Desiree's Baby

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Desiree’s Baby, is a short story written by American author Kate Chopin about miscegenation in Creole Louisiana during the antebellum period.

[edit] Plot

Désirée is the adopted daughter of Monsieur and Madame Valmondé, who are wealthy Creoles in Louisiana. As a baby, she was discovered by Monsieur Valmondé lying in the shadow of a stone pillar near the Valmondé gateway. She is courted by another wealthy scion of a Creole family, Armand. They appear very devoted to one another and eventually have a child. The people who see the baby get a sense that something is unusual about it. Eventually they realize that the baby's skin is the same color as the quadroon (one-quarter African) nursemaid - the baby is not white. At the time of the story, this would have been considered a terrible taint.

Because of Désirée’s unknown origins, Armand immediately assumes that she is part Black, and after Madame Valmondé suggests that Désirée and the baby return to the Valmondé estate, Armand tells her to leave. Désirée then takes the child and walks off into a bayou where she is never seen again. Armand then proceeds to burn all of Désirée’s belongings and the child’s cradle, as well as all of the letters that she had sent him during their courtship. With this bundle of letters is also one written from his mother to his father, revealing that Armand is in fact the one who is part Black. Désirée's race is never definitively determined. It is unclear if he knew the truth before sending Désirée away, although after she is dismissed:

"Moreover [Armand] no longer loved her, because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name."

[edit] Themes and Literary Classification

Though Kate Chopin is usually considered to be a writer of American realism, and naturalism, the story is difficult to classify, in part because it is extremely short. The fact that the story leaves the moral statement up to the reader would suggest that it is a work of naturalism, but the fairytale-like elements of the love story are inconsistent with either naturalism or realism. Furthermore the atmosphere of the story and the characterization of Armand create gothic undertones.

The themes in Desiree’s Baby include American slavery, miscegenation, and the difficulty of assigning race. It could also be argued that the story is a work of early feminism.

The story also seems to be a transposition of De Maupassant's "The Story of A Farm Girl."