The story of Desirée’s Baby (Chopin, 1893) is a story about how a father discovered that his son and possibly his wife weren’t completely white, and thus didn’t want anything to do with them anymore. The story portrays important issues, such as slavery, racism, and lack of empathy. Issues we seem to have solved. Or have we? Was social class that much more important compared to moral values, in the 19th century, than it is now?
We are usually quick to judge the past. If we look at the behaviour of the characters through the lens of our contemporary culture and beliefs—our collective moral code so to say—it may seem immoral or irrational. In modern society, slavery and racism—and therefore by extent Armand’s behaviour—are condemned. He chose not to love, and actually abandon, his wife and newborn son for the fact that they were said to belong to a different (non-white) race, and the implications it may have had for his reputation and status. Additionally, his mother was so ashamed by the fact that she belonged to the ‘race that is cursed with the brand of slavery’, that she hid her ancestry from her son for his entire life. A rationally thinking human being wouldn’t degrade themselves like that.
However, if we look at the historical context and the environment the characters live in, it could better explain their actions. They’ve grown up in a society where slavery and racism are normal and accepted, and have been repeatedly told—conditioned, indoctrinated even—that black people are somehow of a different “race” that is inherently bad and evil. Can we blame them for their actions given this context?
We might think we are a lot more humane and empathic in the 21st century than we were two centuries ago, however, in many aspects we still place social class above moral values. Take designer clothes: we somehow assume we have the “right” to cheap clothes, even though we know those clothes are most likely being produced by leveraging Chinese child labour. The same goes for forced labour being used to produce products for cheap sites like Temu. We might pet ourselves on the shoulder for abolishing slavery, but we’ve actually just outsourced slavery to companies abroad, therefore shifting the blame. Out of sight, out of mind.
Thus, you might argue that our behaviour in the 21st century is actually worse, since we have been raised with the notion that racism and slavery are bad and unacceptable. Knowing this, and still accepting or even ignoring the existence of modern slavery may be even more problematic. Another example would be how climate change and the effect of our actions on the environment are not considered or outright disregarded. This subject is taught in schools worldwide—not to mention the amount of campaigns dedicated to awareness—, yet people still ignore the effects of their actions and continue to choose comfort and status over the morally right thing to do.
In conclusion, given the historical context, the characters’ behaviour in Desirée’s Baby isn’t as irrational as we believe it is. They place social class above moral values because they have been conditioned to do so. In the 21st century however, we have taken pride in abolishing slavery, while we have in fact externalised it to distant places. We’ve grown up in a society where slavery is unacceptable, nevertheless modern slavery is disregarded and overlooked, and the same applies to the environment. While we’ve certainly progressed since the days of Desirée’s Baby, sadly, we have not yet reached the moral highs we aspire to.