Foreshadowing In Desiree's Baby

“Desiree awoke one day to the conviction that there was something wrong in the air menacing her peace. It was at first too subtle to grasp” (Kate Chopin 3). As one of the characters in Kate Chopin’s 1893 short story “Desiree’s Baby,” Desiree struggles to make sense of all the commotion going on around her. However with many people going to and from her home visiting her husband, Armand, and their newborn baby she starts to conceive that there is something wrong. Chopin illustrates the racial animosity between whites and negroes in the marriage of Desiree and Armand through the use of the setting, plot and foreshadowing. The story takes place in the mid-1800s with marital stress among Desiree and Armand whom gave birth to a boy. The couple …show more content…
She makes an accusation of the child, “this is not the baby!” at their first meeting (2). Desiree’s mom then goes on to compare baby’s skin tone to their negro slave. Oblivious to this accusation Desiree is not concerned until about two months later when the baby darkens. Even as she sends a letter to her mother pleading to tell them it wasn’t true, her mother foreshadows again the severity of her husband’s emotions stating, “My own Desiree: Come home to Valmonde; back to your mother who loves you. Come with your child” …show more content…
The collection of details within that time of slavery helped to build the racial hatred between the two ethnic backgrounds. It was elaborated within the characters’ demeanors through gestures, exchange of words and even rooms of where each scene had taken place. The mother’s hints aided Desiree in understanding what she was going to encounter. Although it was not accepted at first it hit hard emotionally in which her mother again had to come to the rescue. The author’s use of specific information smoothly correlated the hardship of negro existence and white supremacy of that