"Desiree's baby" is a love story set in the 1800's on the L'Abri Plantation in Louisiana during the time of slavery. Armand is the wealthy plantation owner who falls in love with the daughter of a neighboring plantation owner. There is a family secret that Armand has never been told. He finds out about this family secret at the end of the story when he finds a letter written to his father from his mother. What the contents of this letter reveal to Armand makes the reader go back and examine the irony found in the story.
             In the 1800's a family's heritage was very important when a young man was considering who to marry. Armand had fallen in love with Desiree when he was only eight and he now wished to make her his wife. Before Monsieur Valmonde would give his consent, he wanted to make sure that Armand understood about her vague bloodlines.
             "He was reminded that she was nameless. What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of oldest and proudest names in Louisiana" (76)? We now know that it really does matter to Armand about her namelessness after she gives birth to his son.
             Madame Velmonde comes to visit Desiree and the baby when the baby is four weeks old. She is amazed when she sees the baby. Desiree tells her "I knew you be astonished at the way he has grown" (77). What is ironic here is that Madame Velmonde is not astonished at how much the baby has grown, but at the fact that the baby has changed.
             Although no one seems to notice when the baby is first born, it becomes very clear to
             Madame that the baby is not pure white. She tries to make eye contact with
             Zandrine to confirm her worst fears, but Zandrine will not look at Madame. Zandrine knows that the baby is not pure white. Desiree does not see this change in her baby until he is three months old.
             Desiree awakes "one day to the conviction that there was something...