Friday, February 12, 2010
New South Writers and the Matter of Audience
While Thomas Nelson Page seems to support the southern status quo regarding race and class structure, showing a conciliatory perspective as he does in “Marse Chan,” George Washington Cable in “Belles Demoiselles Plantation,” Kate Chopin in “Desiree’s Baby,” and Ellen Glasgow in “Jordan’s End” are more complex and more difficult to classify. Each challenges traditional southern attitudes and conventional southern thinking in regard to race, class, or gender (or a combination of these); each exhibits a serious social consciousness; but each also treads cautiously, sometimes resorting to indeterminateness in the text through ambiguity, ambivalence, a lack of closure, obscuring or softening issues. Focusing on one of the aforementioned stories of Cable, Chopin, or Glasgow (use only one story) and using an example from that text, explain how the writer tends to defuse or to downplay the possibility for controversial reader reaction, perhaps doing so to appease the demands of magazine editors or the expectations of reading audiences. Limit your response to 200 words and be sure to sign your name. All responses should be posted no later than 9 am on Thursday, February 18.
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In "Desiree's Baby," Chopin avoids controversy at the end of the story. Desiree simply walks out into the bayou without explanation and Chopin does not give any more details. It is unknown whether Desiree and her child are safe or if they died out in the bayou. Many things could have happened to them. They could have found somewhere else to live, or they could have eventually gone back to live with the Valmondes. Instead of giving detail as to what happened to Desiree and her child she leaves it up to the reader to make a guess. This avoids any controversy over whether Chopin was being cruel to people of color.
ReplyDeleteIn Chopin’s story “Desiree’s Baby”, she uses certain key parts to downplay the possibility for controversial reactions coming from the readers. One part that stuck out the most was when Desiree was sitting “in her room one hot afternoon,” she was glancing at the one-quarter African American boy that was also in there, and comparing his skin color to that of her own child’s. She notices that her baby is the same color as he is. There is controversy within this because in an average white family during this time, a person that was not one hundred percent white would not be accepted into the community. there is also controversy with what happens at the end of the story because Armand just ignores Desiree, which leaves her coming to the conclusion she and her quadroon baby should leave him and go else where. “That the child is not white; it means that you are not white.” Because she is a woman I feel that he automatically assumes it is her that isn't white. Little does he know that at the end of the story he finds out that it is in fact him that has African American in his blood.
ReplyDelete-Cait Fulcher
In “Desiree’s Baby” there is a lot of writing that seems to be controversial: the idea of an abandoned child, love that blooms and fades quickly, a marriage that is run by the whims and moods of the husband, and the societal death that comes as a result of being found to be related to an African-American. These are controversial issues, but the writer of this seems to take care to diffuse some of the issues that would cause controversy. What I noticed most, is the interesting back and forth within the marriage itself. Desiree seems to live an extreme spectrum of feelings because of her husband’s moods. When we get to the main controversy, that is, the idea that Desiree is an offspring of miscegenation and has thus shamed the family name of Aubigny, I am interested to see the ease with which he sends her away, never to be seen again. I noticed that Chopin diffused the blow of his cruelty with a sad line, saying that he never really loved her anyways. It also interests me how Chopin spreads the “misfortune” around with the ironic revelation that Aubigny is himself a person of mixed race.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Woods
I chose to write about "Desiree's Baby", by Chopin. There were many things in this selection that were controversial and dealt with issues like gender and race. The most ironic part in the story I believe is the fact that Aubigny supposedly had fallen in love with Desiree at first sight, like a "pistol shot." However, when it came to the marriage and the birth of their son, he had completely changed his mind about Desiree because of the color of their child. The couple had been very happy together and Desiree loved her husband very much. Though, because at this time race was so controversial he stopped talking to his wife and didn't love her the way he used to. The ending was the most bizarre and horrible part...the woman that Aubigny had fallen in love with he was willing to just let go. It seemed that Chopin was of mixed decisions on race. He at first seemed to be very against the African American race, but then he ended the story as to hurt Aubigny in the end. I feel that Chopin included this ending to not cause controversy necessarily but to make people think about their decisions. Aubigny had lost the love of his life due to such the ridiculous reason of skin color.
ReplyDeletePaige Coleman
In order to fully understand Kate Chopin “Desiree’s Baby” one must put themselves in the time frame of which the story was set. Chopin was a revolutionist for her day. For a woman to question a man of the South, at this level, in the time after the Civil War is dangerous for her. It even says, “What does it matter about a name when he could give her one of the oldest and proudest in Louisiana.” The modern reader sees that Armand has done the unthinkable to his wife and child when they have finished the reading. However, someone reading this in 1893, especially a white male reader, would say Armand has done everything by the book in protecting his family name. Even though Desiree might not be black, the baby is, and Armand’s family has tricked everyone and built up their family name by seeming white. Due to Armand’s high stature within the community and them not knowing about the baby being black, Armand simply uses his get out of jail free card to erase his problem, his wife and child, from his life ending his controversies with the matter.
ReplyDeleteMike Goins
Writers often tried to avoid controversy in their works. They wanted their writings to be popular and read. In Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby,” we see an example of down playing the controversy in reader reaction. In this story Desiree and Armand’s baby turns out to have African American blood. Desiree realizes this when comparing the quadroon slave boy to her own baby. When Desiree tells her husband about the baby he says it is her fault the baby is not white. Armand tells her she should leave and take the baby with her. During this time it was unacceptable for whites and African Americans to be married and it was looked down upon when a child was born in miscegenation. The part of the story which stands out as avoiding controversy is when Desiree and the baby go into the swamp and disappear. They do not come back and the reader is left wondering if she and the baby lived or died in the swamp. The fact Desiree is never seen again shows Armand could start over without his reputation being ruined from having a colored baby, but in fact Armand was the one with the African American blood.
ReplyDeleteHeather Mitchell
in Desiree’s Baby by kate chopin the author goes out side the bounds of normal southern culture mainly by writing about an interracial marriage invovling a very affluent family in the south. the trick is that armand is black, it is very distant but he is still black, it is hiding and armand does not even know it. he gets married and when his wife figures out the baby is black by comparing it to anouth mulatto boy she realizes what is going on, now were the aouthor avoids controversy is kicking the wife and his bady out of the house because that way he saves his reputaion and avoids losing all of his wealth and postion in the comunity. if the aouthor had really wnated to be controversial she would have writing armand and deserie staying toghter and embracing there interracial marriage, and not caring what happened even thought they would both be ruined. she dosent do this becasue it would turn what is a controversial novel at the time, but still a readable populat reice of lituature because its radical but not to radical into something that no one in the south that could read would ever want to buy.
ReplyDeleteIn Glasgow’s “Jordan’s End,” I quickly found examples of attitudes and conventional southern thinking about race, class, and gender. The first example which related to race was when the doctor first met Peterkin and he mistook him for an African American. The doctor said, “…his skin was so wrinkled and weather-beaten that, at a distance, I had mistaken him for a negro.” It was sad that during the time of slavery that African Americans were constantly working outside in the fields. Therefore, the only reason that the doctor mistook him for an African American or a slave was just because of the way his skin looked. Then, the next subject was related to gender, which it was directed towards women and mostly th. Peterkin said, “Them old ladies don’t count. Thar’s three of ‘em, but they’re all addle-brained…” When reading this, I knew instantly that women and older women especially were being targeted in this book, but that Glasgow wrote it in such a way that it was almost comical, so we readers brushed it off. Then, for the matter of class, we discover that the lower class is considered to be underdog.
ReplyDeleteElisha Robbins
In Desiree's baby Chopin avoid contraversy by not finishing the story. She does not tell you what happens to Armand or his wife and the baby. Once Armand believe that his wife has African American Blood in her, he wants nothing to do with her. She leaves, and Armand discovers he is the one who has African American blood and he is the reason their baby is as well. Chopin Avoid contraversy by letting the audience guess what happens.
ReplyDeleteKate Chopin in “Desiree’s Baby,” challenges traditional southern status quo in regard to race throughout the plot represented in the story. The story shows evidence of a serious social consciousness; when the characters in the story realizes that the new born child has many African American attributes and physical characteristics, that would classify the child as mixed, or black. Chopin tends to defuse or to downplay the possibility for controversial reader reaction, at the end questions arise when she writes, “our dear Armand never know that his mother, who adores him, belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of Slavery.” I think Chopin ended the story this way to appease the expectations of the reading audience, because the reader knew that the mother or the father had to have some trace of African descent for the newborn child to look the way it did, and the father of the child was the only one to not have a questionable direct reaction. Chopin also does a great job of illustrating that people come from different backgrounds and races and although someone may look a certain way on the outside, looks can be deceiving.
ReplyDeleteIn Desiree’s Baby, Kate Chopin uses avoids controversy in the story by using ambiguity. When Armand is burning the letter from his mother to his father, the reader does not know if Armand knew about the letter before or after he sent his wife away. Chopin leaves it up to the reader to decide if he knew about the letter and was protecting his family name or had just found the letter. Also when Desiree and her baby are walking through the bayou, the reader does not know if they made it home or if she died. Furthermore, little is known about Desiree’s past because she was adopted. The lack of information that the reader receives, challenges the southern conventional thinking when it comes to gender and race. The ending of the story makes the reader question if Armand’s treatment of Desiree after the reader finds out that Armand is of African American decent. The reader sees that Armand jumped to conclusions about Desiree, whether it was on purpose or not, the reader does not know. The information given to the reader up to the point of Armand’s conclusion that Desiree is of African American decent, readers at the end of the 19th century would assume that Armand did the right thing.
ReplyDeleteKristen Whitaker
Conciliatory perspectives were used in literature of this time to maintain an audience or reader base, while still having their opinion underlying the text. They continually used avoidance to maneuver around areas of controversy as to not offend the reader. In "Desiree's Baby", Chopin uses avoidance in the end of the story by having Desiree simply leave the bayou without another word. I believe she does this to leave the reader to make their own opinions about Desiree and her African American descent, and to ponder the idea of how she was treated, without doing this outright.
ReplyDeleteMegan Perry
In Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby," there are instances that could be portrayed as controversial. Desiree notices that her baby does not look the same as she does. When she talks to her husband about, he says "it means that you are not white." Finding out about this hurt Armand greatly. Desiree asked her husband if she should leave and tells her that he wants her to leave. The whole time Armand seemed to act very calm and did not seem to act out in anger or yell at Desiree. It is here that we notice that Chopin is purposly downplaying the situation. In normal circumstances the husband would get angry and start to yell at his wife for deceiving him and he might even get violent. In this case, Armand does nothing, he just stays quiet and tells her to leave. It is evident that Chopin did reflect on how Armand really reacted what really happened and took place between Desiree and Armand. In doing this, Chopin was able to write in a way that would appeal to readers as well as editors that would be reading her work who might not want to read all the bad and controversial behavior.
ReplyDeleteBrian Ricks