New York, which is how the reader learns about the setting of this poem. Giovanni then asks “do you ever stop / to think what it looked like / before it was an avenue.” This is the first instance where Giovanni reflects on what things used to be like before New York became a large city. While Giovanni doesn’t dig deep into this first thought of the past, she makes it apparent that things have changed.
Do you think our society would strive if we eliminated those with bad traits? What if we only accelerated the people who can make a living for themselves and not have to depend on others? This would make our country grow right? Well during this movement, that took place in the early 1900’s, these questions were analyzed and experimented. People like Francis Galton and Charles Darwin believed that taking the hereditary genes from strong, well minded, citizens would benefit the human race as a whole.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, eugenics is: “a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed”. ("Definition of Eugenics by Merriam-Webster") The most common example of this concept would be the Holocaust, which was the extermination of Jewish people and others deemed “unfit” for society in World War Ⅱ. But little do many know, the Nazi’s were not the only people practicing eugenics in the early 1900’s, eugenics was being practiced in the United States long before the Holocaust. The American Eugenics Society aimed to educate American people on the science of Eugenics.
By creating a world for herself within nature, Pearl mocks the institutionalized society surrounding her, proving how she is the most transcendental character. Nathaniel Hawthorne chooses to describe Pearl Hester as “material of [the] earth” and “a lovely and immortal flower” to show how she possesses natural qualities, something characteristic of a transcendentalist (61, 62). In addition to possessing “beautiful and brilliant…[natural] elements,” Pearl develops an individualistic relationship with nature (62). While in “seclusion from human society,” Pearl creates “her [own] inner world,” using “a stick, a bunch of rags, [and] a flower” to depict a variety of “imaginary personages” (65). By using the “black and solemn…pine-trees” to represent
The setting for “Rappaccini’s Daughter” alludes to the Garden of Eden. The action between Giovanni and Beatrice takes place mainly in the garden where she is confined because she is poisonous to those around her beside the rest of the poisonous plants that reside in the garden. Like many of his other stories, Hawthorne alludes to different texts from the bible like in Young Goodman Brown. This story is no different in the use of the Garden of Eden to depict the fall of man but there are many differences from this story and that of Adam and Eve. For example, instead “the woman now becomes the poisoned apple” and “Adam” or Giovanni in this case is doing the wrong by going towards the “apple” or Beatrice (“Gardens and Edens”).
Due to the parallel that has been established between the Bible story and “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” one would expect and assume that Beatrice would inhabit the typical role of Eve while Giovanni takes on the traditional role of Adam. However, as one reads Hawthorne’s tale, one realizes that this is not the case. Within the short story, it is interesting to note that that Beatrice gained her immunity poison and her ability to cause from her scientist father who the story established as being a God-like figure. However, this concept becomes even more interesting when one considers that later, Giovanni gains this same ability from his exposure to Beatrice within the garden and, by extension, Dr. Rappaccini. With these two notions in mind, readers can assert that not only it was Beatrice that was created before Giovanni, Giovanni’s poison abilities were created from a part of Beatrice herself.
After getting into the garden and meeting Beatrice for the first time, Beatrice takes Giovanni on a light stroll through the garden. Giovanni is in bliss the entire walk, and eventually they come upon the centerpiece of the garden; a purple, gem-like flower brought up by Beatrice and Rappaccini himself. Giovanni, having been promised one of the “living gems” growing on the flower earlier by Beatrice, reached out to pluck one. However, just as he was about to take one, Beatrice jumps in front of him, grabs him by the hand, and shrieks, “Touch it not! Not for thy life!
The irony of this short story was that it was Armand who was of mixed raced and not his wife. He was the one who tainted the baby, he found out after fining a letter from his beloved mother that was written to his father (Chopin). Irony is a surprising interesting twist at the end on a story. I am sure that after he read this letter that he soon figured out why his father was so kind to the slaves and how it was wrong of him to treat his wife the way he did and immediately regretted his choices. Thus, she was no longer there and he could not get her back, he thought she went back to live with her stepmother, and if he goes to look for her or the stepmother went to look for her and the child they would both find that Desiree never went to her original destination.
An occurring location in the book is Rosie’s House which is a brothel and is supposed to represent the root of sin and juxtaposes Antonio’s innocence. An example of this is in one of Antonio’s dreams in where his brothers are drawn into Rosie’s house. “The water wet her blouse and the thin cotton fabric clung around the curve of her breasts. No! I shouted in my dream, I cannot enter, I cannot think those thoughts.
Desiree says good-bye to Armand and goes to the deserted field with her child and never came back. Armand was burning all of Desiree’s and the child’s materials into the bonfire. Then he found some letters from Desiree, but one was from his mother to his father, the letter said that she was grateful that Armand would never find out his mother was of slave heritage (Chopin). In “Desiree’s Baby, “ Kate Chopin uses imagery, foreshadowing and allusion to develop the ominos, mystery and sad story.
In the short story “Desiree’s Baby”one of the problems
Natural Beauty is Perfection Itself In the short stories “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the value of science over human life is established. Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the characterization of beauty, emotion over love, versus intellect over science, and an exploration of creator over creation. He presents an idea about scientific research, especially regarding feminine beauty. These tales are told with a motive to give the audience a sympathetic understanding of women’s beauty; which is something precious and already the model of nature’s perfection.
However, David continues to repress his sexuality (acceptance of self) bringing on the tragic demise of the novel, Giovanni’s
“Desiree’s Baby was written by Kate Chopin and she talks about the issues people had back then with racism and gender. She demonstrated those problems by using literary devices such as symbols, conflict, and irony. I advise everyone to read this story for the fact this kind of conflict is still happening today and we need to work together for a change. Overall this was a great story and it teaches you many great lessons. Take a look
During the era in which this short story was written, southern authors had a major influence on the way the culture was going to grow with racism, and also the way people loved each other. Kate Chopin, a traditional author who believed in southern ways, exemplifies how race and the characteristics of conditional love played a role in her story. In “Desiree’s Baby,” the author, Kate Chopin, provides an illustration of conditional love exemplified by the character, Armand, towards his wife and child; furthermore, Chopin provides instances of irony, elements of surprise, foreshadowing, and symbolism to prove that Armand’s love for both of them was not the unconditional love typically felt and portrayed by women, such as Desiree, during this era. Throughout the story, the readers notice different times where Chopin uses elements of surprise. One major surprise is when Armand opens the letter from his mother and finds out that he has African American in his bloodline.