Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Where is there foreshadowing in the short story "Desiree's Baby"?

We learn early on that
Desiree was a foundling, first spotted by Monsieur Valmonde "lying asleep in the shadow of
the big stone pillar" before the entrance to their home. It is some eighteen years later
when Armand Aubigny rides by and sees her there, leaning against that same "stone pillar in
whose shadow she had lain asleep." The fact that Desiree is found and is, later, fallen in
love with in that same shadowed spot seems to foreshadow the darkness and sadness that will
attend her in her married life. In fact, a shadow would have caused her skin to look darker than
it really wasthus Armand's suspicions of her being of mixed race. However, just as the shadow
would have created that illusion of dark skin when it did not really exist, Armand will later
accuse Desiree of possessing a racially mixed ancestry when it does not exist; it is his own
ancestry which includes people of color.

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