There used to be a clip where white people thought holding African American blood in your household was incorrectly. It was thought of as a shame to your household or a shame to the name. Kate Chopin tells a narrative about a married woman and hubby who have a new kid. Desiree. a white orphan that was adopted by the Valmonde household. is enthralled about the reaching of her babe male child and her hubby Armand. a rigorous slave proprietor is besides excited to see his first born boy. However. the household begins to recognize that something is cryptically incorrect with the neonates. They begin to detect that he is geting the traits of an African American and shortly the couple start to contract down the possibilities of the state of affairs. In the narrative “Desiree’s Baby” . Kate Chopin uses symbolism and prefiguration to portray that there is something bizarre about the babe and creates a cryptic secret plan that keeps the audience looking out for these hints.

With the usage of many symbols in her narrative. Chopin gives the audience penetration into the deepnesss of her work. Examples of this symbolism include the rock pillar. La Blanche’s cabin. and the balefire. The rock pillar that Desiree was found lying upon by Armand when he had first “fallen in love with her” ( 1 ) was used to demo her desolate background. Armand uses this symbol as a sense of safety because he knows he will be able to utilize Desiree’s unknown decent to fault her for a future failure or to cover up his ain errors. At the terminal of the piece. we find out that the babe is assorted and Armand blames Desiree. Neither of them knows who truly has African American in their blood but he automatically assumes that it is her because no 1 knows who her existent parents are being that she is adopted.

”And the manner he cries. ” went on Desiree. ” is deafening. Armand heard him the other twenty-four hours as far off as La Blanche’s cabin” ( 2 ) . this is a unusual line in the narrative and makes the reader inquiry why Armand was in La Blanche’s cabin and what he was really making while he was at that place. This might say that Armand is holding dealingss with his slaves. If this is true so it is possible that the quadroon male childs are his kids because he is “white’ and the female parent is black. Curiously plenty. the writer does non do Desiree acknowledge Armand’s words and she ne’er says anything to her hubby about it which makes it hard to acknowledge.

There are many boding illustrations that help the reader figure out what is traveling on in the work. One of the first prefiguration elements is from Madame Volmonde. Desiree’s orphan female parent. “This is non the babe! ” she exclaimed. in galvanizing tones. ” ( 1 ) This hints the reader that something is uneven about the kid and it besides informs them to look out for other information sing the babe. “Madame Valmonde had ne’er removed her eyes from the kid. She lifted it and walked with it over to the window that was the lightest” ( 1 ) . the writer uses these sentences to demo that the baby’s tegument colour was unusual and the household had noticed it.

Although they had non rather figured out what was awkward. many things started to alter get downing when Desiree compared her babe to the quadroon male childs. “She looked from her kid to the male child who stood beside him. and back once more ; over and over. ” ( 3 ) She so knew that her babe was assorted and Desiree instantly goes to Armand and asks him what it means. ” It means. ” he answered lightly. “that the kid is non white ; it means that you are non white” ( 3 ) . this indicates that Armand believes she is assorted but she protest against him.

In the terminal of Kate Chopin’s work Desiree and the babe leave on pes. “She did non take the wide. crush route which led to the faraway plantation of Volmonde. She walked across a abandoned field. where the stubble bruised her stamp pess. so finely shoed. and tore her thin gown to shreds” ( 5 ) . indicates that her and the babe did non do it. With Desiree and the babe already gone. the reader finds the stoping to be dry when Armand finds out his female parent is Black and this gives a sense of closing to stop the piece. Chopin uses the elements of symbolism and boding to make a more cryptic secret plan that keeps her readers interested throughout the entireness of the narrative but besides so they can travel deeper into the significance and subject of it as a whole.