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Definition of Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved directly or indirectly, by making... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the story. Foreshadowing can be achieved... read full definition
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which authors hint at plot developments that don't actually occur until later in the... read full definition
Foreshadowing
Explanation and Analysis—The Grandmother’s Death:
In an example of both foreshadowing and situational irony, the grandmother decides, at the beginning of the story, to dress up for her family’s road trip so that, in the event of an accident, she would die looking like “a lady.” The following passage captures this ironic foreshadowing:
[T]he grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Meeting the Misfit:
At the beginning of the story, the Grandmother warns her son Bailey that, if they decide to go to Florida on their family road trip, they might run into an escaped convict called the Misfit, foreshadowing their eventual meeting with him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“Now look here, Bailey,” she said, “see here, read this,” and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head. “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.”
Related Themes:
