Assignment
"Desiree's Baby" by Kate Chopin
1. Write a short description and comment on the function of each of the following characters:
o Armand Aubigny, owner of L'Abri:
o Désirée, a foundling, wife of Armand:
o Madame Valmondé, the woman who raised Désirée:
o Zandrine, a servant at L'Abri:
o La Blanche, a slave:
2. Identify at leastthree symbols and explain what each one symbolizes/represents.
3. Identify at least one simile and one metaphor and comment on their significance.
4. Comment on the significance of each of the following quotations from the text:
o "His negroes had forgotten how to be gay."
o "The passion that awoke in him that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all obstacles."
o "Yes, the child has grown, has changed . . . . What does Armand say?"
o "Oh, Armand is the proudest father in the parish, I believe, chiefly because it is a boy, to bear his name; though he says not,--that he would have loved a girl as well. But I know it isn't true. I know he says that to please me."
o "This was what made the gentle Desiree so happy, for she loved him desperately. When he frowned she trembled, but loved him. When he smiled, she asked no greater blessing of God."
o "It means . . . that the child is not white; it means that you are not white."
o "[Armand is] the very spirit of Satan."
o "I must die. I cannot be so unhappy, and live."
5. EvaluateDesiree. Do you sympathize with her? Or judge her? Or what? Explain.
6. EvaluateArmand. Is he purely evil? Do you sympathize with him at all? Or judge him? Explain.