Desiree's baby

The theme I will presented is the writer in his century illustrated by Desiree’s baby. My question is what and why did Kate Chopin choose to denounced in Desiree’s baby? First of all, we will see what did Kate Chopin choose to denounced and, in a second time why did she choose to defend those causes. Kate Chopin, in Desiree’s baby, wants to denounced miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana, indeed, black people were judge like a lower race. Before American Civil War, Southern society was stricly organised, at the top they were wealthy plantation owners of European descent, in the middle poor white men and a few free black men and at the bottom black slave. Kate Chopin also wrote about independent woman with wants and needs, and of their continual struggles to create an identity of their own within the Southern society of the late 19th century. Women were at the lowest point of each class, and men had legal and social authority over them. Even rich white women were not independant citizens they had no legal existence except through their father or husband. Kate Chopin was born in February, the 8th of 1850 in Saint Louis of a father of Irish descent and a mother of French descent. In 1870, at the age of 20 she married Oscar Chopin and settled in New Orleans. She had 6 children with him at the age of 28. When Oscar Chopin’s buisness bankrupt they moved in a small town in Louisiana to manage small plantations and a little store. She fell in a deep depression after her husband and her mother died. She know the sucess with her publications in literary magazines. When she joined her husband in Louisiana, she discovered life in the Cajun part of USA : slaves, who had a very hard existence, lived side by side with the rich white plantation owners who lived in luxury. Mulattos, people with mixed backround (both black and white) were quite numerous, but always considered like blacks. Racism was very present. Kate Chopin was not afraid to write about racism and miscegenation, two topics that were often kept quiet by society. Women like Kate Chopin were derided and scorned for their assertion that women were just people who had dreams and desires. Chopin's work was influenced by her observations of the world around her, that world was full of conflict. She watched the emergence of the feminist movement, which had a big effect on her work. Kate Chopin undermines society ruled by men, by writing about strong female characters, just like Desirée, who go against society’s norms. To conclude, Kate Chopin was a committed artist who never has been afraid about the repercussions that her novels can had. In Desiree’s baby she denounced racism, this novel is also a feminism precursor who had impact on the society. She is now considered by some as a forerunner of feminist authors.