Description
“Désirée’s Baby” is a powerful short story by Kate Chopin, first published in 1893, that explores issues of racism, sexism, identity, and power in the Antebellum South. Set in mid-nineteenth-century Louisiana, the story reflects a rigid social hierarchy in which wealthy white slaveholders held authority, creating the backdrop for Chopin’s haunting critique of race and gender.
Through a tightly structured plot and complex character development, Chopin reveals how prejudice and social expectations shape—and ultimately destroy—lives. This lesson guides students through a thoughtful examination of the author’s choices, including story structure, irony, foreshadowing, and characterization, while prompting deeper discussion about responsibility, guilt, and injustice.
Students begin by building background knowledge through an activating prior knowledge activity grounded in the historical context of slavery and Southern society. They then read the complete short story and engage with academic vocabulary and brief background information designed to support comprehension and analysis.
Throughout the lesson, students respond to literary analysis questions that ask them to examine how Chopin’s structural choices contribute to meaning and aesthetic impact, analyze how complex characters develop over the course of the text, and cite strong textual evidence to support both explicit interpretations and inferences. A culminating constructed response challenges students to determine theme, analyze how multiple themes emerge and interact, and write an objective summary grounded in textual detail.
This resource includes the full text of “Désirée’s Baby,” all student materials, and complete answer keys. You’ll receive a teacher guide and answer keys in PDF format, along with student copies available in both editable Word documents and print-ready PDFs, making this lesson easy to adapt for your classroom.
Perfect for middle school and high school ELA, this lesson supports meaningful discussions about race, gender, and social structures while strengthening students’ close reading, analytical writing, and critical thinking skills.