Desirees Baby
The 19th century was a difficult time for many women and blacks because of the domination of white men over them. The social and economic hardships they faced in day to day life was a constant reminder of this domination. The social ideology in the story "Desiree's Baby" was powerful and dangerous and held no escape for any character. A woman with small children who lost her husband would face extreme hardships without the support of close family members. One who happened to be down on their luck would not find much sympathy among their peers even with children. Kate Chopin was one of these individuals who was down on her luck with six children. But fortunately had the support and comfort of her mother for a short period before her mother passed away. A friend advised this mother of six children that writing was a way to solve her problems concerning money and help deal with her grief. Maternal love and all the grief from losing loved ones were to be an attribute to the writing proficiency of this literary artist. This period in Louisiana was not tolerant for mixed ancestry and one found to be non-white would be ostracized from the white community. There were some whites in Louisiana who was not racist but they would still
This decision led to Desiree's suicide and the baby's infanticide alone in the bayou. San Diego: Green Haven Press, 1998Everett, Susanne. One of La Blanche's quadroon boys was near the baby when Desiree noticed the resemblance of the skin color between the boy and her baby. This story crosses the line into the covert world of mixed ancestry and the problems it produced. The story some proclaim contributed to Chopin's early success was "Desiree's Baby" in this story she mixed many feminist emotions from maternal love, to a wife's love and devotion to her estranged husband. Kate Chopin was born fourteen years before slavery was abolished so must have had strong feeling on the subject. The practice of raping a slave or employee in those days was not uncommon. The death of his mother while living in France when he was eight years old may have had a precarious effect on his character. The struggle Desiree was trying to overcome was a losing one and mainly because of the dominance of men over women at the time. net/domesticgoddess/ August 23, 1999Hoffman, Abudrey B. In conclusion, the struggle for women and blacks continue and with changing social attitudes some things are improving for them but hatred and bias will be around for a long time.
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