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Kate Chopin dared to write and voice her opinions in a time where women were not be able to do so. Perhaps she can be called a woman before her time, a woman who wasn’t scared to tell it how it was. After years of negative criticism and her death, Chopin’s literary work began to receive praise. In Hall’s biography of Chopin it is said, “Chopin’s works were reassessed and began to receive serious critical attention in the late 1950's (141).” Chopin has been criticized for her ironic endings that are similar to Maupassant, scorned for voicing opinions of miscegenation, and admired for her local color writing. As shown in many of Chopin’s works, including Desiree’s Baby, Chopin uses ironic plots to draw her readers in. By making the story have a twist, Chopin takes the reader and makes them believe one thing only to find out that the actual truth is the opposite. “Like many of Chopin’s stories, “Desiree’s Baby” builds to an ironic reversal reminiscent of Maupassant. Although some critics claim that Chopin’s frequent dependence upon this device weakens her art, others defend its effectiveness (Hall 141).” Person and Poupard say, “Some critics argue that frequent dependence upon this technique weakens the artistry of such a story as “Desiree’s Baby,” but other critics regard it as an inevitable outgrowth of the types of plots and themes Chopin used during the early period of her career, which was devoted to popular-magazine fiction (56).” This negative criticism of Chopin’s ironic plots also suggests that she learned her technique from her teacher Maupassant while she studied under him. However, Joseph Reilly explains, “But she enriched her innate talent for story telling by studying his virtues and making them her own: economy of words, beginnings which start the reader off like a shot from a pistol, and infallibly “right” endings (131).” Chopin took what she learned and made it her own.
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