Desiree's Baby of Kate Chopin Essay

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Chopin

Kate Chopin's Desiree's Baby explores the intersections between race, gender, and social status. Being adopted, Desiree is deprived of the knowledge of her own ancestry. Not knowing her ancestry is an ironic source of power for Desiree. On the one hand, she can assume whatever identity she chooses. On the other hand, her identity is whatever others project onto her. The central conflict of Chopin's story is in fact between the differences in constructed identities: those that are self-constructed and self-generated through personal power, and those that are constructed via social norms, prejudices, and prevailing values.

Desiree is not the one with an identity conflict in Chopin's story. The real central conflict focuses on Armand, who although begins as a loving companion for the titular Desiree, degenerates into the symbol of patriarchal power and the racial hierarchies of the South. Especially in the unique subculture of Louisiana, being of mixed ancestry presents unique identity crises. The notion of purity, and the value judgments that notion brings out in Armand, are not Desiree's problem. Desiree remains strong and unscathed spiritually; the fact that her adopted parents summon her home underscores the fact that she has been taught to love herself and that she cares not about the prejudicial underpinnings of the society looming around her.

Chopin is determined to delineate, describe, and also subvert the distinctions drawn between different racial categories in antebellum Louisiana.

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Creole culture created a social hierarchy based on race, which was fluid as the bayou itself. As a "foundling," Desiree technically escapes the types of judgments that would befall someone of known ancestry. Yet the appearance of her baby marks her as if by a scarlet letter. She cares not for the stigma, but Armand becomes consumed with a type of shame only borne from racism. It is highly likely that Armand is himself of mixed background. His denial of this possibility suggests that his love for Desiree was all a sham anyway, predicated on his presumption of her being white.

The fact that nearly no one in her cultural milieu can claim anything close to racial purity is an important fact for Desiree, and one that keeps her strong throughout the story. There are only continuums of social status, with perceived race being a key feature of status. Because she passes as white, Desiree can float among the elite; because her baby has more of….....

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