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Theme Of Racism In Desiree's Baby

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Arnold David Arnold Hensley English 11/ Fifth Period 27 February 2018 Part 12: Rough Draft #1 In Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby” one will notice Chopin’s well known use of racism and local color in the story. With the story taking place in the deep South prior to the Civil War the reader will start to notice racism being incorporated into the story. Chopin uses this theme to show how crooked some people’s morals are in this time period. As a reader, you will notice the impact racism has in the everyday life .Many decisions were impacted do to thought of blacks being inferior to whites. When reading Kate Chopin’s “ Desiree’s Baby” the reader will be introduced racism and the use of local color all throughout the story. In Kate Chopin’s “ …show more content…

For example, like Kate Chopin states in “Desiree’s Baby,” “fell in love, as if struck by a pistol shot”(Chopin 1). This simile is used to describe how all the Aubigny’s fall in love right away. Armand didn’t care that Desiree was abandoned as a child and her lack of identity, he was to give her his name. Since Armand doesn’t know Desiree’s past it can be said that this is one of the reasons their relationship never worked. Armand never knew Desiree’s origin, therefore when the conflict arose he instantly blamed it all on Desiree. He hardly knew Desiree, yet he married her anyway and had a son. Another literary device that is used in “Desiree’s Baby” is situational and dramatic irony. For example, like Jeniffer Smith states in Short Stories for Students that “ Several critics of “Desiree’s Baby” have charged that the ending is a trick ending, or an O. Henry ending, so-named after the short story writer famous for the reversals that came at the end of his stories”(Smith 73). Chopin is well known for using these endings in her stories. Just like in the “Story of an Hour” Chopin uses situational irony to keep the reader entertained and to shock the reader in the end. It is what makes this story in its entirety. Desiree couldn’t stand the thought of not being with Armand. So much so that she took her own life along with her child because of it and freed him from the burden …show more content…

Armand’s mother tries to spare him the burden of knowing his actual origin by keeping it from him all those years. She thinks by hiding it from him it will solve many of his problems to come although it may be the reason as to why this all happens. Chopin’s use of irony is what makes this short story so popular. As a reader, plot twists make the story very entertaining and keeps the reader on the edge of the seat wanting to know what will happen next. This is one of the reasons she uses it in some of her short

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