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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
Part 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Sly Letter:
In this passage, the author uses personification and foreshadowing to convey Irene's unease about receiving a letter from Clare. On the novel's first page, Irene sees a letter on her table that she knows is from Clare and broods over the consequences of opening it:
And there was, too, something mysterious and slightly furtive about it. A thin sly thing which bore no return address to betray the sender. Not that she hadn’t immediately known who its sender was.
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Part 2, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Heights and Depths:
As Clare and Irene argue, the narrative uses foreshadowing to point to the trouble fast approaching for Clare. When Irene tells Clare she shouldn't associate with Black people if she wants to "pass," she feels choked and frustrated by Clare's abrupt refusal:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Her voice was brittle. For into her mind had come a thought, strange and irrelevant, a suspicion, that had surprised and shocked her and driven her to her feet. It was that in spite of her determined selfishness the woman before her was yet capable of heights and depths of feeling that she, Irene Redfield, had never known. Indeed, never cared to know. The thought, the suspicion, was gone as quickly as it had come.
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Part 3, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Footprints in the Snow:
In this passage, Nella Larsen uses visual imagery to intensify a moment of foreshadowing for Irene. Near the end of Passing, Irene gazes out at the snowy street while worrying about Clare.
Unlock with LitCharts A+After a breakfast, which had been eaten almost in silence and which she was relieved to have done with, Irene Redfield lingered for a little while in the downstairs hall, looking out at the soft flakes fluttering down. She was watching them immediately fill some ugly irregular gaps left by the feet of hurrying pedestrians [...]
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