Who Is Desiree's Baby '?

The most prevalent theme in the short story, “Desiree’s Baby”, is racism. This particular short story was set during a time when blacks, or African Americans, were not only considered to be of the lowliest station, but were also kept as indentured servants, or slaves. To wealthy plantation owners, they were neither respected nor, in most cases, treated very well. The slave’s one and only job was to please their master in any and all tasks. If that were not bad enough, most all whites, or Caucasians, thought blacks to have very low mental capacity and only did well when performing manual labor. White people believed that they were superior in all ways to blacks to the point that they were forbidden any and all freedoms that all whites enjoyed. When Desiree was found as a baby, no one knew her origin, but as she grew, her complexion, her hair and eyes all resembled that of any other Caucasian person so it was assumed that she was just that. The same could be said for her husband, Armand. When Desiree gave birth to her son, it came as a tremendous surprise to Desiree that as the baby
When Armand learns this, it is too late. Desiree has already taken the baby and gone to either commit suicide or simply die in the swamp. Her death was senseless and uncalled for, not only because Armand carried the gene, but because she would think she had to do such a thing at all. Desiree believed that she and the baby were somehow tainted because they were part African American. It just goes to show how serious everyone during this time period took the importance of not only a title, but also the color of one’s skin. To think that someone would go to such lengths to kill themselves and their infant child only because of their appearance is mind