The Youngest Doll (finally)

At first reading, I was completely bewildered by the Youngest Doll. After class discussion, I re-read the story while keeping the theme of U.S. dominance in mind. Puerto Rico has historically been used as a trophy for the U.S., a testament to democracy in Latin America. The U.S. has come in and transformed the economy from subsistence farming to industrial, capitalized on tourism which further perpetuated inequality- where native Puerto Ricans were seen as either a spectacle or subjected to serve their white counterparts. While womens rights in the U.S were growing, the U.S. was diminishing rights of Puerto Rican women by testing birth control medication on unsuspecting participants. The doctor and his son can be seen as the U.S., exploiting the poor woman for their financial gain and public praise- the prawn that eventually makes its way out of the youngest doll’s eye sockets symbolizes the very force that harms the native population of Puerto Rico that grows into a karmic power that will somehow come to haunt the U.S.