Chopin

The race of the writer does matter when the narrative deals with issues of race. It matters both in the sense that they must be careful with how they say things depending on what race they are, and to know what perspective their writing is coming from. Knowing that the story “Desiree’s Baby” was written by a white person puts the story into perspective. I would say that nothing in this story was in bad taste, and only reflects the thoughts that were common during the times where racism was simply a social norm. Although the story expresses through the characters that having black blood was something to be upset about, the author somehow does so without being extremely offensive, which could have been done by going into more detail about how much black people were seen as lesser than. Also, a white person writing about the experience of a black person during those times is a very risky thing to try, since no relation is really there between the character in the story and the author, which is another reason why race matters when an author is writing on a narrative concerning race.

Standing in shock, Armand set the letters down with weak, shaky and sweaty palms. He looked around, seemingly spaced out in deep thought as he contemplated. The people that he looks down upon and treats as property are people that he shares blood with. The baby that he helped create had black blood not because of the mother, but because he as the father carried the blood, and seeing how he treated the mother of his child for what he now knows came from him. The only emotions he could feel for a while was confusion and denial, as his entire life has been Armand began pushing everyone away from his life, for he would rather live the rest of his life alone than let anyone realize the truth of the composition of his heritage.

I believe that he would have felt denial because upon finding out that his baby was colored, it seemed that their was no doubt in his mind that it was the mother and not himself. His accusations were so strong that he even wanted her to leave after “finding out” that she was not fully white.

“A quick conception of all that this accusation meant for her nerved her with
unwonted courage to deny it. “It is a lie; it is not true, I am white! Look at my hair, it is
brown; and my eyes are gray, Armand, you know they are gray. And my skin is fair,”
seizing his wrist. “Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand,” she laughed hysterically.
“As white as La Blanche’s,” he returned cruelly; and went away leaving her alone
with their child.” (Chopin, 3)

This interaction between Armand and his spouse shows how strongly he feels about black people. He turned so quickly and strongly on someone that he had a child with just because of the fact that they may have black in their blood. This leads me to believe that if he were to find out that he actually was the one with black in his blood, he would most definitely not accept it right away, and would not want anyone to know because of how shameful he believes it to be.