Comparison Of Loving V. Virginia And Desiree's Baby

​In the case of Loving v. Virginia (1967), an interracial couple by the name of Richard Loving, a Caucasian man, and Mildred Loving, an African American woman, moved to Washington D.C. because of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924 that banned whites and blacks from marrying. They both grew up in Virginia which was one of the many states that banned interracial marriages. After a few years of being married, the Loving’s returned back to Virginia to shortly be arrested for violating the miscegenation law. The law prohibited black and white couples from marrying out of state and then returning back to Virginia. Richard and Mildred were both charged and guilty of the crime that sentenced them to a year in jail.

There could have been multiple possibilities of why the baby was not “White,” but due to Armand’s first intuition that Désirée was not white, he is showing that he has authority of the situation and that what he says goes. Because the husband and wife in both stories allow this particular type of destructive relationship, where the wife is submissive and the husband treats his wife like his own property, both stories progressively deteriorate by the

John F. Kennedy once said that "it ought to to be possible... for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color." The Civil Rights Movement, which began when the infamous Rosa Parks was harassed by the police when she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger, was just one campaign that fought to bring Kennedy 's views to life. The Supreme Court also had a hand in the equalization of the races in America, but it was not always positive. The Supreme Court has influenced the views of civil rights advocates throughout the years: Dred Scott vs. Sanford, Plessy vs. Ferguson, and Loving vs. Virginia. To start off, Dred Scott and his wife lived in Wisconsin with their owner, Dr. John Emerson.

Loving v. Virginia Loving v. Virginia was a case involving an interracial couple, Mildred Loving and her white husband Richard Loving. They were sentenced to one year of imprisonment for marrying each other because it violated Virginia laws at the time. Just for marrying! The laws specified that they wanted to prevent racial contamination from happening. This case took place in 1967, when the Supreme Court came to a decision regarding the Loving v. Virginia case.

In the movie “The Loving Story”, the director Nancy Buirski presents a story about love and fight for the right of interracial marriage and social justice. In 1958, a white man whose name Richard Loving and his black fiancée Mildred Jeter travelled from Virginia to Washington to get married in a time when interracial marriage was illegal in most of the states in the United States including Virginia, according to the movie. However, the director shows that Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested in Virginia when they came back for violating a Virginia law that forbidden marriage between people of different races. Therefore, the couple had to leave Virginia so that they can live together with their children in Washington, D.C. A long way from

Surely, only an opposing, selfish, and insensitive person could send their wife and child away upon realizing that they both were mixed race. In Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby”, however, protagonist, Desiree, is altered over just a few days as she goes from being thankful from the happiness of her husband and baby into saddened and betrayed by her lover. The story eventfully shows how racism and denial both play a part in the way the future may turn out. From the time that the story begins, one can see that the love between Armand and Desiree is what they say to be a dream come true. It’s the love that everyone asks for.

The irony of this short story was that it was Armand who was of mixed raced and not his wife. He was the one who tainted the baby, he found out after fining a letter from his beloved mother that was written to his father (Chopin). Irony is a surprising interesting twist at the end on a story. I am sure that after he read this letter that he soon figured out why his father was so kind to the slaves and how it was wrong of him to treat his wife the way he did and immediately regretted his choices. Thus, she was no longer there and he could not get her back, he thought she went back to live with her stepmother, and if he goes to look for her or the stepmother went to look for her and the child they would both find that Desiree never went to her original destination.

In the short story “Desiree’s Baby”one of the problems

With the denial of his past and of his race, comes hatred and racism into Armand’s heart and actions. This goes hand and hand with the denial aspect with the usage of characterization from Chopin’s part. Racism ran high in most people’s characteristics of this time because Chopin put this story’s in pre-Civil War times. With the treatment of his slaves, you can really see how Armand feels about others from the race that he sees as less than, even though he is really one of them. The substandard treatment of Armand’s slaves only stops once Desiree gives birth to the baby, but when there was a chance of Desiree being of an African descent, Armand sent her and their child away without thought, saying “Yes, I want to go” with no emotion showing in his voice or actions (3).

He soon came to a change of heart, which would cause Desiree to become worrisome. Desiree had found out that Armand was upset, because he found out his baby was partially black. Armand came to an assumption of Desiree not being white as stated in the short story,”Tell me what it means!” Desiree cried disdainfully. “It means” he answered abruptly,”that child is not white; it means that you are not white”(Desiree’s baby).

Armand accuses Desiree of not being fully white. However, Armand later on finds out that it is he who has negro in his blood. Desiree finds herself relieved to find out that it was not her that had negro in her blood. Armand's false accusations towards Desiree, cause her to become insecure of who she was. Because of Desiree’s strained relationship with Armand, she has trouble identifying who she really is; Desiree’s internal conflict causes her to question her race and essentially

They end up having a kid but the boy turns out to be not white. Armand angry and upset kicks out both Desiree and her baby because of her mixed race. That night, Armand burns all of Desiree’s possessions. While doing this, he finds a letter that his mother wrote to his

During the era in which this short story was written, southern authors had a major influence on the way the culture was going to grow with racism, and also the way people loved each other. Kate Chopin, a traditional author who believed in southern ways, exemplifies how race and the characteristics of conditional love played a role in her story. In “Desiree’s Baby,” the author, Kate Chopin, provides an illustration of conditional love exemplified by the character, Armand, towards his wife and child; furthermore, Chopin provides instances of irony, elements of surprise, foreshadowing, and symbolism to prove that Armand’s love for both of them was not the unconditional love typically felt and portrayed by women, such as Desiree, during this era. Throughout the story, the readers notice different times where Chopin uses elements of surprise. One major surprise is when Armand opens the letter from his mother and finds out that he has African American in his bloodline.

As a reader, you will notice the impact racism has in the everyday life .Many decisions were impacted do to thought of blacks being inferior to whites. When reading Kate Chopin’s “ Desiree’s Baby” the reader will be introduced racism and the use of local color all throughout the story. In Kate Chopin’s “

After Armand and Desireé have their baby, there is a change in Armand. The narrator states, “This was what made the gentle Desireé 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” (2). Chopin describes Armand’s influence on Desireé through Desireé’s emotions and actions.