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Désirée's Baby explores themes of racial prejudice, social hypocrisy, and the vulnerability of women in a male-dominated society. The mind behind this short story was Kate Chopin, an American author born in Missouri, in 1850. Growing up in a household of independent, bilingual women of French descent, Chopin developed a sharp intellect. At the age of twenty, she married and moved to Louisiana. It was during these years that she observed the unique social hierarchies, and rigid racial divisions of the Deep South. When her husband died unexpectedly, Chopin returned to her birthplace and turned to writing as a means to support her six children.