Women's Lack Of Power In The 19Th Century

1314 Words6 Pages
Kate Chopin wrote about similar themes in all her short stories. All her themes in her short stories are related to women's search for selfhood, for self-discovery or identity. Also, they focus on women's revolt against conformity, against gender conformity or against social norms that limit women's possibilities in life. Kate Chopin wrote about female oppression and a woman’s emotional and sexual needs at a time where neither subject was acknowledged. She was more concerned with ideas such as freedom rather than the political ideas of her time. ‘‘Desiree’s Baby,’’ written in 1893, questions the potential fulfillment of woman's identity and focuses on the present social issues of her time. Kate Chopin wrote “Desiree’s Baby” shortly after the Civil War. During Chopin's lifetime, African Americans were considered inferior to whites and often worked as slaves for the wealthy, white families in the south. African-Americans were barely considered to be human. Women stayed at home raising children. There was a hierarchy in society with white men on the top and women, then African-American men, then at the bottom African-American women (Larsson). This story takes place in a Creole community where “master over slaves, white over black, and man over woman” (Peel 224). This is proven when the "blame" for the baby's obvious genetics is automatically assigned to Desiree; this had to do with women's roles at the time, but also the social standing of Armand and Desiree as a couple. Due to the cultural atmosphere of the time a woman's word would never even be considered against the word and standing of her husband. Desiree pointed out to her husband several facts to prove she was white, but Armand still rejected her and the baby: "It is a lie; it is not true. I am white! Look at my hair, its brown; and my eyes are grey, Armand, you know they are grey. And my skin is fair,
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