090326001 Kate Chopin's Desiree's baby

KATE CHOPIN’S DESIREE’S
BABY

The
disgust that skin color has brewed into the soul of society is
apparent in this short story. An insight into the story not only
tells us of apparent disgust but also reveals the tolerant and
somewhat a liking and understanding of this genetic feature of
mankind which is revealed almost at the end of the story where it is
learnt by young Armand Aubigny that it was him who was actually to be
blamed, if that’s the right word, for the mulatto child being
born out of his marriage to Desiree, as it was his mother who was
from a mixed race and not Desiree. This fact and the part of the
story which tells us of how his father had loved his mother, knowing
about her racial background, tells us about the loving and unaffected
by color elements of society as well.

It
is perhaps Chopin’s way of criticizing the society of inhuman
customs and a decent way of demonstrating her emancipation. “The
story shows horrors of racialism” (Schneider).

The
best way to experience something is to live it and that is what
Chopin has really done. She was from the times when all that is
narrated in the story was happening all around her and she could not
help but to protest against it. Besides genetics there are other
morals to be learnt from this story. Think before you do or say
something, you could be hurting someone so much so that it could
possibly become a matter of life and death. “The title of the
story is a searing and ironic indictment on racial prejudice”
(Josyph). Though the story revolves around Desiree and her
sufferings but the underlying fact that her sufferings are due to the
fact that racial discrimination has firm roots in society is well
portrayed. By making her readers feel soft for Desiree she is
actually driving her own feeling into the hearts that discrimination
because of skin color can be as brutal as turning love into hate, and
if tolerated or ignored or left out as something not to be
considered, then it could be as strong a virtue as bonding the two
loved ones for life; ….till death do us apart; as it is
evident from the life of Armand’s parents.

Chopin
has very mildly, politely and decently driven our attention to what
should not have been there at all. She is definitely antiapartheid.
Had she been anything otherwise she could have easily opted some
other means of making us feel sorry for Desiree. This 19^th
century story with Louisiana in the background seems very much the
story of present times. Her tone remains mild
throughout but she is more than successful in exposing the
pride and prejudices of a society filled with feelings of racialism
which holds dear to itself to which side of a geographical line one
is born and by whom one is begotten. Both these factors, which are
not in control of anyone being born and to which anyone has no claim
of achievement, are still considered to be the most contributing
factors to our pride and ego.

The
other morals we talked about earlier are evident from, “The
letter contains the disclosure that the ''taint'' came from her, the
planter's mother, who was descended from slaves”
(Bernstein). Once the reader has read it all he or she comes
to realize that there are a few hints to Armand’s mixed
background as well in the story but they may be evident to a reader
while to Armand they were not.

Kate Chopin has drawn our
attention towards the fact that more than any other cleansing we
require, cleansing of our souls is required the most. Despite all
efforts by members of this society we are still way behind. To
whatever extent we may consider the civil society to be unbiased and
racially unprejudiced, had Kate was a present day writer she would
have said the same as Marian Anderson (1897-1993, U.S. opera singer)
once said about human society and racism, “Sometimes, it's like
a hair across your cheek. You can't see it, you can't find it with
your fingers, but you keep brushing at it because the feel of it is
irritating” (Encarta Book of Quotations).

It’s just a story but what
is mentioned in between the lines is what that depicts the true
picture of the mental health of human race.

Works Cited

Bernstein,
Richard. "BOOKS OF THE TIMES; Echoes of a City's Shady
'Underself'." New York Times 4 February 1998: 8.

Encarta
Book of Quotations. Human Society and Racism. Ed. Microsoft
Corporation. Prod. Microsoft Corporation. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.,
1999.

Josyph,
Peter. "Audio Reviews." Library Journal 119.13
(1994): 156.

Schneider,
Patricia. "The Genetics and Evolution of Human Skin Color."
Journal of College Science Teaching 34.2 (2004): 20-24.