Betrayal

Betrayal

The story explores the problem of a man’s pride overcoming the love he has for his wife and race. The purpose of this essay is to examine why Armand’s pride was bigger than the love for his wife. Madame Valmonde drove over to see Desiree and her new baby. Madame Valmonde is amused at the thought of Desiree actually being a Mother with a child. She is remembers that it does not seem that long ago when Desiree was just a baby herself. Desiree was an abandoned little girl, supposedly left behind by some Texans. As a baby, she was discovered by Monsieur Valmonde lying in the shadow of a stone pillar near the Valmonde gateway. She was adopted by Monsieur and Madame Valmonde who is a well- known wealthy Creole family in Louisiana. In “Desiree’s Baby” it not only confronts the racial issues that took place during the time of slavery experience and emotions how people thought during that time. The two main characters in the story, Desiree and Armand Aubigny.
They appear very devoted to one another and eventually have a child. People who see the baby get a sense that something is unusual about it. Eventually they realize that the baby's skin is the same color as a quadroon slave boy the baby is not white. Desiree was not of African descent even though she did not know of her background. Because of Desiree's unknown roots, Armand immediately assumes that she is part black although Desiree tries to deny the accusation.
Armand is portrayed as the man who had it all. He figured that because of his family name which he thought was, one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana The fact that Armand was a slave owner and came from a family whose name was well known he used his family name as another way to feel like a king besides owning slaves. Armand’s pride came first before his family because he felt like he had to protect the family name and history at any cost. For this he did not want anything to destroy who and what he was which was a well-known slave owner, so he told...

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