Big Black Baby

The black doll is an anonymous gift whose apparent growth unsettles Fermina Daza and exposes how little she can know about the people and intentions surrounding her. At first charming enough to share her pillow, it becomes an object of dread when its clothes and shoes no longer fit. The episode ends without identifying who sent it or explaining its transformation, leaving the doll as a private mystery that survives into Fermina’s married life.

The Gift and Its Appearance

The doll arrives without a letter, amid a series of anonymous messages that have made Fermina fear that someone is spreading a false account of her supposed love affair with Juvenal Urbino. Its origin seems easy to imagine to her: she suspects Juvenal, though the doll was not delivered by his coachman. The original tag identifies Martinique as the place where it was bought.

It is an unusually finished object, dressed in an exquisite gown, with hair rippled with gold threads. Its eyes close when it is laid down. Although Fermina has scruples about accepting a gift whose sender is unknown, its charm overcomes them; she places it on her pillow by day and grows accustomed to sleeping beside it at night.

Apparent Growth and Fear

The doll changes in Fermina’s perception after she wakes from an exhausting dream and discovers that it seems to have grown. The gown that once fitted exquisitely now ends above its thighs, and the shoes have burst under the pressure of its feet. The altered clothes and broken shoes make the transformation visible through ordinary signs of bodily growth, turning the doll’s fine workmanship into evidence of something she cannot explain.

Fermina has heard of African spells, but none frightens her as much as this apparent enlargement. Even so, she cannot believe that Juvenal, a man of his standing, would be capable of such an atrocity. That suspicion is misplaced: the doll was brought not by his coachman but by an itinerant shrimpmonger unknown to the household.

The Unsolved Mystery

Trying to identify the sender, Fermina briefly thinks of Florentino Ariza, whose depressed condition dismays her, but later events persuade her that this explanation is wrong. The doll’s actual origin is never established, and the narrative supplies no explanation for its apparent growth. Its effect therefore rests not on a confirmed supernatural cause or a solved human plot, but on the gap between Fermina’s powerful impressions and what she can verify.

The mystery remains with her long after she marries and has children. Even when she regards herself as destiny’s darling and the happiest woman in the world, merely thinking of the doll makes her shudder with fear. The object’s force outlasts the immediate episode: it carries the unease of an anonymous intrusion into the private space of her bed and the enduring discomfort of a question that has no answer.