Desiree's Baby - Kate Chopin - Bookniverse

How far can prejudice destroy a perfect life? In the wealthy plantations of the 19th-century American South, beautiful Désirée seems to have everything: a loving husband and a beautiful baby boy. But as the child grows, his appearance turns her husband’s love into hatred, threatening to destroy her family and social standing.****************************Désirée's Baby explores themes of racial prejudice, social hypocrisy, and the vulnerability of women in a male-dominated society. The mind behind this short story was Kate Chopin, an American author born in Missouri, in 1850. Growing up in a household of independent, bilingual women of French descent, Chopin developed a sharp intellect. At the age of twenty, she married and moved to Louisiana. It was during these years that she observed the unique social hierarchies, and rigid racial divisions of the Deep South. When her husband died unexpectedly, Chopin returned to her birthplace and turned to writing as a means to support her six children.