Top 3 Desiree's Baby quotes
"In time Madame Valmondé abandoned every speculation but the one that Désirée had been sent to her by a beneficent Providence to be the child of her affection, seeing that she was without child of the flesh."
Madame Valmonde and her husband chose to take Desiree as their adoptive child despite being unaware of her heritage. They thought her presence was a sign of God's benevolence as he had chosen to deprive the couple of a child of their blood. In this way, the Valmondes are depicted to be the complete opposites of Armand, who sees his child with Desiree as a curse by the gods even though he shares blood with the baby.
"This is not the baby!" she exclaimed, in startled tones.
Madame Valmonde sees her grandson and immediately realizes that something is amiss. She sees the child's black features and understands that Desiree has black ancestors. In this section, we see another example of how Parental love leads to a negative outcome just as in the case of Armand's parents shielding him from the knowledge of his mother's race. Madame Valmonde comes to understand something about the baby yet she fails to warn Desiree and that eventually leads to Desiree killing herself as well as her baby.
"It is a lie; it is not true, I am white! Look at my hair, it is brown; and my eyes are gray, Armand, you know they are gray. And my skin is fair," seizing his wrist. "Look at my hand; whiter than yours, Armand," she laughed hysterically.
Desiree's first reaction to being called black is disbelief. She tries to prove to Armand that she is as white as he is, and perhaps even whiter. Armand's only retort is that her skin is as white as his slave, La Blanche. This section of the short story highlights the arbitrary nature of race, and how even individuals who appeared to be white could be slaves as long as they had some black ancestors.
