his mother "belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery" from a letter he finds in which she expresses her adoration of him. Armand learns that he is of mixed race: of course, now, he isnot going to expose himself. He has the opportunity to learn now that it does not matter what race someone is; he'd always thought of himself as white, but he might now learn that he does not become a different person now that he knows he is of mixed race. Further, the power that he wielded over his wife was not merited by his behavior.

Kate Chopin's story "Desiree's Baby" takes place before the Civil War in Louisiana.  The author emphasizes three controversial subjects in her story: racism, prejudice, and marriage. One of her purposes was to expose the inequities of prejudice and female subjugation.

Chopin wrote to broaden the views on a woman's place in the world.  In this story, the main character Desiree really belongs to no one.  Abandoned as a toddler, she is adopted by loving parents: the Valmondes. However, they know nothing about her heritage or ancestry. 

After her marriage to a young aristocrat, Armand Aubigny, Desiree hopes that she has found her own real home. Armand has been told about Desiree's background and did not care because of his love for her. After the birth of her son, Armand is happy. Then, the baby begins to show Negroid features.  The child is bi-racial. 

'Armand,' she panted once more, clutching his arm, 'look at our child. What does it mean? Tell me.'

He coldly but gently loosened her fingers from about his arm and thrust the hand away from him. 'Tell me what it means!' she cried despairingly.

'It means,' he answered lightly, 'that the child is not white; it means that you are not white.'

At this time in history, no aristocratic family would have accepted a bi-racial daughter-in-law or grandchild.  Desiree did not know who she was; therefore, she had to be the one was part black. 

Armand tells her to leave and take the baby with her.  Desiree walks off toward the swamp and the river. Chopin does not tell the reader what happens to either of them.

The twist in the story comes when Armand is burning everything that belonged to Desiree or the baby.  He discovers a letter from his mother to his father which changes everything:

'But above all,' she wrote.  'I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.'

The tables were turned on Armand.  He was the one who had the black ancestry.  Everyone loses in the story.

What does the reader learn? Racial injustice is cruel. First, Desiree had no control over who she was.  She did not deceive Armand.  He knew that she was a foundling and said that he did not care.  Obviously, his love was fleeting. In addition, the child was still his.  How could he turn his back on his own son!

This is Chopin's lesson: True love is blind to color.  Armand broke his marriage vow to Desiree and his parental responsibility because of his prejudice toward her "race." It would be interesting to know how Desiree would have handled the situation when she found out that Armand was the one with the black heritage. 

Another aspect of the story that Chopin illustrates is the woman's place in marriage.  In the Old South, women were to be loved and cherished. Their contribution to the marriage was to serve the husband. To take care of the home, to serve the meals, to have and be responsible for the children, and to be at her husband's disposal--this was the role of the wife in a marriage.  She had no say in financial, political, or social issues.  Everything belonged to the man including the wife.

Desiree had no options but to do as she was told.  It was Armand's home.  He no longer wanted her there, so she had to go.  Armand has shown his true identity; he was cruel, biased, insensitive man who did not deserve the beautiful Desiree and their child.

In the short story "Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin, the author is making a statement about the hypocritical and arbitrary nature of racial prejudice. To accomplish this, she deliberately leaves the backgrounds of the main characters vague through much of the story. Desiree is an orphan found at the gate of the estate of Monsieur and Madame Valmonde. They raise her as their own daughter but know nothing of the ancestry of Desiree's real parents.

She grows up fair-skinned and lovely, and she attracts the attention of Armand Aubigny, who is also an estate owner. His father has left him his estate, and his mother supposedly died in France. Armand is strict to the point of cruelty to his slaves. When we learn about Armand's real mother's identity at the end, that she was black, we understand that his strictness is a cover-up for his own mixed-race background.

Desiree and Armand have a baby together, and as the baby grows, it becomes more and more obvious that he is part black. Armand accuses Desiree of being part black and sends her away. She leaves with the baby and walks off into the bayou, probably to her death. After she is gone, Armand burns everything that would remind him of her and the baby. Last of all he burns the letter that is the only proof he has of his black ancestry.

We see, then, that Chopin is trying to tell readers that racial prejudice, as epitomized by the horrible bigotry and slavery in the Deep South in the mid-nineteenth century, is a hypocritical social construct without foundation. Armand probably knew that the baby was black because of his and not Desiree's background even when he banished them from his land. However, his horror of discovery as being of mixed race was greater than his love for his wife and his child.

The quote that best captures the treatment of race in the story is the closing paragraph. It is an excerpt from the letter that Armand's black mother wrote to Armand's father:

"But above all," she wrote, "night and day, I thank the good God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery."