To begin with, Kate Chopin’s “Désirée’s Baby” partly reflects realism, as it tells an everyday life story and describes the episode of the life of the Valmondé family. Realism in literature aims to describe things that occur in everyday life as they are. “Désirée’s Baby” is a story about a family’s love and relationships in everyday life. Moreover, Kate Chopin used different metaphors and realism to show the value of goodness. For instance, Valmondé is white and wealthy, but this couple is also kind. This description was chosen accurately to illustrate the life of those days people, so realism is seen here. In addition, Madame Valmondé’s childhood memories of her daughter’s childhood reflect each mother’s thoughts when her children grow up. Hence, “Désirée’s Baby” is written realistically because this story describes a simple situation in the Valmondé family’s life, which might occur among other families.
On the other hand, this writing might be regarded as realistic fiction, as the story is not based on actual events but remains realistic and aims to show injustice to people of color. Firstly, the whole family members were created by Kate Chopin. Secondly, the story was written realistically to show different metaphors hidden there because the author wanted to show the hypocrisy of racism. Thirdly, despite the probability of such a situation, this story is fiction but realistic. Lastly, as stated before, realism reflects real situations from everyday life, such as “Désirée’s Baby,” but with the difference that this story was created to emphasize the actual situation of racism in America. Thus, “Désirée’s Baby” is a realistic fiction that aims to emphasize, with the help of the Valmondé family’s life, the hypocrisy of racism in America.