Desiree's Baby Literary Analysis

Kate Chopin, an acclaimed American author, made waves during the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century by creating various works that often addressed sensitive issues such as the overbearing domestic roles of women and the ingrained prejudice in society. Her famous short story, “Désirée’s Baby,” reflects this idea as it demonstrates how hypocrisy and prejudice destroy the marriage between the main characters Désirée and her husband, Armand. While these two are the catalysts of the events that took place in the story, another person plays a significant role in their tragedy. La Blanche is a slave at L’Abri who Désirée and Armand mention on three separate occasions, but she never appears nor speaks in the story herself. Despite …show more content…
Assumably, La Blanche is the former to her children, and by definition her children are more white than black. This characterization in the story allows the audience can reason that both La Blanche and her children are rather light in skin tone. One would think that a society that ranks its members by skin tone, similar to the societies that were present in the Antebellum South, would at least be consistent in its prejudices; the darkest individuals would receive the worst treatment, the lightest would receive the best, and everyone in the middle would receive varying degrees of intermediate treatment based on how dark or light they are. The mere existence of La Blanche and her children, however, disproves that reasoning, as their own lightness in skin tone was not enough to save them from a life of slavery. But why is this so? Armand implies the answer in his brutal exchange with Désirée, in which, in an effort to prove her whiteness to him, she hysterically begs, “Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand,” (Chopin 3) to which he cruelly retorts, “As white as La Blanche’s,” (Chopin 3). Armand believes that Désirée is not entirely white due to her unknown origins, so by comparing her to La …show more content…
In “Désirée’s Baby,” La Blanche never actually appears nor does she speak a line of dialogue. Her concrete presence in the story is limited to only being mentioned in passing by either Désirée or Armand. However, each instance of La Blanche’s mentioning lead to an effect and/or an implication on the story and on the way it unfolds. La Blanche specifically affects the portrayal of Désirée’s and Armand’s relationship. Désirée’s remark about Armand being able to hear the baby’s cries from La Blanche’s cabin indicates Armand’s affair as well as his immorality and dual nature. The similarity between the appearances of La Blanche’s light-skinned child and Désirée’s own son is what reveals the truth of the baby’s ethnicity to Désirée. Armand cites La Blanche’s name as a way to insult Désirée and to divulge the extent of the prejudice that fuels the main conflict of the story. In all of these events, La Blanche’s mere existence hints towards the underlying dysfunction and resentment that is present in the marriage of Désirée and Armand; however, it is her non appearance that expands this even further. La Blanche’s effect on the story is similar to the environmental racism that is also present: she is a silent

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