Symbols The Margaret Atwood 4-Book Bundle Margaret Atwood

The Silver Box: A Symbol of Memory and Unfinished Grief in The Blind Assassin

What Is the Silver Box?

In chapter 15 of The Blind Assassin, elderly Iris Chase recalls the return of her sister Laura’s cremated remains. They arrive in “a small silver-coloured box, like a cigarette box.” Iris scatters the ashes over the ground at the Chase family monument but keeps the silver box itself. This small, tarnished container becomes a literal vessel for the past—a compact, physical relic that Iris clutches while the rest of Laura’s physical self dissolves into the earth.

Where the Silver Box Recurs

The box appears only once in the narrative timeline (chapter 15), but its presence ripples throughout Iris’s reflections. During her cemetery visit, she clears away flowers left by Laura’s admirers and thinks about the box’s fate:

I scattered the ashes over the ground, but kept the silver box. Lucky I didn’t bury it: some fan would have pinched it by now.

Later, in chapter 51, Iris opens a locked steamer trunk that holds her most private possessions—papers, the key to her past. Though the silver box is not named there, the trunk serves as a larger container for secrets, contrasting with the tiny box that holds Laura’s essence. The silver box thus recurs as a mental touchstone for Iris, a symbol she returns to when contemplating death, legacy, and the impossibility of letting go.

How Its Meaning Changes

The silver box begins as a simple container for cremains—a practical, almost bureaucratic object sent by the funeral home. But Iris’s act of keeping it transforms the box into a relic of unfinished grief. It becomes:

A memorial substitute – The ashes are gone, but the box remains, a marker of absence.
A symbol of control – Iris keeps the box hidden, denying Winifred Griffen and the public any chance to possess Laura’s remains.
A vessel for memory – The box holds not dust but the weight of Iris’s guilt, her suppressed story, and her lifelong attempt to preserve Laura’s voice.

In the end, the silver box is less about Laura’s physical residue than about Iris’s choice to contain her own narrative. It is the object that allows Iris to say “she’s going home” while keeping a tangible thread to her sister.

Character and Theme Connections

Characters

Iris Chase – The silver box is Iris’s most intimate possession. By keeping it, she asserts her sole guardianship of Laura’s memory against Winifred’s “body-snatching.” Iris’s narrative act—writing down the truth—is itself a kind of silver box that preserves Laura’s ghost.
Laura Chase – Though dead, Laura is present through the box. Her cremation (the body “more or less burnt up already”) echoes her life of self-erasure. The box holds the only remain of a woman whose words—her posthumous novel—outlive her flesh.
Winifred Griffen – Though she never touches the box, Winifred’s desire to control Laura’s legacy (ordering coffins, controlling Sabrina) contrasts sharply with Iris’s quiet custodianship of the silver box.

Themes

Memory and Storytelling (link: /books/the-margaret-atwood-4-book-bundle/themes/memory-and-storytelling/) – The silver box is a mnemonic object: it triggers Iris’s recollections and forces her to write. Just as the box physically contains what remains of Laura, Iris’s memoir contains the truth of the past.
Identity and Self-Invention (link: /books/the-margaret-atwood-4-book-bundle/themes/identity-and-self-invention/) – Iris’s identity is partly defined by her role as keeper of Laura’s box. She chooses to remain “upright and contained – an urn in daylight,” resisting the romantic dissolution of self that Laura represented.
Power and Control (link: /books/the-margaret-atwood-4-book-bundle/themes/power-and-control/) – The box’s small size and secrecy underscore Iris’s silent rebellion. In a world where Winifred controls inheritance and guardianship, the silver box is one thing Iris owns absolutely.
Betrayal and Manipulation (link: /books/the-margaret-atwood-4-book-bundle/themes/betrayal-and-manipulation/) – Iris’s decision to keep the box can be read as a response to the betrayals that marked her marriage to Richard and her alienation from Sabrina. The box holds not ash but the residue of broken trusts.

Study Questions with Answers

1. How does the silver box function as a metaphor for memory in the novel?
Answer: The box holds Laura’s ashes after Iris scatters them, yet its physical presence continues to represent Laura. Memory works similarly: Iris cannot fully “disperse” the past. The box is a tangible anchor for recollection, just as the photograph of Laura and the unnamed man (from the Prologue) becomes a visual relic. Both objects survive the loss of the person and contain more emotional weight than their physical substance suggests.

2. Why does Iris keep the silver box after scattering the ashes?
Answer: Iris says she kept it so that “some fan” would not steal it, but the deeper reason is that the box allows her to retain a sense of Laura’s presence. Unlike her daughter Aimee (buried with the Griffens), Laura belongs to Iris alone. Keeping the box is an act of defiance against Winifred and a way to preserve a private connection to her sister. It also mirrors Iris’s own need to contain and control her story before death.

3. In what ways does the silver box intersect with Iris’s sense of identity and her relationship with Laura?
Answer: As the older sister who outlives Laura, Iris takes on the role of guardian of Laura’s legacy. The box becomes an extension of that role—a secret possession that defines Iris as the keeper of family memory. By refusing to bury or destroy the box, Iris maintains an ongoing, intimate bond with Laura. The box is also a counterpoint to Iris’s own mortality: she imagines her own “reserved seat” at the monument, while Laura’s essence is reduced to a small container.

4. How does the silver box contrast with other containers in the novel, such as the steamer trunk or the button factory?
Answer: The steamer trunk (chapter 51) holds documents and secrets from Iris’s married life—a larger, locked archive of betrayal and hidden money. The silver box is deliberately kept separate from that trunk, suggesting that Laura’s memory is purer, untainted by the Griffen family’s materialism. The button factory (chapter 16), a converted industrial building, now houses tourist boutiques; it represents the commercialization of the past, while the silver box remains a private, authentic relic. Together, these containers illustrate different ways the novel’s characters preserve, commodify, or hide history.

For more on how objects carry memory in Atwood’s work, see the theme page on Memory and Storytelling. To compare Iris’s voice to other narrators, visit the character pages for Iris Chase Griffen and Laura Chase.