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The Story of the Lost Child,
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Angela
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Gabriela Moraes
I believe more in the hypothesis that Lila had the dolls all the time, and not Alfonso. What holds me most is wondering the meaning of why Lila gave them to Lenu in the end. We know that Lila wanted to disappear and leave nothing behind, no money, no possessions, as if she had never existed. So why would she wish Lenu always had a physical memory that she existed? Was it:
1- Lenu's forgiveness for having written the story, wanting her to always have a piece of hers and their friendship?;
2- Another way for Lila to punish Lenu, with her existence, wanting her to never forget that she had let her down?
3- Or just to make it clear that Lila had always manipulated Lenu as she wanted, all her life, and that the history of that friendship, which began the way Lila wanted, would also end this way, not Lenu's way, reminding her that even with the power of words, she would not have the power to write a story that she would never know the true ending, almost a curse for a writer.
1- Lenu's forgiveness for having written the story, wanting her to always have a piece of hers and their friendship?;
2- Another way for Lila to punish Lenu, with her existence, wanting her to never forget that she had let her down?
3- Or just to make it clear that Lila had always manipulated Lenu as she wanted, all her life, and that the history of that friendship, which began the way Lila wanted, would also end this way, not Lenu's way, reminding her that even with the power of words, she would not have the power to write a story that she would never know the true ending, almost a curse for a writer.
Dani Tridente
I can't help but think that giving back the dolls was Lila's final and most cruel hissiness towards Lenu. She not only revealed that she had kept them during all those years, never telling Lenu anything for a whole lifetime, but also explicits that their friendship was never truly complicit. Lila let Lenu know only what she deemed necessary, manipulating her ever since childhood.
I can't help but wonder though if having her entire story told through Lenu's eyes was some sort of endgame of this whole manipulative friendship...
I can't help but wonder though if having her entire story told through Lenu's eyes was some sort of endgame of this whole manipulative friendship...
Melissa
I always thought that Lila had gone back and gotten the dolls and had kept them all along. It seemed well within her character to do so. As to the reason why? Perhaps Lila in her influential way believed the childish time of dolls was over.
Derrick Freeman
IMO - it was so that Elena could remember her and have a piece of her. Lila destroyed/took all other evidence of her existence but she gave the last remaining piece to Lenu. It symbolizes that their friendship is still important to Lila. Throughout the book, Lila tells Elena how important she is to her. Deep friendships like theirs can last through difficult periods (as shown throughout the novels), and Elena is sent the dolls as a symbol of their enduring friendship.
Vilma
The dolls were both the birth of their friendship (while I do think it was Lila who kept them all this? that? time, I do not think that it was out of spite, but because she was only a kid and later she used their loss as an oportunity to "grow up" and make friends) and its death. Whether or not Lila meant to return them to torture Lenú (who was the true cynic all along) for the rest of her life or to give her the comfort that they were even or that they have been equals all along, it implied the end of their times.
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