Désirée--study guide.docx

Dsires Baby By Kate Chopin (1851-1904) A Study GuideType of Work .Dsires Baby is a short story centering on human relationships in the southern United States before the Civil War. Kate Chopin wrote it in the fall of 1892 andVogue magazine published it in January 1893. Dsires Baby was first published on January 14, 1893, in Vogue.1 It first appeared under the title The Father of Dsires Baby in a section called Character Studies.2 The same issue included Chopins story A Visit to Avoyelles; both marked Chopins first contributions to the magazine which would eventually publish 18 of her works before the end of the century.3 Dsires Baby was included in Chopins collection Bayou Folk in 1894.Setting .The action takes place in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century on two Louisiana plantations, one called Valmond, a family name, and the other called LAbri (French for shelter). The story begins in the warm-weather months and ends in autumn. Characters Dsire: A young woman described by the narrator as beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere. When she was a very small childof toddling age, the narrator saysshe was abandoned in front of a plantation home. Its owners adopted her. Armand Aubigny: Young man who inherited his fathers plantation, LAbri. After he marries Dsire, they live at LAbri. The Baby: Male child of Armand and Dsire. Dsire notices several months after his birth that his physical characteristics are those of a person of mixed racial ancestry. Monsieur and Madame Valmond: Childless husband and wife who found Dsire when she was a baby. After adopting her, they lovingly reared her. La Blanche: Female slave of mixed ancestry. Zandrine: Female slave who helps Dsire care for her child. Negrillon: Male slave who pretends to have suffered a leg burn in order to be excused from work. Deceased Parents of Armand Aubigny: They lived in Paris with Armand until Madame Aubigny died. Armand was eight years old at the time. His father then brought the boy to Louisiana. Armand inherited LAbri after Monsieur Aubigny died. Neighbors Who Visit LAbriPoint of View .Kate Chopin presents Dsires Baby in omniscient third-person point of view, meaning that the narrator not only describes events as they unfold but also reveals the thoughts of the characters from time to time, as in this sentence: When the baby was about three months old, Desiree awoke one day to the conviction that there was something in the air menacing her peace. Plot SummaryBy Michael J. Cummings. 2010. .When Madame Valmond drives over to see Dsire and her baby for the first time in a month, she remembers when Dsire herself was a baby. Her husband had found Dsire sleeping next to a pillar as he rode through the gateway of the Valmond home in southern Louisiana. No one knew where she came from or who put her there. The Valmonds adopted and reared her. .That was eighteen years before. Dsire is now a “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere young lady, the narrator says. Armand Aubigny had known her since he was eight, when his father brought him to Americafrom Paris after his mother died. But it was not until he saw her when she was a fully grown young lady that he fell in love with her. At the time, he was riding by the Valmond residence while she was in front of the house. .“The passion that awoke in him that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all obstacles, the narrator says. .Not long afterward, they became husband and wife. .When Madame Valmond arrives at the stuccoed Aubigny home, its appearance unsettles her, as it always does. .“The roof came down steep and black like a cowl, the narrator says, and the shade of oak trees surrounding the dwelling suggested that it was a tomb rather than a house. The Negroes who man the place are dispirited, for Armand is a demanding master. When his father was in charge, they were in high spirits. .When Madame Valmond enters the house, Dsire is on a couch holding the baby. It is asleep. Standing at a window is the babys nurse, Zandrine. Madame is surprised at how the child, a boy, has grown. Dsire tells her mother that Armand is pleased with the childso much so that his mood has lightened and he no longer punishes any of the Negroes. His happiness makes Dsire happy, for she is deeply in love with him. .But when the baby is three months old, a dark spirit descends over Armand. He is sullen and stern. Gone from his eyes is the gleam of love for his wife. Sometimes he stays away from home for long periods. .“And the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves, the narrator says. .One hot afternoon while sitting in her bedroom, Dsire experiences an uneasy feeling as she fingers the strands of her hair. On the bed, her baby sleeps soundly. A quadroon boy is fanning him. When she looks at her child, then at the quadroonthe son of La Blanche, one of their slavesher “blood turned like ice in her veins, and a clammy moisture gathered upon her face, the narrator says. She dismisses the boy. A short while later, Armand enters the room to search through documents on a table. Dsire rises, walks over to him, and says, “Armand, look at our child. What does it mean? .What it means, he tells her, is that their child is not white and that Dsire is not white. She refuses to accept his answer, pointing out that her hair is brown, her eyes are gray, and her skin is white. .“As white as La Blanches, he says. He leaves the room. .She immediately writes a letter to Madame Valmond, saying, “My mother, they tell me I am not white. Armand has told me I am not white. For Gods sake tell them it is not true. You must know it is not true. I shall die. I must die. I cannot be so unhappy, and live. .Madames reply neither confirms nor denies that Dsire is white. It simply tells Dsire to return home with her baby“back to your mother who loves you. Dsire shows her mothers letter to Armand and asks him whether he wants her to go. “Yes, he says, “I want you to go. .Because of the injury she had caused him, he no longer loves her. Now it is her time to suffer, he thinks, and well she should. Without changing out of her slippers and white gown, Dsire fetches her baby from the nurse and walks away, out into the late-afternoon sun of the October day. Rather than following the road to Valmond, she goes through stubbly fields that hurt her feet and tear at her gown. .Weeks later at LAbri, the Negroes tend a bonfire in which Armand burns the babys cradle, its clothes, Dsires gowns, and her embroideries, gloves, and bonnets. From a drawer in the house, he withdraws the letters he had received from her during their courtship. They, too, will burn. In the same drawer, he discovers a letter his mother had written to his father, expressing thanks to God for the love she received from her husband. Armand reads it. It says, in part, “I thank God for having so arranged our lives that our dear Armand will never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery. . ThemesRacism and Gender Bias Like many other American men of the mid-nineteenth century South, Armand Aubigny bases the worth of a person primarily on his or her race and gender. Women are subordinate to men, he believes, and persons with a black in their family tree are little more than subhuman. As master of the LAbri plantation, he is a strict taskmaster who treats the slaves harshlyso much so, the narrator says, that the “negroes had forgotten how to be gay. As a husband, Armand clearly rules the home. “When he frowned, Dsire trembled, the narrator observes. “When he smiled, she asked no greater blessing of God. Although his manner softens after the child is born, his demeanor remains in question. As Dsire observes, “Armand is the proudest father in the parish, I believe, chiefly because it is a boy, to bear his name; though he says not,that he would have loved a girl as well. But I know it isnt true. In other words, Armand judges the worth of the child according to its gender (in addition to its race). A male meant that the proud Aubigny name and aristocratic heritage would endure, perhaps for many generations. However, when Armand discovers that the child has Negro blood, he becomes sullen and cruel, and he makes it known that his wife and child are no longer welcome at LAbri. He even tries to erase their memory by burning all their clothing and household items. Judging by Appearances Armand loved Dsires outer beauty, not her inner beauty. She was a trophy. When the trophy became tarnished in his eyes, he removed it from its shelf and discarded it. He also rejected his child, for its skin exhibited a taint of impurity. Finally, like other Old South plantation owners, he viewed the blackness of his slaves as a defect that colored even their souls. However, conversation between Dsire and Madame Valmond indicates that he apparently found time for La Blanche, the slave woman whose name (French for white) suggests that she was of mixed heritage, with light skin that made her a tolerable sexual object for Armand. Dsire, speaking of the loudness of her babys crying, says, “Armand heard him the other day as far away as La Blanches cabin. Real Love Is Colorblind The narrator says Armand no longer loved Dsire because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name. Rejecting her because he believes she is of mixed heritage indicates that he never truly loved her in the first place. Real love is colorblind. On the other hand, after Dsire informs her mother of developments at LAbri, Madame Valmond tells her in a return letter, My own Desiree: Come home to Valmond; back to your mother who loves you. Come with your child. Climax .The climax occurs when Dsire realizes that her baby is of mixed racial heritage. This moment precipitates the tragic events that follow. Foreshadowings Dsires Obscure Origin The following passagedescribing Armands attitude regarding the lack of information about Dsires family historyforeshadows his assumption that Dsires ancestry included a black African. Monsieur Valmonde grew practical and wanted things well considered: that is, the girls obscure origin. Armand looked into her eyes and did not care. He was reminded that she was nameless. What did it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana? After he discovered that his child was a mixed ancestry, it was easy for him to conclude that his wife was the one with Dsire was the one with mixed blood in her veins. LAbris AppearanceThe foreboding appearance of the exterior of Armands home reflects his inner world and foreshadows the malevolence that possesses him after Dsire questions him about their child. Here is the description of LAbri, presented when Madame Valmond visits the plantation house. It was a sad looking place. . . . The roof came down steep and black like a cowl, reaching out beyond the wide galleries that encircled the yellow stuccoed house. Big, solemn oaks grew close to it, and their thick-leaved, far-reaching branches shadowed it like a pall. Something in the Air Dsire detects a change for the worse in the atmosphere at LAbri when her child is three months old, although she cannot fully explain what she feels. Her presentiment, along with a change in the demeanor of her husband, foreshadows the unhappy events that result in the destruction of her marriage. Here is the passage describing her feelings and the change in Armands behavior. When the baby was about three months old, Dsire awoke one day to the conviction that there was something in the air menacing her peace. It was at first too subtle to grasp. It had only been a disquieting suggestion; an air of mystery among the blacks; unexpected visits from far-off neighbors who could hardly account for their coming. Then a strange, an awful change in her husbands manner, which she dared not ask him to explain. When he spoke to her, it was with averted eyes, from which the old love-light seemed to have gone out. He absented himself from home; and when there, avoided her presence and that of her child, without excuse. And the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves. Dsire was miserable enough to die.Armands ComplexionThe following passage foreshadows the ending, when Armand reads the letter about his own background. The key sentence is underlined. A quick conception of all that this accusation meant for her nerved her with unwonted courage to deny it. It is a lie; it is not true, I am white! Look at my hair, it is brown; and my eyes are gray, Armand, you know they are gray. And my skin is fair, seizing his wrist. Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand, she laughed hysterically.Dsires Reaction to Her Supposed Racial Origin.When Armand tells Dsire that she is not white, her reaction suggests that she feels disgraced. She tells him, It is a lie; it is not true, I am white! Look at my hair, it is brown; and my eyes are gray, Armand, you know they are gray. And my skin is fair. Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand. Then, when composing a letter to Madame Valmond, she writes, My mother, they tell me I am not white. Armand has told me I am not white. For Gods sake tell them it is not true. You must know it is not true. I shall die. I must die. I cannot be so unhappy, and live. .However, it is likely that what distresses Dsire is not her and her babys racial heritage per se. Rather, it is a fear that Armand will reject them because he views them as racially impure. Her fear, of course, is well founded. Armands Irreverence .One passage in the story is particularly revealing in regard to the depth of Armands malevolence. It occurs after he tells Dsire that he wants her to leave LAbri. The narrator says, He thought Almighty God had dealt cruelly and unjustly with him; and felt, somehow, that he was paying Him back in kind when he stabbed thus into his wifes soul. Vocabulary bayou: Marsh near a river or lake. cochon de lait: Suckling pig. corbeille: French for wedding gifts or trousseau. Literally, the word means basket. layette: Clothing for a newborn baby. peignoir: Womans negligee or bathrobe. quadroon: Person descended from one black grandparent and three white grandparents. unwonted: Unexpected. Figures of speech .The most important figure of speech in the story is irony. It occurs most notably at the end, when Armand discovers that it is he who is of mixed racial ancestry. Another example of irony is the fact that Dsires child becomes fatherless after Armand rejects his wife and the boy. Eighteen years before, Dsire, crying Dada, was fatherless when Monsieur Valmond found her. .Here are examples of other figures of speech: Alliteration And the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him suns rays brought a golden gleam She did not take the broad, beaten road In the centre of the smoothly swept back yard was a great bonfire. Metaphor Dsire was striving to penetrate the threatening mist that she felt closing about her Comparison of the atmosphere in Dsires room to a mist Armand, she called to him, in a voice which must have stabbed him Comparison of Dsires voice to a knife Simile The passion that awoke in him that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire. . . . Comparison of the rush of Armands passion to the movement of an avalanche and a prairie fire The roof came down steep and black like a cowl Comparison of the pitch of the roof to that of a monks hood their thick-leaved, far-reaching branches shadowed it like a pall Comparison of the shadows cast by an oak tree to a pall The baby, half naked, lay asleep upon her own great