The Doll People

Throughout the story, the threat of entering Doll State hangs over Annabelle and the other dolls. When dolls move in the presence of humans—or in any way give humans the idea that they might be living beings—they enter a kind of suspended animation for 24 hours. They are still conscious, but they cannot move at all. They become, temporarily, ordinary dolls. Doll State functions as the punishment for violating the Doll Code, which exists to protect living dolls from the potentially disastrous consequences of humans realizing that they are alive. Nanny tells Annabelle, “[I]f humans discovered that some dolls are alive […] we would never be left alone” (24). Annabelle realizes that Nanny is alluding to the possibility that living dolls would be treated like a circus sideshow or “studied like lab animals” (24). This threat is so serious that there is even a higher-level penalty for higher-level infractions: the dreaded Permanent Doll State, in which a doll becomes ordinary forever.

Dolls in Doll State are conscious, thinking and feeling beings, yet they have no agency. This is a paradox in the imaginary world of the novel: Because they fail to pretend to be objects without free will when the much more powerful human beings are watching, they actually become objects without free will. Doll State thus functions as a symbol of the way that less powerful people in the real world—children, for instance—often have to hide their own subjectivity and desires for fear of offending the powerful and losing what little agency they have. That Annabelle is willing to risk such a serious penalty in pursuit of her own desires demonstrates her strong will and her belief in Following One’s Own Moral Compass.