Comparison of 'Desiree's baby' and 'The story of an hour'

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Comparison of ‘Desiree’s baby’ and   ‘The story of an hour’

By Kate Chopin

Essay written by Gareth Flowers

For my coursework I will compare both short story’s whom where written by a woman which was very unusual for that day and age. The author’s pen name was Kate Chopin.  Kate Chopin was in fact born Katherine O’Flaherty to a prominent St. Louis family. People assume she wrote ‘Desiree’s baby’ somewhere around the end of the eighteen hundreds as the exact date is not known. It is largely agreed that ‘The story of an hour’ was written in 1899. Both story’s have a theme of racism and carry a clear lable of the thaught of what a woman’s place in society in the antebellum period was. The Antebellum Period is often considered to have begun with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, though it is sometimes argued to stretch back as early as 1812. I also have noticed some irony in the story a recurring theme in the writing style.

Desiree’s baby

The story was written during an era when racism was everywhere.It is thought that out of the two this story was written first.

It tells a tail of a wedding of a woman who’s backround surrounded in a shruod of mist to a wealthy slave owner who’s name has a long and solid history of prestige. When the couple has a child, contravercy erupts when it becomes apparent that the baby has a different colour skin to the parents. The mystery of the baby being different is first created by the grandmother whom takes the baby to the window to get a better look at the baby as it would have been dark in the room in 1899. Since Desiree’s origin is unknown her husband, Armand, blames the color of the child on Desiree rejecting her and the child for fear that this would damage  his family name that had been built by his ansestors.

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What I noticed in a little way was a small deal of irony in the way the story progressed.One of the intresting pieces that I noticed that regulary popped up in the story throughout was the refrence to objects that were white. The objects were things like soft white muslins and the white gowns that get burned by Armand Aubigny at the end. These are little yet obvious signs that she was the one that was truly black and not Armand.

Unfortunately, Desiree loves her husband so much that she feels that she cannot live without him. Evenmore ...

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