Race as a Weapon in Chopin’s Désirée’s Baby

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Recommended: The impact of globalization on culture

The submission to the antagonistic forces of globalization and the preservation of local traditions and cultural elements in the 21st century has certainly contributed to a change in the point of view of the society. Therefore, among the most propelled ideological dimensions we find solidarity, tolerance and acceptance, which are expected to form an integral part of our world view regardless of our ethnicity as well as the ethnicity of those surrounding us.
The institutional encouragement to find out more about other ethnicities, experience different cultures and take part in various types of cultural exchange has the obvious purpose of supporting multiculturalism, the importance of which cannot be denied in this context. For this reason, I chose to highlight the postcolonial and multicultural dimension in Désirée’s Baby, leaving aside the fact that one of the most important and recurring themes of Kate Chopin’s works are the problems that women are facing in a society that represses them – a theme that on preliminary thought would call for a feminist analysis focusing on gender. In this short story, however, the marginalisation, ignoring and humiliation of other people and taking advantage of them based on their ethnicity is an aspect that should not be overshadowed by the analysis of the female protagonist within the margins of the feminist theoretical position.
Kate Chopin produced this text well after slavery was banished in America, and it was published in Vogue magazine on January 14, 1893. It was the first of the nine stories that were published in the following issues. The writer was known to be daring in the choice of her themes, which famously shows in her texts focusing on the lives of women. However, it was her nove...

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...s, it can be stated that when it comes to racism and to the need for conformity, there are victims on both side of the story. Désirée’s being a victim (or scapegoat) seems obvious from the beginning, but Armand, aware or not of his ethnical heritage, also falls prey to the ironical nature of racism as do his surroundings, the entire society of Cajun Louisiana.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. The Awakening & Other Short Stories. San Diego: ICON Group International, 2005.
Gibert, Teresa. “Textual, Contextual and Critical Surprises in ‘Désirée’s Baby.’” Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate 14 (2004-05): pp. 38-67.
Griffin Wolff, Cynthia. “Kate Chopin and the Fiction of Limits: ‘Désirée’s Baby’”. The Southern Literary Journal Vol. 10, No. 2 (Spring, 1978), pp. 123-133
KateChopin.org: http://www.katechopin.org/desiree%27s-baby.shtml (consulted on 27th May, 2014)

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