Previous
Foil
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
Key Examples in Homegoing
Part 1: Ness
Explanation and Analysis—Stillness Like Death:
Ness’s escape from her first plantation goes awry, and she doesn’t take long to notice it. As she, Sam, Ma Aku, and Kojo try to widen the distance from their master, an eerie feeling foreshadows their capture:
Days passed this way, the four of them playing trees in the woods or grass in the fields, but soon Ness could feel a heat rising from the earth, and she knew, the way a person knew air or love just by feeling, that the Devil was after them.
Related Themes:
Part 1: Kojo
Explanation and Analysis—The Law Passed:
The joy at Agnes’s wedding gets dampened as news of the Fugitive Slave Act’s passage comes around. What had begun as a celebration turns quickly into a moment of foreshadowing:
Unlock with LitCharts A+And just as he spoke the words “And all God's people said,” a little boy ran by the door of the church shouting, “The law passed!
The law passed!”
And the answer, “Amen,” came muffled and insincere from some. From others, it didn't come at all. A few began to squirm in their seats and one even left, getting up so quickly that the whole pew rocked, thrown, as it was, off-balance.
Related Themes:
