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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
Chapter 1: Found Objects
Explanation and Analysis—Connecting Chapters:
At first glance, the chronology of A Visit from the Goon Squad's 13 chapters seems random and without any internal logic. However, consistent foreshadowing throughout the book signals to the reader the next story in the sequence. Foreshadowing, therefore, remains an important device for structuring the novel's development.
In one such example, Egan foreshadows the subject of Chapter 2—that is, Bennie Salazar and his strange gold consumption—in Sasha's narration in Chapter 1. During her date with Alex, Sasha shares some offhanded remarks about her peculiar boss, Bennie:
[...] Sasha's admittedly overhanded tales of Bennie Salazar, her old boss, who was famous for founding the Sow's Ear record label and who also (Sasha happened to know) sprinkled gold flakes into his coffee—as an aphrodisiac, she suspected—and sprayed pesticide in his armpits.
Seemingly insignificant to the plot of Chapter 1, Sasha's comments to Alex about Bennie's behavior appear to be only for humorous effect. The reader might easily forget about Sasha's boss until, in an unexpected turn, Bennie Salazar himself—and his strange habits—becomes the main focus of Chapter 2. Indeed, Egan uses foreshadowing as a narrative device again in Chapter 2. A memory of Bennie's his teenage years foreshadows the setting of Chapter 3, San Francisco of the 1970s:
But the deep thrill of these old songs lay, for Bennie, in the rapturous surges of sixteen-year-old-ness they induced; Bennie and his high-school gang—Scotty and Alice, Jocelyn and Rhea—none of whom he'd seen in decades [...]
Bennie's reminiscing about his teenage years is only a brief flashback for him as he drives to pick up his son from school. He remembers the excitement of the punk rock scene in San Francisco and lists his old friends with whom he enjoyed this atmosphere. All this emerges as the focus for Chapter 3.
Egan continues this pattern into Chapter 3, which references Lou's safari in Chapter 4; and Chapter 10, which references Sasha's time in Naples in Chapter 11. The offhand stories, memories, and recollections of every chapter give way to the next one. Rather than a meandering collection of short stories, A Visit from the Goon Squad instead resembles one non-linear narrative bound by the act of remembering.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Sasha and Alex:
When Sasha and Alex visit her New York City apartment in Chapter 1, the scene features an instance of foreshadowing that is at once significant and unexpected—unexpected because, at first glance, A Visit from the Goon Squad's nonlinear structure might seem to resist conventional narrative devices like foreshadowing across its 13 chapters.
In this moment in Chapter 1, Sasha observes Alex as he admires her apartment's bathtub, located, unusually, in her kitchen. She wonders how Alex will remember her once they part:
She saw her bathtub as he must see it—a bit of local color that would fade almost instantly into the tumble of adventures that everyone has on first coming to New York. It jarred Sasha to think of herself as a glint in the hazy memories that Alex would struggle to organize a year or two from now: Where was that place with the bathtub? Who was that girl?
In this moment of watching Alex, Sasha's mind wanders towards the future and Alex's recollections of her in particular. It jars Sasha to think of herself in this way, as a half-remembered abstraction, and she quickly composes herself to continue showing Alex around her apartment.
This instance, offhand and inconsequential at first, indeed predicts the occasion in which Alex's memories return to him years in the future. In the final chapter, Chapter 13, Alex and Bennie walk around New York City together after Scotty's concert, and Alex recognizes the site of his encounter with Sasha:
Alex looked up at the building, sooty against the lavender sky, and experienced a hot-cold flash of recognition. [...] A radiator hiss. Little things on the windowsills. A bathtub in the kitchen—yes, she'd had one of those!
This passage returns to the moment when Sasha wonders how Alex will remember her in the future. Now, Alex has stumbled upon the location where their paths crossed briefly that one night. In an uncanny moment of foreshadowing, he indeed remembers her bathtub.
Alex remembering Sasha's apartment and the night they met is a moment that actually structures A Visit from the Goon Squad. While the 13 chapters appear to shift across time at random, a coherent and circular structure is realized in the final chapter. A Visit from the Goon Squad both begins and ends with Sasha and Alex's cursory encounter at her apartment, the memory of that moment bookending the novel.
Related Themes:
Chapter 2: The Gold Cure
Explanation and Analysis—Connecting Chapters:
At first glance, the chronology of A Visit from the Goon Squad's 13 chapters seems random and without any internal logic. However, consistent foreshadowing throughout the book signals to the reader the next story in the sequence. Foreshadowing, therefore, remains an important device for structuring the novel's development.
In one such example, Egan foreshadows the subject of Chapter 2—that is, Bennie Salazar and his strange gold consumption—in Sasha's narration in Chapter 1. During her date with Alex, Sasha shares some offhanded remarks about her peculiar boss, Bennie:
[...] Sasha's admittedly overhanded tales of Bennie Salazar, her old boss, who was famous for founding the Sow's Ear record label and who also (Sasha happened to know) sprinkled gold flakes into his coffee—as an aphrodisiac, she suspected—and sprayed pesticide in his armpits.
Seemingly insignificant to the plot of Chapter 1, Sasha's comments to Alex about Bennie's behavior appear to be only for humorous effect. The reader might easily forget about Sasha's boss until, in an unexpected turn, Bennie Salazar himself—and his strange habits—becomes the main focus of Chapter 2. Indeed, Egan uses foreshadowing as a narrative device again in Chapter 2. A memory of Bennie's his teenage years foreshadows the setting of Chapter 3, San Francisco of the 1970s:
But the deep thrill of these old songs lay, for Bennie, in the rapturous surges of sixteen-year-old-ness they induced; Bennie and his high-school gang—Scotty and Alice, Jocelyn and Rhea—none of whom he'd seen in decades [...]
Bennie's reminiscing about his teenage years is only a brief flashback for him as he drives to pick up his son from school. He remembers the excitement of the punk rock scene in San Francisco and lists his old friends with whom he enjoyed this atmosphere. All this emerges as the focus for Chapter 3.
Egan continues this pattern into Chapter 3, which references Lou's safari in Chapter 4; and Chapter 10, which references Sasha's time in Naples in Chapter 11. The offhand stories, memories, and recollections of every chapter give way to the next one. Rather than a meandering collection of short stories, A Visit from the Goon Squad instead resembles one non-linear narrative bound by the act of remembering.
Related Themes:
Chapter 13: Pure Language
Explanation and Analysis—Sasha and Alex:
When Sasha and Alex visit her New York City apartment in Chapter 1, the scene features an instance of foreshadowing that is at once significant and unexpected—unexpected because, at first glance, A Visit from the Goon Squad's nonlinear structure might seem to resist conventional narrative devices like foreshadowing across its 13 chapters.
In this moment in Chapter 1, Sasha observes Alex as he admires her apartment's bathtub, located, unusually, in her kitchen. She wonders how Alex will remember her once they part:
She saw her bathtub as he must see it—a bit of local color that would fade almost instantly into the tumble of adventures that everyone has on first coming to New York. It jarred Sasha to think of herself as a glint in the hazy memories that Alex would struggle to organize a year or two from now: Where was that place with the bathtub? Who was that girl?
In this moment of watching Alex, Sasha's mind wanders towards the future and Alex's recollections of her in particular. It jars Sasha to think of herself in this way, as a half-remembered abstraction, and she quickly composes herself to continue showing Alex around her apartment.
This instance, offhand and inconsequential at first, indeed predicts the occasion in which Alex's memories return to him years in the future. In the final chapter, Chapter 13, Alex and Bennie walk around New York City together after Scotty's concert, and Alex recognizes the site of his encounter with Sasha:
Alex looked up at the building, sooty against the lavender sky, and experienced a hot-cold flash of recognition. [...] A radiator hiss. Little things on the windowsills. A bathtub in the kitchen—yes, she'd had one of those!
This passage returns to the moment when Sasha wonders how Alex will remember her in the future. Now, Alex has stumbled upon the location where their paths crossed briefly that one night. In an uncanny moment of foreshadowing, he indeed remembers her bathtub.
Alex remembering Sasha's apartment and the night they met is a moment that actually structures A Visit from the Goon Squad. While the 13 chapters appear to shift across time at random, a coherent and circular structure is realized in the final chapter. A Visit from the Goon Squad both begins and ends with Sasha and Alex's cursory encounter at her apartment, the memory of that moment bookending the novel.
Related Themes:
