Desiree-s-baby (Text dependent) Text-Dependent Questions

Directions: For the following questions, choose the best answer or respond in complete sentences.

What is the author’s most likely purpose for introducing the story through Madame Valmonde’s point of view?

Which of the following statements best states what the estate, L’Abri, symbolizes?

It represents the antebellum South, valuing tradition and maintenance of the past.

It represents the power and wealth of the upper class.

It symbolizes a class hierarchy, particularly the white upper class, established through difference in race and wealth.

It symbolizes the heights of Southern society and foreshadows a fall from the upper class.

How does the narrator’s description of L’Abri, from Madame Valmonde’s point of view, develop the mood of the text?

The picture painted by Madame Valmonde contributes to the overall somber mood.

Madame Valmonde utilizes intimidating and gloomy imagery, heightening the tension in the story.

Madame Valmonde describes L’Abri as lacking a feminine care, contradicting the joyous mood of the newly made parents.

Madame Valmonde describes L’Abri as intimidating, glorifying the power of the South.

PART A: What does the word “imperious” mean as used in paragraph 17?

Commanding or dominant

Unreasonably demanding

Self-righteous

Intimidating

PART B: Which of the following phrases supports the answer to Part A?

“disfigured by frowns”

“he hasn't punished one of them--not one of them--since baby is born”

“Young Aubigny's rule was a strict one”

“the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him”

How does Désirée come to the conclusion that her baby may be bi- or multi-racial?

She notices similarities between her baby and a child of mixed race who fans her baby.

Her mother reminds her that her parentage is questionable.

Her husband declares that Désirée is not white, implying that their baby is not either.

She concludes this when she discovers the letter in the back of her desk, from Armand’s mother.

Compare and contrast Désirée’s and Armand’s reaction to the baby’s racial status and the consequences of these reactions.

How does the revelation at the end of the story contribute to the story’s theme?