Summary
The short story “Desiree’s Baby,” written by Kate Chopin, touches upon various cultural, psychological, and philosophical topics. Within this story, Chopin discusses the issues of unconditional love, acceptance, self-identification, and race (Hassan and Tayib 139). The last problem has always been the severe obstacle to establishing understanding within different cultural groups. Chopin’s initial motif in this story is to depict the dramatic will of fortune in relation to racial discrimination. The author implements various literary elements such as symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony to convey the necessity of unconditional acceptance, eliminating negative prejudices and stereotypes.
Setting and Symbolism
The story’s author implements the symbolic elements in the narration by describing the setting. Such an approach helps reflect the implicit ideas through the images and concepts. For example, Desiree is found in the shadows, representing the child’s unknown past (Chopin 2). Despite this, the Valmonde family adopts the girl without questioning her origins. The symbolic aspect of their acceptance is that Monsieur Valmonde often brings the child into the light: from the shadow to glow (Chopin 4). Chopin implements the symbols of God and Satan to emphasize the good and evil in the story. Armand often uses swear phrases that are related to Satan, while Madame Valmonde always prays to God (Chopin 10). Such symbols help the author highlight what is evil and good in the story.
The main character, Desiree, is placed between the two mentioned powers. On the one hand, she gains the love of her foster parents and falls into the belief that the world is kind and understanding. On the other hand, the woman is tempted by evil. The author puts Desiree into both worlds to show that evil is always more attractive but destroying. This fact is symbolized by the Valmondes’ warning about Desiree’s unknown provenance (Hassan and Tayib 142). Valmonde’s family understands the nature of the racial conflict and tries to accept Armand’s character and warn him about possible future difficulties. Moreover, Madame Valmonde offers her daughter to come back home at the end of the story. What is notable about this moment is that Madame does not accuse Armand of cruelty; she accepts him (Chopin 15). This symbolizes the forgiving nature of good, highlighting the idea that racial prejudices only exist in the human mind.
Social cognition is a powerful instrument affecting the human mind. That is why the prejudices are challenging to be changed. People tend to adjust their moral beliefs to social standards. This is a part of the congenital instinct for self-preservation. Chopin tries to use the setting and symbolism to show the destructive nature of social opinion (Hassan and Tayib 141). The setting, including the place and time period, is carefully chosen to reflect the initial ideas and motifs effectively. The suicide of Desiree and her decision to kill her child is a symbol of the pernicious power of social conflicts. In these terms, social prejudices are compared with the sinful desire to save yourself at the cost of others’ lives.
Foreshadowing
The author’s images and concepts often address the fundamental problems of human psychology. Chopin involves them by using the foreshadowing literary element. Monsieur’s and Armand’s relation to slaves represents the hidden message of the author: only the person is to decide which decision should be taken. The shame Armand is afraid of is always comprehended through the personalized prism. Shame can be turned into the proud if the person’s perspective is changed. The Valmondes believe that the found child is God’s blessing, while Armand considers wife and child a curse. This symbolizes that judging people by their race is a wrongful action from a moral perspective.
Another hidden idea that the author wants to convey is that people can never change. Even though Madame Valmonde is concerned with the skin color of the newborn baby and the possible negative influence on her daughter’s life, Desiree claims that her husband has changed (Chopin 11). However, as the story shows later, such changes are insufficient and unstable. Armand betrays all the positive changes he has made due to the inability to accept the social difficulties caused by the child’s skin color. Desiree’s image also supports the idea that people cannot change. She could not accept the world’s cruelty because she was raised in a loving family. She commits suicide showing that she rejects the world where such humiliation exists.
The author also addresses the friend-or-foe system of society’s functioning. This idea is implemented implicitly by depicting the psychology of the anti-hero character and the setting of the story. Basically, the desire to reject others is a mere protection mechanism of human psychology (Sollors 40). It represents the inability to contradict the wrongful concepts reflected through humiliation. Chopin highlights the weakness of Armand because he has no mental power to accept shame and live without comparing himself with others. By doing so, the author reveals the poor mentality of society. Comparing Armand and Monsieur Valmonde, Chopin says that the situation can be different even in the same setting. Thus, the inability to change or confront society marks the moral weakness of the characters.
Motif and Irony
The author’s main motive is to tell the audience that there is always a choice. Characters make their positive and negative choices affected by particular circumstances. The regulating instrument of these circumstances is the fate which is ironic in nature. The two essential plot twists, Desiree’s acceptance of the problem and Armand’s origin, show the power of fate (Hassan and Tayib 143). The irony is that people believe that they have the right to compare themselves with others and establish superiority. However, this short story teaches that people should never humiliate others because fate can turn them into humiliated ones instantly. Every character of the story experiences the moral choice to reject or follow social standards. Through this tool, Chopin explains her motif: the world full of humiliation is not worth living. However, people can change it by rejecting the fear of shame which is unlikely from a large-scale perspective. Only some people, such as Valmondes, are ready to fight for the good. Most of the society fearfully follows evil intentions leading them to destruction.
Therefore, Chopin’s story touches upon various social problems. Using different literary elements of narration, the author covers various topics and tries to convey the central motif of moral choice. The most common techniques: foreshadowing and symbolism, are used to implement the implicit ideas in the narration. The characters and settings are created in order to show the reader the role of social conflict in human lives.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. Desiree’s Baby. Okitoks Press, 2017.
Hassan, Hazha, and Tayib, Chinar. “Irony in Kate Chopin’s Selected Short Stories.” Koya University Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 3, no. 1, 2020, pp. 137-144.
Sollors, Werner. “Literature and Ethnicity”. Challenges of Diversity: Essays on America, Ithaca, Rutgers University Press, 2017, pp. 19-66.