Kate Chopin's "Désirée's Baby"
Slavery and Racial Discrimination
Theme
Kate Chopin's short story "Désirée's Baby" highlights the horrible attitude of racial
discrimination that prevailed in the American society in the South during the 19th century.
Racial discrimination at that time stated that white people should have pure blood and thus
they were not allowed to marry anyone with a mixed ancestry. They used to discover this
mixed blood through a baby's fingernails. This is what Mme Valmondé noticed the time
when she saw Désirée's baby. The servant, Zandrine, is also sure that the baby is of mixed
blood. This makes it clear that the race issue is not an element in the background of the
story but is its main topic indeed.
Technique (Stream of Consciousness)
The story starts in the middle of the events, and then through the flashback technique,
narrates details from the past. The story falls into three parts, and each part is seen through a
different point of view. Thus, the stream of consciousness technique is used because first we
see things through Mme Valmondé's eyes. We enter her stream of consciousness as she
remembers how Desirée was found, how Armand Aubigny fell in love with her and the
conditions of the wedding. It is through her sympathetic eyes that we see l'Abri and the baby
for the first time. We can share her joy at Désirée's happiness as well as her fear concerning
the baby. Yet, her reference to the shabby state of L'Abri prepares the reader for the coming
tragedy. This is a kind of pathetic fallacy as the place seems to suggest what is going to
happen to the characters. The name "l'Abri" refers to a French plantation owned by Armand,
Desiree's husband. The word means "shelter or "protection" which is ironic because this
husband does not provide Desirée with protection when she needed it. Then, through
Désirée's eyes, we live her tragedy. At last, we observe a strange scene that takes place at
l'Abri when Armand burns all Désirée's things and discovers the horrible secret of his
origins. This time, the point of view is objective as we remain at a distance and in a position
to judge his cruel and stupid racism.
Characters
Désirée shows the features of a traditional woman because she is submissive,
beautiful and very loving of her husband. As she becomes the victim of a stupid, horrible
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racism we can thus share her anxiety, her fear and her pain. Désirée tries to convince her
husband that she has brown hair and grey eyes and thus cannot have mixed blood, he is not
ready to listen and he banishes her from his life, which later leads her to commit suicide.
The husband Armand is an example of racial discrimination who completely changes
as the events proceed. After his love for and marriage to Désirée, we see him as an angel.
We see him first through Mme Valmondé's eyes at the beginning of the story as a passionate
man who has fallen in love "as if struck by a pistol shot", but is very cruel towards his
Negroes. There is something mysterious about his childhood. He has lived in Paris for the
first eight years of his life, his mother having refused to come and live in America. It is only
after her death that he and his kind father came back to Louisiana. Marriage and happiness
have changed him completely, and Désirée says that he has not punished any of his black
servants since the birth of his child. Yet, when it becomes clear that his baby has black
origins, his attitude changes. "The old love light" disappears from his eyes, and is replaced
with "the very spirit of Satan" in his dealings with the slaves." In fact his cruelty has all
come back to the surface and of course since Désirée's origins are unknown, he deduces
from the fact that the baby is not white, that Désirée is not white. This is for him enough
reason to reject her, to deny all the love he had felt for her. He feels hurt because his honour
has been stained; he feels cheated even though Monsieur Valmondé warned him before the
wedding. He should have known there was a risk of such a surprise in marrying Désirée.
However, just as his passion had blinded him then, it blinds him again in his hate for "the
race cursed with the brand of slavery." We can be quite sure he has not felt any regret after
the young woman's death. We can see him at the end of the story burning all her priceless
possessions as if he wanted to purify himself from his momentary association with a woman
who was not white. We can then only imagine his pain and suffering at the discovery of the
truth. We can suppose that this hate which has driven Désirée to suicide will turn against
himself.
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