My very very belated post and reflection on "The Youngest Doll" by Rosario Ferre

(Quick note one why this post on “The Youngest Doll” is so late… I was absent on the day we were meant to discuss the short story, “The Youngest Doll” and when the blog post was due so I mistakenly thought that meant I did not have to do the post itself. I apologize for being so late with this blog post. I promise there was no lazy or bad intent regarding my being so late with this post)

Regarding “The Youngest Doll” by Rosario Ferre, I ended up deciding to read the story itself first, then reading the social and political background to the story after. I felt it would be interesting to see how the story affected me without prior knowledge (and then with that knowledge as well). While reading the story, the line that struck me the most was when the doctor told his son that, regarding the prawns that could have easily been fixed, “That’s true… but I just wanted you to come and see the prawn that has been paying for your education these twenty years”. Even without the knowledge of the actual history of Puerto Rico, I immediately understood the implication that these “doctors” were taking advantage of the woman simply for money and success. I also began trying to deduce what the symbolism was behind the prawn in the aunt’s leg. My theory was that it was meant to symbolize the waning agricultural business that was such a part of Puerto Rico’s history, yet not as important or viable as the times changed. The doctor’s (who could be considered “America”) could have helped fix that economy while letting the Puerto Ricans keep their identity. Instead, they let the problems of the Puerto Rican economy fester until they, like the aunt, became dependent on the doctor (the Americans). However, even as it was a problem, it was still the identity of Puerto Rico. So by having “out of the empty sockets of her eyes came the frenzied antennae of all those prawns”, Rosario Ferre was trying to   show that she desired that revenge would come from Puerto Rico’s own aggravated hands.

If I’m being honest I did not really gain much from reading the essay on the social and political background of the story. While I never knew the history of Puerto Rico, it’s quite similar to many moments within history where a country became dependent on another country so the themes were still easy to comprehend (with or without the essay). Hearing the history of Women’s rights and Ferre was very interesting though and it helped me connect to the story a bit more. I was honestly at first confused at the motivations of the aunt for creating these extremely realistic dolls for each girl as they married, but after reading the essay I related to the motivations much more easily. I realized that it was something similar to “be careful what you wish for”. These men effectively wanted dolls with no real emotions or motivations, but those dolls could end up fighting back and hurting the men at one point or another.