53 pages • 1 hour read
A Council of Dolls
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Dolls
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of death, child death, pregnancy loss, graphic violence, and racism.
The dolls in this novel have multiple levels of significance. Within the world of the story, they serve a purpose in the lives of the protagonists. As elements of literary craft, they carry symbolic meaning that shapes the novel’s themes and messages.
Through various troubles, the protagonists meet their needs, in part, through their relationships with their dolls. Ethel nurtures Sissy by encouraging her to eat, and Winona surrounds Cora with love and softness to ease the pain of “sharp times.” The dolls offer protection, either directly—like when Ethel warns Sissy to keep quiet after Lillian’s death—or indirectly, as a coping mechanism—like when Ethel refuses to talk about Lillian’s death and Jesse calls her “the device [she] use[s] to hide from something [she] already know[s]” (209). In this way, Ethel protects Jesse from traumatic memories she’s not yet ready to face. Finally, the dolls are a source of emotional healing. Winona comforts the Dakhóta woman who is bereft at the death of her infant and motivates the woman to eat and speak again.
Jesse recognizes the dolls’ healing function when she brings them together. She observes: “If what’s happening is real beyond my imagination, these dolls are like a council coming together to address old problems that still strike them as urgent. They yet hope to save their girls” (248). Saving their girls by addressing old problems means helping them heal from intergenerational trauma, an idea at the center of the theme of Ancestral Connections and Indigenous Traditions as Sources of Healing and Resilience.
The dolls also symbolize a wide range of concepts and values. In part, they represent the inner selves of the protagonists. Cora says it’s as if she and Winona “think the same thoughts and share a single heart” (147). At times, this manifests as the dolls saying what the girls are afraid to say, revealing the truth of their beliefs and fears. Winona sees Jack as a source of trouble, whereas Cora likes him and needs a friend; Cora doesn’t want to see the danger, so she represses the knowledge, but Winona doesn’t. When Lillian tells Sissy to lie to her father about how she injured her hand, Ethel refuses to repeat the lie because she represents Sissy’s inner truth.
The dolls also symbolize understanding. Ethel recognizes that Lillian’s reason for sticking a pin in her head is her traumatic experience with her neighbor’s stillborn infant. This exemplifies the broader call for understanding of these characters’ flaws and the many sources of harm that shaped them.
The word “council” in the novel’s title draws a connection between the dolls and the oak called the Council Tree, which “had witnessed hundreds of years of human affairs” (133-34). Like the tree, the dolls have been alive longer than the protagonists and have learned from all they’ve witnessed. By sharing their memories and offering guidance, they symbolize wisdom and the preservation of culture.
Lillian’s description of Mae offers additional insight into the symbolism of dolls in the story. She says: “Mae is evidence of my magic—proof that what I think, and even hope, can become real. I don’t want to give that medicine back, even for a dear lonesome girl” (116). Lillian’s belief that Mae’s abilities come from her own magic empowers her. She calls the doll “medicine” because empowerment, in a world constantly trying to diminish her, provides healing and strength.
Wounded Ancestor Spirit
The wounded ancestor who first appears to Cora in a vision symbolizes the connection between ancestors and descendants. Part of this relationship is about preserving culture and shared history. Amid the government and society’s efforts to erase that culture and whitewash history, the ancestor spirit symbolizes preservation. She picks at her wounds to keep them from healing, even though they’re painful, because they serve as a reminder of the massacres and other atrocities inflicted on Indigenous Americans by the US government. She sacrifices her own comfort to ensure people remember the truth. Through her ongoing connection to her ancestor spirit, Cora accepts the pain because it “keeps her from surrendering to oblivion” (197), a state that symbolizes cultural erasure and the loss of identity.
The wounded ancestor ultimately appears to Jesse as well, who similarly navigates the line between holding on to trauma and honoring the past—e.g., through a story about a poem she wrote. The poem explored poverty in Chicago’s Indigenous neighborhood, and her teacher chastised her for focusing on ugliness instead of beauty. To ignore the ugliness of the past, however, would be to turn her back on her heritage and Dakhóta identity. The wounded ancestor helps Cora and Jesse realize the wounds of the past can strengthen them. Cora says the ancestor “brings more than the burden of pain; she also brings comfort” (191). This comfort demonstrates that the connection between ancestors and descendants, symbolized by the ancestor spirit, is also a source of healing and resilience.
Language and Stories
Throughout the novel, language is emphasized and stories are shared as part of a motif that supports a thematic portrayal of Cultural Erasure and Forced Assimilation of Indigenous Americans. The US government’s efforts to erase Indigenous Americans’ culture include significant measures geared toward mitigating the power of language to preserve identity and history. It imposes bans on Indigenous languages, treating them like contagions that keep undesirable alliances, values, and customs alive. Cora and Jack speak Dakhóta to each other and to the spirits because, as Cora says, “that is the language of [her] heart and Jack’s” (170). They recognize the importance of their native language and its symbolic connection to their identity and heritage.
In the conflicts between Indigenous people and the protagonists on one side, and the US government and a prejudiced society on the other, both sides wield stories as a source of power. They are used to whitewash history, as Sissy observes regarding Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. Her parents object to the story behind Thanksgiving because it serves as “a cleanup job to hide the awful harm Pilgrims brought to tribes they first encountered” (64). By contrast, the protagonists of the novel and their dolls use stories to reverse the erasure of their culture and to maintain their connections to nature, the spirit world, and their ancestors. Jesse benefits from the power of stories when she helps the dolls tell their stories in Part 4, an act that symbolizes her embracing her Dakhóta heritage and catalyzes her emotional healing.
Unlock all 53 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: