Desiree's Baby

Amanda Onalaja

October 10, 2009

Pd. 2 – Ms. Brown

In the short story “Desiree’s Baby”, Chopin’s usual empowerment of women varied. The narrative is an appeal to pathos because it carries a heavy weight of emotion. That being said, the emotion deprives not from just the story, but the actual character of Desiree herself. It seems that Desiree has no identity since her background is unknown, “…when Monsieur in riding through the gateway of Valmonde had found her lying asleep in the shadow of the big stone pillar… the girl's obscure origin”. Even the title of the story makes one believe it revolves around her child, but in actuality it doesn’t, it just defines her character even more. Why would Chopin, an empowered woman herself, create such an insignificant role for Desiree? However bleak it was to know of Desiree’s seemingly unimportant role or of her future, it did add to the story’s appeal as readers experienced a flux in emotions as the story unraveled.

There was an abundance of foreshadowing in the story, beginning with statements of Desiree’s unknown past and Madame Valmonde’s reaction to the baby, “Madame Valmonde had never removed her eyes from the child. She lifted it and walked with it over to the window that was lightest. She scanned the baby narrowly, then looked as searchingly at Zandrine, whose face was turned to gaze across the fields. ‘Yes, the child has grown, has changed,’ said Madame Valmonde, slowly, as she replaced it beside its mother”, she is hesitant in her response to Desiree, the same with Zandrine who both notice something is amiss, unlike the new mother, who of course can not see nor feel anything but the joys of motherhood. Everyone at L’Abri seemed to notice a problem, “It had only been a disquieting suggestion; an air of mystery among the blacks; unexpected visits from far-off neighbors who could hardly account for their coming. Then a strange, an awful change in her husband's manner, which she dared not ask him to explain”, except Desiree. Little by little it pieced together, “She looked from her child to the boy who stood beside him, and back again; over and over. “Ah!” It was a cry that she could not help”, and soon realized her child contained some Black in him. It didn’t help when she confronted her mother with her beliefs and was given a diverted answer, “My own Desiree: Come home to Valmonde; back to your mother who loves you. Come with your child”.

The events that led to Desiree’s death were upsetting but not surprising. It bothered me to know Desiree so loved her husband and was so ashamed of herself that she would rather die than to be anyone’s burden. It also occurred to me that she was contrasted by Chopin. In the story’s opening, Desiree’s described as, “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere - the idol of Valmonde…in her soft white muslins and laces…strands of her long, silky brown hair that hung about her shoulders”, altogether elegant. However, once her suspicious origin is thought to be defined as Black she takes a different persona, “Desiree had not changed the thin white garment nor the slippers which she wore. Her hair was uncovered and the sun's rays brought a golden gleam from its brown meshes”. She seems to lose her elegance when she loses her “whiteness”.