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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—Oily Smoke:
When the group of Lithuanian immigrants—including Jurgis and his family—initially arrive at Packingtown, they observe a strange and new series of weather patterns and architectural shapes. The narrator employs foreshadowing, hyperbolic language, and the sensory language of sight to create a vivid and ominous atmosphere in this scene. The group sees:
[...] half a dozen chimneys, tall as the tallest of buildings, touching the very sky—and leaping from them half a dozen columns of smoke, thick, oily, and black as night. It might have come from the center of the world, this smoke, where the fires of the ages still smolder [...] driving all before it, a perpetual explosion. It was inexhaustible; one stared, waiting to see it stop, but still the great streams rolled out. They spread in vast clouds overhead, writhing, curling; then, uniting in one giant river, they streamed away down the sky, stretching a black pall as far as the eye could reach.
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Explanation and Analysis—Breaking Men Down:
Early in the book, experienced workers from the stockyards share grim stories with Jurgis about the hardships they have faced. These stories foreshadow his own upcoming troubles:
Unlock with LitCharts A+They told him stories about the breaking down of men, there in the stockyards of Chicago, and of what had happened to them afterward—stories to make your flesh creep, but Jurgis would only laugh. He had only been there four months, and he was young, and a giant besides. There was too much health in him. He could not even imagine how it would feel to be beaten.
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Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Swindlers!:
In this excerpt, Jokubas Szedvilas foreshadows the impending ruin of Jurgis's family and warns against purchasing property from deceitful sellers. His words of caution foreshadow the disaster about to come, as he explains his views on Packingtown property sellers to the confused Teta Elzbeita, Marija, and Ona:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Szedvilas had no use for property owning. He told them cruel stories of people who had been done to death in this 'buying a home' swindle. They would be almost sure to get into a tight place and lose all their money; and there was no end of expense that one could never foresee; and the house might be good-for-nothing from top to bottom—how was a poor man to know? Then, too, they would swindle you with the contract—and how was a poor man to understand anything about a contract? It was all nothing but robbery, and there was no safety but in keeping out of it.
Related Themes:
Chapter 6
Explanation and Analysis—Grandmother's Warning:
In this conversation with Grandmother Majauszkiene, the author foreshadows the upcoming losses that Jurgis and his family will experience. The older woman reveals the disastrous history of the house they have bought, implying they will be the next victims of its exploitative terms:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Cheap as the houses were, they were sold with the idea that the people who bought them would not be able to pay for them. When they failed—if it were only by a single month—they would lose the house and all that they had paid on it, and then the company would sell it over again.
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