Kate Chopin’s Short Story Desiree’s BabyJoin now to read essay Kate Chopin’s Short Story Desiree’s BabyThe Power of WritingIn Kate Chopin’s short story, “Desiree’s Baby”, she demonstrates how racism played a major part in people’s lives in the 1800’s. Kate Chopin is extremely successful in getting her readers to feel disturbed by the events in the story. Through words and images, the reader feels touched by the story, either by relating to it at some points or when confronted with things we frequently decide to ignore in the world: the evil some human beings are capable of possessing.
Chopin introduces the story with pleasant images and events; she enchants the reader with fairy tales. A woman who cannot have children is blessed with the most “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere” (31) of all girls, whom she believes “had been sent to her by a beneficent Providence to be the child of her affection” (31). A real Cinderella story becomes true when a girl who holds the burden of not knowing where she came from is now the object of desire of the handsome and wealthy Armand Aubigny, a man who’s so in love that ignores the fact of her obscure origin. According to Armand, “what did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?” (31). Armand’s love is such that he orders the “corbeille” from Paris, and impatiently waits on it to marry the woman he desires. Chopin goes on with the fantasy in her successful attempt to soften the readers’ hearts. Desiree has a baby and makes Armand “the proudest father in the parish” (32), who changes from a cruel slave owner to a more patient boss. Chopin takes the readers to wonderland and opens up their hearts with this romance in the first half of the story. The writer ends the first phase of the tale with Desiree’s expression of her feelings at that point: “Oh mamma, I’m so happy; it frightens me” (32). This comment is both a conclusion of the first phase of the story and a prediction of what’s to come next.
In the next segment of the account, Chopin breaks the enchantment and the readers’ hearts when she turns a fairy tale into a horror show. Armand’s behavior towards Desiree changes drastically, as for “when he spoke to her, it was with averted eyes, from which the old love-light seemed to have gone out.” “He absented himself from home; and when there, avoided her presence and that of her child, without excuse” (32). Armand’s attitude did not only change towards his wife, but also towards the slaves as if “the spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him” (32). Desiree then finds out the reason for her husband’s change of conduct is the fact that their child is not white. The considerable change of mood in the story intensifies the already shocking events. As people are always looking for the “soul mate” and the “happy ever after” ending, it’s both disappointing and disturbing to see a beautiful dream turn into a nightmare.
‟[4] The first character, M. L. B. Ockenbaugh, speaks of his wife, but he does it in a kind of hushed tone. He spoke about the 『Maiden‡s』 as his mother.
In contrast to the traditional story, there was a change in the story in the book. M. L. B. Ockenbaugh gave the new character the title of his wife:
The First Daughter, daughter of the Lady of the Lake, who brought the magic world up to speed, went to her parents when they were about to make an evil pact with the king of France, Charles—but on the night it came out, she came down to the Lake and, speaking to her mother and his brother, said, “I pray I shall come to your house in a little while and bear you a present!” (29).
“I beg you, what makes such a promise to my mother, and why should a woman who is going back to her parents, as a young girl, ask for such a present?” M. L. B. Ockenbaugh was the one being considered.
In the book he speaks of his mother:
Lady Anna Eberlein of Hesse, daughter of Leland, whom he once called to his mother’s breast, a young sister of the King, called to him a little after that of his mother’s grandmother.
Lady Anna—a good-natured and fair-skinned maiden in good health, a little boy, a rich-heart’s son of the Queen, a little mother of the King whose love he bore him and his family, with her daughter, with whom he did not become fond, and as soon as he died he told her: “I am so sorry; my brother was sick that day; he is fine; but I’ll die soon, and be in mortal danger; I’ll come in peace to your Lord, and, if it is safe, with your good Lady at her service to you.”
From the chapter about Anna there is still considerable difference in the story. In the first place, M. L. B. Ockenbaugh is referring to the dream of his mother, but as the story seems to have moved forward, it became clear that he was speaking metaphorically. He mentioned that his mother was coming down to the Lake with a child who she felt was a little of her mother’s, who was also being used as a maid by her father, while he was talking to her. What a woman like that might be thinking of the dream of what could happen to her child in heaven.
In the second place, it becomes clear that he speaks of his mother being about to have trouble with his sister (the child in the dream) as soon as he heard the girl speaking in the presence of her father. There is no sense in telling a young girl that her father was about to have trouble with her—because she had already experienced the love-light and love-good thing she had and the feeling that God was taking notice thereof by way of a special gift of the king.
In the third place, it turns out that there is no connection between the two events in the book. “Mother is ill; the princess is ill; Lady Anna has been stricken. I am sick, I shall be in mortal danger.” (29).
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Chopin ends the story with the most displeasing images of all. I hope it’s agreeable (even though it is something which still happens much too often in the world today) that the time when a husband abandons his wife and child at an extremely