Meet Me In St. Louis -
My gram this week was Tootie's doll at the start of the film that she talked about having to bury soon because she is very sick. Although this is the only time we actually see the doll in her hands, throughout the film Tootie mentions multiple times of the many dolls that she has previously buried in the backyard. Tootie seems pleased with this, and her life thus far is a rather positive one and with each dolls burial, she seems to be planting her roots in St. Louis. As the story line progresses and Tootie learns that her family will be moving to New York, she is immediately distressed saying that she will have to dig up her dolls to take with her. Though, at the end of the film when her father says that they will not move to New York, Tootie's attitude immediately looks up, as she is happy that she can stay in St Louis and continue to plant her roots into the ground with the burial of a new doll. I believe that the question proposed is if Tootie will in fact dig up her dolls and how she will plant her new roots in such a small place like New York; but at the end when it is revealed that she will stay in St Louis, we realize that her roots could never be moved and that she will continue to discover herself and grow in St Louis.
A number of interesting things come to mind in relation to this selected detail of yours: For one, there's an interesting parallel between Tootie's dolls and her collection of snow people (which Tootie destroys in a fit of rage before the father rescinds). The dolls and the snow people both function as doubles for the family, of course--and in this capacity they function as inverse-opposite versions (one version will remain rooted even after the family leaves, and the other is destined to vanish from its very inception). Interesting to compare these doublings to the the doubling of personae we witness in films like The Smiling Lieutenant.
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CS