Franklin Diaz Miras
Professor Cynthia Pittmann
INGL 3104-134
12 April 2018

“Desiree’s Baby” Reflection 

  Chopin’s story, “Desiree’s Baby", is a story that is mainly about race and prejudice. When Desiree gives birth to her child, the reader begins to become aware that there is a mystery about the child’s parentage. There are other characters, like LaBlanche’s son, which also serve to raise concerns about racial identity. Chopin builds a mystery in order to provoke the characters’ and the reader’s anxieties about race. Also, there is a sense of karma and consequences that is used in the story. The story explores the problem of a man’s pride overcoming the love he has for his wife and race. 

  I noticed many aspects of this short story but one of the most importants is that men back in the those years had the lead of the house. They were considered the superior authority and women were just the house wives who had to be isolated from the world. Women was like an abject, a trophy for the male. Basically, their only job was to get pregnant and take care of the house. Practically, every men in those times were male chauvinist.

   In the end of the story, all this came crashing down upon him when he found a simple letter with a very tragic significance to him. Some crucial information is revealed about Armand's background: the fact that his mother was black. What is more ironic is that Armand had given up his marriage and condemned their child, burned everything that remind him of her and the baby, and curse God for his misfortune of having the mixed blood. This tells us to never make an assumption that we latter might regret. 

  Chopin's message regarding slavery and racism is that sometimes, some people, or most people throughout history, would give up really powerful things, like true love and would do the most absurd things, even reject their own children in order to convey with social standards and expectations. Principles were even more twisted back then than nowadays.

Works Cited

Cynthia, Pittmann. Reflection of “Desiree’s Baby”. University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.

         12 April 2018.

Chopin, Kate. Desiree’s Baby, 1893.