Thesis Statement For Desiree’s Baby

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Desiree’s baby and the Lottery
Introduction
Short stories usually contain hidden messages. Author’s mostly put up short stories in order to teach the society of some virtues and warn them of consequences of having specific vices. Also, short stories might reflect the actual happenings in a specific context. In “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, the author points out to the state of events that happened in the US South. Desiree’s baby is a short story that narrates the life of a young adopted girl, Desiree who gets married to a French man Armand. The main theme is racism where Desiree gets chased by Armand since her baby turns out black. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, we find a community that carries on a lottery to find out who shall be sacrificed to their gods. The main theme in the lottery is the perils of sticking to outdated customs. The community easily murders one of their own in the name of custom. The formalist elements of setting and point of view highlight the stories relation to history in the US.
Formalist elements
Armand and Desiree seemed to like each other a lot, However, Desiree conceived and got a baby. At three months of age, the baby turns out not white. Armand accuses Desiree of being black since her family lineage is unknown. Here, we find the theme of Racism. The setting of the story is in Louisiana, Southern US region, where the having even drops of black blood from the ancestor’s made one considered as a black person.
The short story “Desiree’s Baby” uses a third-person omniscient point of view and this formalist approach allows Chopin to explore how the different characters interact from the narrator’s perspective. The narrator indicated that Desiree grew up to be affectionate and loyal in characterizing human relations in Louisiana, there was social stratification based on whether one was black, white, or Louisiana Creole. Chopin describes the thoughts and actions and various characters from the observant narrator’s point of view, who understands the tense relations among people of different racial backgrounds. Armand stops loving Desiree and her baby since there seems to be strains of black blood. When he was confronted by Desiree, he answered, "It means," he answered lightly, "that the child is not white; it means that you are not white" (Chopin 3). This indicates that intermarriage was frowned upon and anyone was black so long as they had at least on known black ancestor. Armand believed that Desiree was black as their child was darker and despised her for this, and the narrator’s describes his actions and neglect to highlight the problem of racism in a region where racial backgrounds was at times ambiguous as is case with the creoles.
The twist at the end of the story should be a wakeup call that one’s identity is not so obvious. It is a further point out at point of view. One should not judge others out ...