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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 2
Explanation and Analysis—The Hare Hunt:
Right at the beginning of the book, Sewell foreshadows the upcoming attention Black Beauty will pay to cruelty against animals. While he’s still a foal, the narrator and his mother helplessly watch the finale of a hunt, where a hare meets a grim end:
And just then a hare wild with fright rushed by, and made for the plantation... the dogs were upon her with their wild cries; we heard one shriek, and that was the end of her.
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Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Ginger's Bad Habits:
When the mare is first introduced, Sewell foreshadows Ginger's “aggressive behavior.” As Merrylegs explains Ginger’s personality to Black Beauty, he also gives an account of how she got her name:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Ginger has a bad habit of biting and snapping; that is why they call her Ginger, and when she was in the loose box, she used to snap very much. One day she bit James in the arm and made it bleed [...]
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Chapter 16
Explanation and Analysis—Rushing and Crackling:
Uncomfortable foreshadowing and unnerving auditory imagery suggest that something unpleasant is about to happen in a scene where Black Beauty encounters a fire for the first time:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The trap door had been left open, and I thought that was the place it came through. I listened and heard a soft rushing sort of noise, and a low crackling and snapping. I did not know what it was, but there was something in the sound so strange that it made me tremble all over.
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Chapter 24
Explanation and Analysis—The Common:
As Black Beauty rushes through the common with Blantyre in pursuit of Lizzie and Lady Anne, Sewell provides the reader with rich and detailed visual imagery of the landscape, and foreshadows something unpleasant on the horizon:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I knew this common very well; it was for the most part very uneven ground, covered with heather and dark green furze bushes, with here and there a scrubby old thorn tree; there were also open spaces of fine short grass, with ant-hills and mole turns everywhere; the worst place I ever knew for a headlong gallop.
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