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To understand the plot of “Désirée’s Baby,” it’s important to recall how people in the pre-Civil War South, and indeed in much of the United States, viewed race and heredity. During the time when many of Chopin’s stories are set, the word mulatto, now considered an offensive term, described a person whose ancestry included white and Black forebears. In pre-Civil War Louisiana, where “Désirée’s Baby” is set, however, a set of words attempted to define the percentage of heritage for any particular person not considered entirely white. While mulatto generally referred to a person with one Black and one white parent, a person who was thought to be of a quarter African descent and three-quarters European descent was called a quadroon. La Blanche’s son is referred to as such, and it is Désirée’s recognition that her son resembles this boy, who serves in her house and may in fact be her son’s half-brother, that forces the story to its tragic conclusion. Further distinctions included octoroon, for people whose ancestry was thought to include one-eighth African heritage. Purity of bloodlines mattered to white people living in the South in Kate Chopin’s time, and it matters deeply to the white characters in “Désirée’s Baby.” After the abolition of slavery, light-skinned people who had some African ancestry sometimes were able to “pass,” or move through society as white people could, avoiding the discrimination so prevalent in the post-war South. If they were discovered or even suspected of attempting to “pass,” however, outrage and punitive consequences might follow.
Only with this historical context in mind do the actions of Désirée and Armand make sense. Both respond with shame to what they assume to be true of their own heritage, in Désirée’s case, or what they learn to be true, in Armand’s. This context also highlights Madame Valmondé’s real love for her adopted daughter and her grandson when she urges Désirée to come home “to your mother who loves you,” contrasting Armand’s cold dismissal and Désirée own self-condemnation. Racial discrimination was a fact of Chopin’s world, one she sometimes addressed head-on while at other times obliquely criticized as part of her exploration of the human desire for independence and autonomy. “Désirée’s Baby” offers a clear critique of the unfairness and hypocrisy of the rigid race- and class-based society in which her characters live.
