Kate Chopin, "Desiree's Baby"

I remember reading Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" when I was in high school. For a creative writing assignment, I wrote an extended version of the ending but I can't remember what I added to it. Anyways, from that experience, I know a little bit about the topics Chopin likes to write about.

I thought "Desiree's Baby" was quite sad. It was published in 1893, so the memory of slavery would still be fresh and racism would be prevalent. Armand decided that because the baby was black, Desiree must have  had African ancestry. He decided to end their marriage because of this; I thought that was an awful decision. I can't imagine one's race being more important than all other aspects of oneself. Desiree's husband punishes her for something she has no control over (and something that might not be true).

It was ironic that Armand discovers that his mother was black; this opens up the possibility that it is Armand who is black and that Desiree is actually white. I think that Armand's parents should have taught him more about his mother's ancestry. If they had revealed this family secret to him earlier, he would not have immediately come to the conclusion that Desiree was black and had deceived him. However, Armand was raised to believe he was white and so he blames Desiree for the child being black.

I also started thinking about Armand's relationship with the slaves. He seems to be a strict master. Now that he has discovered his ancestry, he will probably have some issues stemming from his role as a master. I wonder if he would have even owned slaves had he known his ancestry. This, again, makes me think that Armand's parents should have been honest with him. I'm sure they thought they were doing the right thing by passing him as white and making him believe he was white, but that secret ends up wrecking his life.