Désirée's Baby [short story]
by Kate Chopin
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In "Désirée's Baby", the adopted daughter of a wealthy prewar French Creole couple is courted by the son of another wealthy, respected French Creole family. After they marry, their child is born with dark skin and believed to have African ancestry, a problem for a prewar white family. Accused of dishonesty by her husband, the mother, Désirée, and her child walk off into the bayou, never to be seen again. But when the father finds a letter from his mother to his father which reveals an show more explosive fact about his own ancestry, he learns a sobering truth. show lessTags
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This is one of those tragic stories where two white parents have a baby that isn't so white. It's set in the America of yesteryear when this was serious enough to turn one partner's love for the other to unforgiving hatred.
The author does a great job of setting the tone and evoking sympathy for the rejected partner. What impressed me most was the last paragraph. I won't give it away, but will say I didn't see it coming.
The author does a great job of setting the tone and evoking sympathy for the rejected partner. What impressed me most was the last paragraph. I won't give it away, but will say I didn't see it coming.
This tale is beautifully constructed to address the ludicrous nature of the racial divide. It was almost shocking to know it was written in 1892, when slavery was the past, but the issue of race and the "purity" of blood still so strong in Southern society.
https://www.katechopin.org/pdfs/desirees-baby.pdf
https://www.katechopin.org/pdfs/desirees-baby.pdf
From the author of the famous feminist work The Awakening comes this collection of short stories set in the New Orleans bayou. Many of the stories blend together, lost in my memory only moments after finishing them. That’s something I always struggle with when it comes to short stories.
This collection does have a few stand outs, particularly the title story Désirée’s Baby. The horrifying little tale is about a happily married couple who have just had their first child. The child clearly isn’t completely white and because of that the husband throws the wife out of the house and disowns the child, saying she must have an African American in her background. But the truth is even more shocking.
The other stand out was “The show more Godmother,” a short piece about a woman whose grandson commits a murder. She does everything she can to protect him and hide the truth, but the guilt of the cover-up drives a wedge between them. The collection includes: Love on the Bon-Dieu, Désirée’s Baby, A Lady of Bayou St. John, The Unexpected, Fedora, The Story of an Hour, The Godmother and At the Cadian Ball
BOTTOM LINE: Start with Chopin’s other work, "The Awakening” and if you’re left wanting more then check these out. show less
This collection does have a few stand outs, particularly the title story Désirée’s Baby. The horrifying little tale is about a happily married couple who have just had their first child. The child clearly isn’t completely white and because of that the husband throws the wife out of the house and disowns the child, saying she must have an African American in her background. But the truth is even more shocking.
The other stand out was “The show more Godmother,” a short piece about a woman whose grandson commits a murder. She does everything she can to protect him and hide the truth, but the guilt of the cover-up drives a wedge between them. The collection includes: Love on the Bon-Dieu, Désirée’s Baby, A Lady of Bayou St. John, The Unexpected, Fedora, The Story of an Hour, The Godmother and At the Cadian Ball
BOTTOM LINE: Start with Chopin’s other work, "The Awakening” and if you’re left wanting more then check these out. show less
Wow. Powerful short story about how racism can tear people apart.
Very good story. Orphaned girl gets married and has a child. When it is discovered that the child is part black, the husband tells wife to leave because she has disgraced his family because she is part black. The ending is somewhat expected, but good nonetheless.
http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/library/desireesbaby.html
http://www.pbs.org/katechopin/library/desireesbaby.html
Note I read the physical version of this book
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195+ Works 20,900 Members
Kate Chopin was born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 8, 1851. Although she was brought up in a wealthy and socially elite Catholic family, Chopin's childhood was marred by tragedies. Her father was killed in a train accident when Chopin was just four years old, and in the following years she also lost her older brother, show more great-grandmother, and half-brother. In 1870, at the age of 19, she married Oscar Chopin, the son of a wealthy cotton-growing family in Louisiana. The couple had seven children together, five boys and two girls, before Oscar died of swamp fever in 1883. The following year, Chopin packed up her family and moved back to St. Louis to be with her mother, who died just a year later. To support herself and her family, Chopin started to write. Her first novel, At Fault, was published in 1890. Her most famous work, The Awakening, inspired by a real-life New Orleans woman who committed adultery, was published in 1899. The book explores the social and psychological consequences of a woman caught in an unhappy marriage in 19th century America, is now considered a classic of the feminist movement and caused such an uproar in the community that Chopin almost entirely gave up writing. Chopin did try her hand at a few short stories, most of which were not even published. Chopin died on August 22, 1904, of a brain hemorrhage, after collapsing at the World's Fair just two days before. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Désirée's Baby [short story]
- Original title
- Désirée's Baby
- First words
- As the day was pleasant, Madame Valmondé drove over to L'Abri to see Désirée and the baby.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"But, above all," she wrote, "night and day, I thank the good 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."
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- Languages
- English
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
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