Désirée’s Baby by Kate Chopin

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Désirée’s Baby

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By Kate Chopin

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Table of Contents

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Learning Goals

About the Story

The Author

The setting

Genre, Themes, Symbolism

The Plot

The Characters

The Story

Activities

Credits

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Learning Goals

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Identify and enjoy features of classic literature.

Analyze interactions among discourse elements that constitute a genre.

Acquire vocabulary and grammar structures in context.

Develop higher order thinking skills to spot clues, make inferences, think critically and draw conclusions to pose arguments in answer to writing and speaking prompts.

Engage in individual and collaborative group work in integrated language skills.

About the Story

Kate Chopin's "Désirée's Baby" was first published in 1893. It's one of Chopin's most popular short stories. It's is set in the Creole region of Louisiana before the American Civil War.and takes us back in time to the Antebellum South. It's featured in Short Stories for High School and the African American Library.

Source : https://americanliterature.com/

The Author

Kate Chopin (1850 - 1904), born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1850, is considered one of the first feminist authors of the 20th century. She is often credited for introducing the modern feminist literary movement. Chopin was following a rather conventional path as a housewife until an unfortunate tragedy-- the untimely death of her husband-- altered the course of her life. She became a talented and prolific short story writer, influenced primarily by the French short story author, Guy de Maupassant. She is best known for her novel The Awakening (1899), a hauntingly prescient tale of a woman unfulfilled by the mundane yet highly celebrated "feminine role," and her painful realization that the constraints of her gender blocked her ability to seek a more fulfilling life.
Commenting on the influence of Maupassant on her writing, Chopin wrote:
"...I read his stories and marveled at them. Here was life, not fiction; for where were the plots, the old fashioned mechanism and stage trapping that in a vague, unthinkable way I had fancied were essential to the art of story making. Here was a man who had escaped from tradition and authority, who had entered into himself and looked out upon life through his own being and with his own eyes; and who, in a direct and simple way, told us what he saw.." [source: Jane Le Marquand, Deep South (1996)]

The Setting

Southern Louisiana during its antebellum period. In American history, the antebellum period refers to the first half of the 19th century (the 1800s) prior to the Civil War . It was the time of slavery in America, when human rights and civil rights were granted only to people (men, specifically) who were deemed to be white.

Genre, Themes and Symbolism

It is a literary fiction with some features of realism and modernism.
The main themes in “Désirée's Baby” are racism, gender, and hypocrisy.
Racism: Armand’s cruelty, both toward Désirée and those he enslaves, is based on entrenched ideas of race. Ironically, Armand himself turns out to have Black ancestry.
Gender: The misogyny of the society Chopin depicts is clear from Désirée’s experiences both before and after the birth of her child.
Hypocrisy: Throughout the story, hypocrisy marks race, gender, and class hierarchies, thus revealing exactly how harsh and arbitrary such divisions are.
Symbols:
The stone pillar
Monsieur Valmondé discovers baby Désirée in the shadow of a stone pillar at the gate of his plantation. The baby’s position in the shadows of this pillar symbolizes her mysterious origins. Her past is shadowed.
Fine clothes
Armand orders fine clothes and ladies’ accessories for Désirée from Paris when he wishes to marry her. These fine objects symbolize Armand’s wealth and influence, as well as the material transaction that is taking place.
L’Abri
The plantation house that belongs to the Aubigny family exhibits physical characteristics that symbolize the unhappiness that has occurred and will occur in the home. Madame Valmondé notices the house’s somber appearance.
The Bonfire
At the end of the story, Armand burns Désirée’s possessions. The bonfire symbolizes both Armand’s anger and desire to rid himself of Désirée, as well as his passion for his lost wife.

The Plot

Kate Chopin wrote the short story, ''Désirée's Baby,'' in 1892, 27 years after slavery in America was abolished. This story is set during the time of slavery on a Louisiana plantation, exploring the role of racism in every facet of society.
This story is told by a third person narrator, a strategy which allows the reader to learn small but important pieces of information from the past. The protagonist, Désirée, was an abandoned child taken in by wealthy land-owners Monsieur and Madame Valmondé, who raised Désirée as their own. At eighteen, Désirée marries Armand, the current owner of a nearby estate called L'Abri who falls deeply in love with her. Armand has a reputation for his strict personality and for mistreating his slaves.
The young newlyweds, living at L'Abri, soon become parents of a baby boy, who is their pride and joy for the first few months of his life. When Armand is madly in love with Désirée, nothing can touch their happiness.
During this time, Armand becomes notably kinder to his slaves, treating them with understanding and tolerance. Unfortunately, there is something not quite right about the baby. When Madame Valmondé comes to visit her daughter and grandson, she sees that something is amiss.

It is a task to be completed by students after they listen to the story and read it comprehensively.