Works by Kate Chopin: Novels by Kate Chopin, Short Stories by Kate Chopin, Desiree's Baby, the Awakening, the Storm, the Story of an Hour

Description

This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Novels by Kate Chopin, Short Stories by Kate Chopin, Desiree's Baby, the Awakening, the Storm, the Story of an Hour, at the Cadian Ball. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Desirees Baby is a short story written by American author Kate Chopin about miscegenation in Creole Louisiana during the antebellum period. Desiree is the adopted daughter of Monsieur and Madame Valmonde, who are wealthy Creoles in Louisiana. As a baby, she was discovered by Monsieur Valmonde lying in the shadow of a stone pillar near the Valmonde gateway. She is courted by another wealthy scion of a Creole family, Armand. They appear very devoted to one another and eventually have a child. The people who see the baby get a sense that something is unusual about it. Eventually they realize that the baby's skin is the same color as the quadroon (one-quarter African) nursemaid - the baby is not white. At the time of the story, this would have been considered a terrible taint. Because of Desirees unknown origins, Armand immediately assumes that she is part Black, and after Madame Valmonde suggests that Desiree and the baby return to the Valmonde estate, Armand tells her to leave. Desiree then takes the child and walks off into a bayou where she is never seen again. Armand then proceeds to burn all of Desirees belongings and the childs cradle, as well as all of the letters that she had sent him during their courtship. With this bundle of letters is also one written from his mother to his father, revealing that Armand is in fact the one who is part black. Desiree's race is never definitively determined, although after she is dismissed: "Moreover no longer loved her, because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name." Though Kat...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=1045846