Elena’s missing doll, Nani, is the central symbol of The Lost Daughter. To Leda, the doll is “the shining testimony of perfect motherhood” (62): It symbolizes the bond between Nina and Elena, a bond that seems so different from Leda’s troubled relationships with both her mother and her daughters. However, up close, the doll is dirty and ugly, suggesting that the beauty of motherhood is an illusion. Seeing Nina and Elena play with the doll reminds Leda of her own unhappy childhood, living in fear of her mother’s threats to leave. It also reminds her of her struggles as a young mother raising two daughters. She feels jealous of what Nina and Elena have as both a mother and a daughter, and she takes Nani to complicate Nina’s motherhood.

Elena’s doll also reminds Leda of Mina, her beloved childhood toy. When Bianca mistreated Mina, Leda was angry and hurt. She wanted Bianca to love the doll because it was important to her. In this way, the doll becomes a symbol of what Leda lost in becoming a mother. Motherhood forced Leda to give everything up: her childhood toy, but also her career and her independence.