White Is for Witching

Content Warning: This section of the guide mentions suicide, self-harm, and disordered eating. It also includes racist and xenophobic content, including offensive terms for Black people and undocumented citizens, which is replicated in this guide only in direct quotation of the source material.

Due to the Silver House’s influence, the named Silver women all develop symptoms of pica and consume non-food items—including acorns, leaves, pebbles, ladybugs, and chalk. The chalk that Miranda consumes connects her to the Silver House and Dover, with its imposing chalky cliffs. One of a multitude of white objects in the novel, chalk serves as a symbol of whiteness and death. Generally made from animal bones or seashells, chalk evokes death, as the product of dead animals. Connected to other objects that are white or whitening, such as bleach, sugar, and milk, chalk also represents the supposed racial purity of the Silver women and Dover. This myth of purity becomes as harmful to Miranda as the chalk she eats, as she grows weak from a lack of nutrition. Although it looks pure and solid, chalk easily disintegrates. Likewise, Miranda begins to match the chalk she eats, becoming more beautiful in appearance, but slowly disintegrating.

Chalk, like bleach, isn’t safe to consume: Miranda slowly poisons herself with chalk, and Agim, an immigrant boy, dies by drinking bleach.