The Silkworm Box Symbol Analysis

The silkworm box is a wooden box originally hand-carved by Desdemona’s grandfather back in Bithynios. Like the recessive gene that runs in Cal’s family, the box is a symbol of ancestry, inheritance, and fate—yet it is also a way in which the novel explores the unexpected directions that inheritance and fate take. Having inherited the box from her grandfather, Desdemona uses it to store the most precious and significant items in her life. When she and Lefty leave Bithynios, they take very few possessions with them, but among the items that Desdemona carries is the silkworm box containing a few hundred silkworm eggs. The box thus symbolizes Desdemona’s desire for continuity between her past life in Bithynios and her future life in the U.S., and the fact that the box makes it there with her shows that particular objects can be a powerful conduit between past and future, origin and destination. At the same time, the box is also a symbol of Desdemona’s naïveté in hoping to stay connected to the past, and of the rupture that immigration inherently involves. When Desdemona gets to Ellis Island, immigration officials force her to dump out the silkworm eggs she brought with her. Lefty tells her that she won’t need them because they don’t make silk in the U.S. As it turns out, this isn’t entirely true: Desdemona uses the box again when she starts working for the Nation of Islam making silk in Detroit. Of course, this isn’t exactly what she had in mind when she brought the box over to the U.S. The silkworm box thus shows how continuity always involves unexpected changes and reinventions.