Desiree’s Baby
Kate Chopin was an important Southern writer in the late 19th century (le fin de siècle, as the French call it), whose style is an example of what’s called regional realism, for its accurate portrayal of the Creole culture of Louisiana in particular. Chopin would endure professional and personal scandal and was largely forgotten until her proto-feminist novel The Awakening was rediscovered in the late 20th century, bringing her fleshed-out, psychologically convincing characters, with their rich historical settings, to new life and a new readership. Both the novel and short stories like “The Storm,” “Story Of An Hour,” and “Desiree’s Baby” are surprisingly modern in their attitudes towards marital relationships, sexuality, and infidelity in particular.
“Desiree’s Baby” dramatizes the impact of slavery and miscegenation (interracial sexual relationships), and with bitter irony, mocks the cruelty and utter ridiculousness of racism. Irony means a reversal of expectations, when the result is opposite of what was intended or attempted, as is clearly the case in the tragic story’s final twist. Pudd’nhead Wilson, an 1894 novel by the great satirist and fellow regional realist Mark Twain, uses a loosely similar premise and Southern historical setting to achieve that same kind of mocking moral lesson about the evils of slavery and racism.
Answer A and/or B:
A) Consider one or more of the ways that race and racism drive the plot (story) and themes (big ideas):
- i.e., a marriage ruined and lives lost because of racist attitudes and assumptions
- the social and material difficulties of having/being a biracial child
- the racist fear of having married a person who is unknowingly/secretly someone you (or Desiree’s husband, in this case) have been taught to despise
B) Consider whether the content of the story, or how it impacts you upon reading it, is in any way affected by the fact that it comes from the highly respected pen of a white woman writing over 100 years ago.
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