White Is for Witching Literary Elements

White Is for Witching Literary Elements

Genre

psychological thriller/horror

Setting and Context

Dover, Delaware, old family house that belonged Lily's family

Narrator and Point of View

Several narrators throughout: Miranda, Eliot, the house, Ore

Point of view: first person

Tone and Mood

Tone: understated

Mood: nightmarish

Protagonist and Antagonist

Protagonist: the main protagonist is Miranda; Antagonist: ghosts of Miranda's mothers

Major Conflict

Miranda's mother Lily dies while away in Haiti which leaves the family distraught. Miranda is mostly affected by her mother's death and succumbs to her eating disorder.

Climax

Miranda is unable to struggle against the house and her mothers. The last scene of her is lying on a white net that saved Ore, but doesn't save her. She dies from the battery acid of the batteries she swallowed that were inside her mother's watch.

Foreshadowing

"How could she doubt the goodlady? The goodlady was Lily's creation."

This doubt that Miranda has at the beginning is a foreshadowing of her struggle that's to come, her struggle of not becoming her mothers.

Understatement

The supernatural or horror elements in the novel are quite understated and serve to showcase Miranda's psychological decline.

Allusions

"There was Ella Fitzgerald, whispering a tisket a tasket."
-"When Miranda"

Imagery

The imagery of blood as a representation of familial bonds is presented throughout.

Paradox

"A priest would say "Death is great! You get to go to heaven!"
-"Jennifer Silver"

Parallelism

"It wasn't Lily, it wasn't her father, it wasn't Eliot, it wasn't any of the poets whose words stuck spikes in her, not even Rumi."
-"When Miranda"

Metonymy and Synecdoche

N/A

Personification

The Silver house is personified as an entity with a mind of its own, even narrating a few chapters in the novel.

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