Much of Desiree 's Baby is told by implication, in this essay I will concentrate on the implications about Armand 's feelings and his feelings towards the baby after he found out it was black.
In the story we see a deep contrast in Armand 's emotions, and ways of expressing these emotions. It says near the start that Armand is the proudest father in the parish and that he hasn 't punished one of them to an awful change in her husbands manner, which she dared not ask him to explain and the very spirit of Satan seemed suddenly to take hold of him in his dealings with the slaves. This implies that he was very happy then he changed to very angry and upset. He also changes his manner towards Desiree, as if she has a disease, he avoids her when ever possible and talks to her with averted eyes. The strange thing about this is that Armand 's mother is black (but he didn 't know it at the time) but surely Armand 's father (who knew about her being black) would have taught Armand to be at the very least respectful to black people. That is another contrast in the story it says that as they had been (gay) during the old master 's easy-going and indulgent lifetime which is in total contrast to Young Aubigny 's rule was a strict one.
When Armand refers to the baby he uses the word the, this shows that he does not associate himself with the baby and feels emotionally unattached, we assume this is because the baby is black, this shows his deep racism against black people. Also his dramtic change of attitude may be because he had formed an unconscious emotional bond (since all emotional bonds are) with the baby and as it says the baby and Desiree (he thinks) give him a unconscious injury. Meaning that they betrayed him. When Armand talks to Desiree knowing that the baby is not totally white, he does it very coldly, like he was numb from pain, this is also expressed when it says in a voice which must have stabbed him, if he was human meaning that he was emotionally void or unattached.
