"Desiree's Baby" (p.1894) Kate Chopin Flashcards
Quote highlighting Desiree’s lack of belonging: “some people thought…”
“…she may have strayed of her own accord…the prevailing belief was that she had been purposefully left by a party of Texans”
Quote highlighting classicism beliefs of Armand (link to hypocrisy of Tom and ‘true’ americans): “he was reminded that she was nameless…”
“…What did it matter about an name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana?”
Quote linking to the symbol of the land: “she had loved…”
“…her land to well to leave it.”
Quote highlighting mistreatment of slaves: “under it [they] had forgotten…”
“…how to be gay, as they had been during the old masters easy going and indulgent lifetime.”
Quote linking to Daisy and Jordon when Nick firsts meets them: “lay full length…”
“…in her soft white muslins and laces, upon a couch.”
Quote suggesting detachment from the child: “she lifted…”
“…it and walked with it over to the window that as lightest.”
Quote foreshadowing innocence to awareness: “Desiree’s face became suffused with a…”
“…glow that was happiness itself.”
Quote highlighting gender expectations: “proudest father at the parish…chiefly because…”
“…it is a boy, to bear his name.”
Quote foreshadowing: “I’m so happy…”
“…it fightens me.”
Quote symbolising Armand’s character: “Marriage and later the birth of his son had…”
“…softened Armand Aubigny’s imperious and exacting nature.”
Quote highlighting Armund’s dominance over Desiree: “when he frowned…”
“…she trembled, but loved him.”
Quote symbolising power of nature: “there was something in the…”
“…air menacing her peace.”
Quote symbolising unity under the surface: “her blood turned like…”
“…ice in her veins, and a clammy moisture gathered upon her face.”
Quote highlighting Antebellum South: “obediently…”
“…stole away.”
Quote highlighting Desiree’s fear: “with gaze riveted upon…”
“…her child, and her face the picture of fright.”
Quote highlighting purity and confidence in her belonging despite implications: “she was like a stone image…”
“…:silent, white motionless”
Quote highlighting Armund’s ironic racism, suggesting hatred is taught not innate: “he no longer…”
“…loved her…unconscious injury she had brought upon the house and his name”
Quote highlighting her strength in weakness: “stubble bruised her…”
“…tender feet, so delicately shod, and tore her thin gown to shreds…she never came back again”
Quote of Armund’s Mothers letter: “‘but above all’, she wrote, ‘night and day, I thank God for having so arranged our lives that dear Armund will never know that his mother, who adores him,…”
“… belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery.”
What time period does Kate Chopin flashback to?
Antebellum South, 18C to 1861, economic growth of the South due to slavery
What literary movement was Kate Chopin known for belonging to?
American Realism and Naturalism
Why is the story inconsistent with either naturalism nor realism?
The fairy-tale elements of the love story leading to a more romanticism approach to an allegorical critique of racism
What does the story appear to be transposition of?
Guy Maupassant’s “The Story of a Farm Girl” (1880)
