The short story Desiree's Baby was very unique in its own way. The story opens with a brief history of the founding, Desiree, who was adopted by the Valmonde family after they found her by the side of the road. The Valmondes were childless, and they took in the toddler and raised her as their own child. When Desiree became a young woman, her beauty attracts the attention of Armand Aubigny, a neighboring plantation owner and bearer of one of the finest families in Louisiana. When Armand shows much interest to Desiree, her father explains to Armand that they are unsure of Desiree's true heritage, Armand said that it did not matter and that he still loved her.
After the marriage, they had a child. As the child develops, around three months Desiree started to notice a change on the plantation. Armand had seemed to grow distant from her and the child. She then one day was watching a young boy who was one quarter black and notice a resemblence to her child. Armand then thinks it would be best if Desiree and the child left the plantation and went back home. Armand had completely gone against what he had told Desiree's father, the fact that it simply did not matter hat race she was he would still love her.
Throughout this story, I feel as if there is one major theme and that theme would be racism. The ideas of Chopin's time was to believe that African AMericans were inferior to whites. When Desiree and Armand were married and had the child, Armand did not punish or beat his slaves. On the opposing side, when he believed that the boy had mixed ancestry, he suddenly changed his behavior towards the slaves and was very cruel. This is just one major example within the short story that really stuck out in my mind.
In conclusion, I enjoyed the story, but I also felt sorry for Desiree because she just wanted to be loved and it was very sad that the man she loved and had a child with, didn't love her as much as she thought because of the color of her skin. This was a very sad story in my opinion.
1 comment:
This story is a tragic tale indeed. i felt really bad for deseree because it was only after she dissappeared that, it came to the light that Armand was black. I feel like its a story about descrimination, race, death, life, and just vanity in general..vanity because Armand felt his race was superior, because of his skin color.
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