“Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin

In “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, the conflict that contributed the most to Desiree’s death is human versus society. Human versus society means the value and customs by which everyone else live are being challenged. In the story, Desiree’s death is related to racial discrimination and sexual discrimination, under the pressure of these two discrimination, it made Desiree finally commit suicide. In the beginning of the story, Desiree has a passionate love story with her husband. However, their baby turned this love story to a tragedy. It all begins with their mixed baby.

Armand’s racist attitude was told in the beginning of the story, ” 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 easy-going and indulgent lifetime.” He do not accept black people. In fact, black people only got very low status and dignity in the past. Black people have more unfair treatment than white people, for example, only black people will work as a labor. And most of the traditional white people family do not accept black people to join into their family. When Armand found that his child has black people’s lineage, he rejects his wife and his son immediately. Since then, the love between them instantly disappeared. This was a typical racial discrimination case in the society.

On the other hand, Desiree is an orphan and woman. Due to the unknown background and gender, it let Desiree lose the opportunity to defend herself. Quote form the story, “It is a lie; it is not true, I am white! Look at my hair, it is brown; and my eyes are gray” and “Look at my hand; whiter than yours!”. Although Desiree has lots of evidence to prove that she is not black, due to her gender, she can do nothing. Meanwhile, because of her unknown background, when Armand misunderstanding her, she has no idea to refute him. Regardless of the relationship between them is how good, once they face this kind of problems, the man can change is attitude without any reason. This is a fact, women do not have any rights in the society.