Desiree's 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
There would be no social life or chance of a second family for a white woman with a black child during this time period. This decision led to Desiree's suicide and the baby's infanticide alone in the bayou. Desiree finally went to Armand one last time hoping that his psychotic episode would be over but Armand did not deviate telling her he wanted her and the baby to leave. Valmonde did not respond to Desiree's cry for help but just offered a place to stay for Desiree and the baby. 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. Armand's evil was deep as he forsakes his loving wife, infant son, and God. The Crushed and broken Desiree finally made the fateful decision that there was no other life for her and the baby. not racist but they would still have to follow a strict code of segregation and social guidelines or risk social or bodily death. Desiree compares her skin color to that of Armand who is much darker than she is but he is not bothered by this inconsistency in his reasoning. This story crosses the line into the covert world of mixed ancestry and the problems it produced. The practice of raping a slave or employee in those days was not uncommon. This would explain the quadroon boys. Her husband had recognized that the baby was not white and had turned into his old malicious self and was ignoring his family in vain. She no doubt saw mixed ancestry in the black communities and realized the cause of it. Madame Valmonde was wealthy but knew her influence would not be enough to help if anyone found out the baby was black.
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