Armand's Secret

In the final paragraph of Kate Chopin's story Desiree's Baby, Armand finds part of a letter from his mother that was written to his father. In the letter Armand's mother states that she is grateful to God that her son will never know that the mother who loves him was branded by the curse of slavery.

At the age of eight, Armand and his father return to Louisianna from Paris after his mother's death. His father owns a plantation with slaves. In the story Kate Chopin makes reference to the fact that Armand's father was easy going and indulgent with the slaves; but that after his father's death Armand's rule was strict and the Negroes forgot how to be gay.

When Armand marries Desiree -a woman with no name - they have a baby boy. At first Armand is happy, always with a smile on his handsome face, and he is kinder to his slaves. When their child is three months old, Armand realizes that his son is not white. "The very spirit of Satan seemed to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves." Armand banishes Desiree from their home, blaming her for being "not white." After Desiree takes the baby and vanishes into the bayou, never to be seen again, Armand makes the slaves burn all of Desiree's and the baby's things in front of him. It is then that he finds his mother's letter.

I believe that Armand sensed that it is he who was not white. At the age of eight he would have had some memories of his mother. His cruelty towards the slaves may have been sparked by his anger at having the blood "of a race cursed by the brand of slavery." He gives the slaves a reprieve from his anger when his son is first born; but when he discovers that his son is not white, his fears are realized, and he takes his anger out on the slaves. To save face he blames Desiree -a woman with no name, no known heritage- by telling her it is she who is not white. Perhaps the fact that she has no past is why he chooses her in the first place.