I really enjoyed reading "Desirees Baby" by Kate Chopin. Chopin really described everything in great detail. While I was reading I could imagine and visualize what Chopin was describing and talking about.
Race plays a major part in Chopin's stories. Throughout the reading there was the question about mix race. (Miscegenation) Mix race in this story caused a huge debate. For Example, Nobody excepted Desiree and her baby due to her mix race. It's heartbreaking that they're not excepted and appreciated due to their race. Also Desiree was adopted which is significant because her race is unknown. Race is important to people because it is part of your identity, it tells you who you are as a person.
I thought it was interesting how Armand desribed and talked about Desiree's and his relationship. He described his love for her on page 302, " 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", and he also described it "as if struck by a pistol shot" on page 301. It's interesting becuase you dont hear individuals talking about their relationships in this way if it's strong and healthy. You think avalanche, prairie fire and a pistol shot as negative and harmful, so its ironic Armond used these words to describe his and her relationships together. The last part of the qupte on plage 302 in kind of ironic "anything that drives headlong over all obstacles" becuase when i hear that i think he wants to over come all the hard times in their relationship. On the other hand, the way he describes the relationship throughout the rest of the quotes portrays to me that he does not want to. So i think the quote is contradicting.
There was a correlation between Desiree's character being weak and unhappy and her killing herself at the end of the story. Throughout the entire story everyone was picking her part for everything and she really did not have anyone to give her support. It kind of portrays that she was weak when she killed herself at the end of the story.
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Armand really was contradictory throughout the whole story. He seemed to be madly in love with Desiree, and she made him smile, and it wasn't important to him that no one knew where she had come from. His mind quickly is changed when he jumps to conclusions and decides in his own mind that Desiree is of mixed races. It's funny that his love is unconditional and undying, except of course, if she turns out to be of African American decent.
I really found it interesting that Armand's affections were originally based upon nothing but his love for her but as soon as he might be looked at as different in the community his attitude quickley changes. I felt like he got what he deserved because no matter what he does he'll have to know that he killed his wife and child because of his own imperfections.
I agree with you except when I first read the stories and the lines of how Armand fell in love with Desiree, at the time I interpreted it as that it was more of a love at first site, and a strong permanent love. But as I finished the story the same lines begin to take on different meaning, like a foreshadow of how he is going to treat her. Also in the line “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 obstacles.” I think that later this passage would be foreshadowing how quickly he is to blame her, and telling her that she is part back. All his assumptions came quick like “swept along like an avalanche” which comes quickly and can cause a lot of damage just like Armand did.
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