LEC052034- Neha S. Remanan- Triple Oppression: System of race, gender and class in Chopin's 'Désirée's baby'

 

Neha S. Remanan

Dr. Joseph Koyippally

Academic Writing

03 February, 2021.

Triple Oppression: System of race, gender and class in Chopin's 'Désirée's baby'

               The American novelist and the short storywriter, Kate Chopin rose to prominence in the latter half of 19^thcentury and is considered by some literary scholars as one of the earliest feminist writers from her country. She was best known for her short stories about the Louisiana life and the inner lives of sensitive, daring women. This story ‘Désirée's Baby’ is set in the Southern part of the United States, before the civil war broke out in the mid Nineteen Century. It was the times, where racial discrimination was prominent in the American colonies. By this story Kate Chopin highlights the racist prejudices celebrated by the society in the name of superiority. How the society had manipulated the people considering the blacks are inferior to them

               Racial discrimination developed a sense of physical and mental superiority over the non-white race. Slavery is the tool used by the whites to show their superiority over the blacks. A slave is characterized as the human being owned by a person, treated as an object. Blacks were enslaved by the whites during the times of 19^th century. Black people are said to be belonging, “…to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery” (Chopin 245).  Kate Chopin in this story never had directly implied the physical abuse subjected to the slaves, but the scene of torture can be pictured in these lines, “The very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves.” (Chopin 242).These lines pose the extreme cruelty faced by the blacks in the name of superiority. In actuality these cultural rules of racism makes the black race inferior and outcaste in the eyes of the people. The societal demand blinds them to value more the person’s race than the individual self. In this story, Désirée’s ancestry and race are given more importance than their love and marriage. Kate Chopin pictures racism as the belief injected by the society to prove the sense of superiority of the white race. To project this idea the social dogma generates the idea of slavery over the non whites.

During the Post-Colonial times, the black could not marry a white and vice versa. When they violate this practice, they are seen in the eyes of shame and disgust. This code of acceptance in human relationships is drawn in this story by the characters Armand and Désirée. Désirée was technically an orphan bought up by Madame Valmondé as a “beautiful and gentle, affectionate and sincere- the idol of Valmondé” (Chopin 240). Armand married Désirée completely aware of “girl’s obscure origin” (Chopin 241). After the baby is born to them, there seemed a change in Armand’s behavior. He started to distance himself from Désirée and his baby. The reason to distance himself from his family was the slight color change in the body of his son. To escape from such humiliations Armand disowns his family. When the true identity of Armand belonging to the outcaste community is finally revealed, he finds himself to be no more superior the slaves he treated badly as he himself was one among them. Armand’s false façade symbolizes the false curtain drawn by the society to show off their dominance and superiority over the non-white race.

Armand Aubigny is pictured as a strict slave owner in the land of Louisiana. To prove their dominance over the other race, the whites treated them in a harsh and disgusted manner. The harsh physical abuse over the blacks can be seen in these lines where Armand treats his slaves: “Young Aubigny’s rule was a strict one, too, and under it his Negroes had forgotten how to be gay, as they had been during the old master’s easygoing and indulgent lifetime” (Chopin 241). In these lines underline the abuse fostered to the blacks in the name slavery. Harsh realities of slavery are reflected by the actions of Armand who follows strict treatment towards his slaves. . As Ellen Peel pointed out, “this system of race, sex, and class, the most complacent   is Armand Aubigny. Confident that he is a white, a male, and a master, he feels in control of the system” (224). This dominant strict characteristic of Armand indicates the violence and the cruel treatment subjected to the mixed race. . He was first happy on hearing his child was a male, as his child could continue his lineage. He is regarded as a very prideful man. Moreover he valued his pride and status more than his love for his wife and child. Understanding his child’s ancestry belonging to the non white race, he accuses her wife to be black as her ancestry is unknown. “It means,” he answered lightly “that the child is not white; it means that you are not white” (Chopin 243). The character Armand is the representative of the white race’s exploitation over the mixed race. He physically abuses the servants in the name of slavery, exploits them for his pleasure in the case of La Blanche even throw out his family because it may bring shame to his name. “Moreover he no longer loved her, because of the unconscious injury she had brought upon his home and his name” (Chopin 244).

This story mainly focalizes on the results of the racial prejudice implemented by the social norms. The sense of inferior status given to the blacks made Madame Aubigny to hide her true identity from her own son and it developed a sense of shame in Désirée to kill herself by drowning in the bayou. This influential paranoia of the society manipulating the individual mind as such the race and color is given superior status than the individual self, is the central essence of this short story. As, the twist at the ending of the story makes obvious the idiocy of this way of seeing the world, with racial background as its most important feature, since it becomes evident that one’s racial background isn’t obvious at all, and thus nothing to base assessments of oneself or of others. The exploration of the black inferiority in the system of race, gender and class purged by the social norms is questioned in this story of Kate Chopin.

 

Work cited:

1.     1.Chopin, Kate. The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, edited by Per Seyersted. Louisiana UP, 1969, 1997.

2.    2. Peel, Ellen. “Semiotic Subversion in ‘Désirée's Baby.’” American Literature, vol. 62, no. 2, 1990, pp. 223–237. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2926914. Accessed 28 Jan. 2021.