It is nearly universally understood that American author Kate Chopin's views on women and womanhood were--at the least, progressive for their time on the national political scope, and at their greatest, even a bit radical. It is no surprise that Chopin then, has been billed a feminist writer, and her work, that of a feminist nature. Seemingly more interesting, and perhaps less well-known however, were her views on racial equality; coming from a southern female writer, Chopin's arguments for racial equality certainly cannot be ignored or dismissed, as they too were progressiveùalbeit radical for her time. In looking at three works of Chopin's Short fiction, we can compare and contrast how she presents, and effectively denounces the superficial ideas of race and gender as defining the social stratification within American culture. In "The Story of an Hour", "Desiree's Baby" and "The Storm", we see how Chopin contorts the audience's preconceived notions about race and gender within the context of the story, in order to give us a greater grasp of the concept of social unity, as it were.
In Desiree's Baby, the audience is faced with both issuesùthat is, the issue of race, as well as that of gender, but more importantly, something that both seem to share; that is, a sense of powerlessness over the course of ones own life. The story begins of briefly by telling the readers about Desiree. Desiree was left lying asleep in a shadow of a big stone pillar. Monsieur Valmonde found Desiree as he was riding into the gateway of Valmonde. People believed that she had either toddled there by herself or had been left by a party of Texans. Madame Valmonde is the stepmother of Desiree; she helped to bring up Desiree as her own child and showed Desiree much love and affection for her. Madame Valmonde did not have any children of her own.
Desiree had grown up to be a beautiful, young, mature girl. One day she had been standing outside the stone p...