Désirée's Baby

The short story "Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin tells of a little toddler girl who is left at the gate of a plantation and then is adopted by Monsieur and Madame Valmonde. A plantation owner named...

When Désirée looks at her child and understands that the child is of mixed race, she confronts Armand, asking him what the baby’s skin color could possibly mean. When he enters the room where she...

When teaching my students how to write a theme statement about any story, I typically guide them through the following series of simple steps. Examples of each are provided for this short story....

Desiree's death is necessary for her because she feels the shame and pain of her unknown origins and therefore believes that she is the reason that the baby has African features. Desiree's own...

The short story "Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin takes place in Louisiana, in the Deep South. It is placed inin the antebellum era, or the era before the American Civil War. Mr. and Mrs. Valdemonte...

In “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, Armand Aubigny and Desiree Valmonde appear to be in love when they marry. Despite being told by Desiree’s adopted father that he did not know anything about...

The letter at the end of this excellent story is of course a wonderful yet devastating example of situational irony, as we realise that the dark-skinned gene came not from Desiree, as both we and...

Since you don't specify the colors you are referring to, I'm going to assume you mean skin colors. Skin colors are referred to as white, black, and yellow. White stands for the ruling class of...

First of all, it is important to understand that the story line of a short story typically revolves around the central problem, also called the "conflict." This means that events in the story are...

The character La Blanche in Kate Chopin's "Désirée's Baby" is important throughout the story. The name itself is significant, as has been said, because it literally means "the white." This entire...

It is always difficult to definitively discern an author's purpose in writing a text, unless we can ask them directly, but we can assess and analyze what a text does achieve. This particular text...

Both stories are at their cores about women in unhappy, unequal marriages. While Mrs. Mallard and Desiree both love their husbands, they are not allowed to be their equals. Mr. Mallard dominates...

A character analysis of Desiree reveals that she is a gentle and loving young woman who feels no shame nor inferiority because she was a foundling abandoned by the road when a toddler, then found,...

"And mamma," she added, drawing Madame Valmonde's head down to her, and speaking in a whisper, "he hasn't punished one of them - not one of them - since baby is born. Even Negrillon, who pretended...

"La" is a feminine article, and "to blanch" means to make white or pale by extracting color; to bleach. Example: Michael Jackson blanched his skin. So, "La Blanche" literally means "the white...

When Desiree's husband discovers that his child is half African American, he tells Desiree to leave. She walks off the plantation, not using the road but seeming to head in the direction of her...

There is certainly a sense of foreboding in the story. We learn of Desiree's sad beginnings, awakening in the arms of a stranger, in a strange place, and crying for her "'Dada.'" Whether she...

Because the story takes place in antebellum Louisiana, the French names and background of the characters lend a special aura of remoteness, elegance, and mystery for most English-speaking readers....

Another lesson we can learn from this story is that we sometimes tend to think we are more tolerant or accepting than we actually are. Armand is an example of someone who appears to be very...

Armand was infatuated with Desiree from the moment he first saw her, so his decision to marry her was rather impulsive. He wanted what he wanted, so Desiree would be his. He doesn't consider her...

One of Kate Chopin’s goals in writing the short story “Desiree's Baby” was to show the damaging effect that racism has on people. Chopin does this through severe irony. Chopin sets up the character...

I think the answer to this question depends on where you are talking about in the world. Unfortunately, issues of skin colour and race are still just as prevalent in some sectors of society as they...

In French, the name, Desiree, means desired one, and Desiree is, in many ways, the desired one of the story. When she is found, as a baby, by Monsieur Valmonde at the entrance to his home, she is...

The resolution of a story takes place after the climax. It is the part of the story where the conflict comes to an end. In Kate Chopin's "Désirée's Baby," the resolution comes after Désirée and her...

While Armand is married happily to Desiree and enjoying the expectation of their coming baby and the final ecstasy of the infant's presence, he treats his slaves with kind good humor, even turning...

Chopin's "Désirée's Baby," published in 1893, explains early in the story why Madame Aubigny, Armand's mother, never left France: Old Monsieur Aubigny having married and buried his wife in France,...

Your thesis statement should directly address a question or discussion point and summarize your whole argument. Often, it is easier to write the thesis statement after you have created most of your...

Armand is the owner of the Louisiana plantation called L'Abri. He is very wealthy and owns many slaves. He was born in France, but his father brought him back to the plantation as a child. It is...

In Kate Chopin's short story "'Désirée's Baby," the little quadroon boy who fans the baby is significant because he is the key to the mystery of the altered appearance of Désirée's baby. Because...

The last line reflects not only the short story's racial themes but also the theme of a mother's love and how that love can instinctively affect the decisions you make later on in life. The racial...

Desiree was abandoned as a baby and was taken in by Monsieur and Madame Valmonde, who were a wealthy couple living in Louisiana. The background of Desiree's parents is unknown. When Armand, another...

In Chopin's "Desiree's Baby," Armand is characterized as an extremely impulsive individual. First he falls in love with Desiree when he first sees her, marries her quickly--regardless of her...

Close to the beginning of Kate Chopin's story "Desiree's Baby," there is a flashback that explains Desiree's background and how Armand fell in love with her. Desiree was a foundling; the Valmondes...

The overwhelming force of this great story is to present the concept of racism as being something that is completely man made, and therefore only having the power that men ascribe to it. Of course,...

When Desiree confronts Armand about their baby's appearance and asks him what it means, Armand tells her, "It means the baby is not white. It means you are not white." Although the story doesn't...

A few weeks after he throws his wife, Desiree, out of his house for giving birth to a black baby, Armand Aubigny orders his black servants to build a bonfire in the backyard and burn everything...

In the beginning, Armand truly loved the idea of being with Desiree. His station in life was such that he could have all the things he desired, including Desiree. He did not care that she was...

Among the slaves at L'Abri there is wonderment at the appearance of Desiree's baby. Certainly, they would be able to recognize a mulatto, as mixed light-skinned blacks were termed during the time...

Because their baby resembles the quadroons of the plantation, such as the "yellow nurse woman," Zandrine, and the little boy who waves a fan one day as he stands near the baby, Armand Aubigny...

Kate Chopin's short story "Desiree's Baby" makes a very poignant statement on a woman's place in society. This story tells of the relationship between Desiree and Armand Aubigny. Desiree, an...

Your question relates to a literary term that is called foreshadowing, which we can define as the way in which authors give certain hints early on in stories about what will happen later on. Often,...

In the story, Monsieur Armand Aubigny fell in love with Desiree when he spotted her standing against the stone gateway of the Valmonde estate. Accordingly, Desiree was adopted by the Valmondes as...

The key word in regards to a third-person narrator, especially in Desiree's Baby, is the word "limited" or "omniscient." In this case, our third-person narrator is definitely "limited" and we can...

Yes, I agree that Armand would never retain that letter and must have burned it because it is the only proof of his heritage, a heritage that he obviously finds loathsome and disgraceful. We get...

Armand Aubigny's plantation, L'Abri, compels Madame Valmonde to "[shudder] at the first sight of it [...]." The narrator describes the property as a "sad looking place," which had not been...

The conclusion of "Desiree's Baby" is tragic: Desiree's child is dark-skinned, which implies that either she or her husband Armand have African ancestry. In the Antebellum South of the setting, to...

The story "Desiree's Baby" is set on a plantation in Louisiana. That area was colonized by the French in the 17th century. That is why even today many placenames and people's surnames...

A dynamic character has to undergo some kind of fundamental and permanent change throughout the course of the story. Desiree may be quite saddened by Armand's behavior—obviously she feels that she...

The significance of Désirée's response to Armand's belief that she is not white is that her physical features—skin color, hair color, and eye color—are her only proof of being white. She cannot...

Madame Valmonde had not seen Desiree and the baby for four weeks. When she reached L'Abri she shuddered at the first sight of it, as she always did. Here are the reasons why: Personification: "It...