Desiree's Baby By Kate Chopin Essay

This is a short story written by Kate Chopin. It’s about Desiree having a child with Armand her husband. Armand was raised on a plantation which his father owned and Desiree was found as a child by Madame Valmonde which is her mother figure. The author’s main point is that the baby is dark, so Armand gets upset and blames it on Desiree’s unknown background, meaning that she probably has black blood in her. In “Desiree’s Baby”, Kate Chopin uses several conflicts to strengthen the plot of the story.
Desiree and Armand are the people having the main conflict in the story. The reason why they are conflicting is because Desiree has a child with Armand and the baby comes out darker colored. Armand begins to blame and acts distant with her because
Armand then had time to think of what he wants to do with Desiree and the baby. Thinking if he should leave them because of the hatred he has for blacks. It does not say in the story but it shows that he dislikes blacks. He was raised on a plantation where blacks were bought by his father to work as slaves. Work endless hours pleasing their master which was Armand’s father. Armand was not raised to hate blacks, but just because he saw the way they were treated by his father, his father’s actions, words, and feelings towards them rubbed off. Armand didn’t know what to think because of the way he was raised then to have his own child be dark skinned toned which angered him and caused him to act like a very different person then what he was. Desiree leaving him to go with her mother actually helped him because he was able to have time to think about what he wanted to do instead of him causing another scene and have more chaos happening . He had time to think about the baby, Desiree, and more importantly himself, Armand starts off as a great character in the story very loving and caring person. His heart was broken and he didn't know how to express the way he felt so he acted out in anger and frustration. In the other hand Desiree was saddened by the way Armand was acting because no matter what the baby looked like Armand should have loved the child from the first time he saw it because it was his own child. She couldn't take anymore of Armand acting the way he was acting so she picked up and left with the child. Desiree is the protagonist because she is the main character and the story revolves around her