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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
Explanation and Analysis—Petal Lips:
Lily smells Rosaleen enter a room in T. Ray’s house, enjoying the familiar, spicy scent of the snuff that she always carries.Kidd foreshadowing and a simile to show how Lily senses Rosaleen’s presence before the other woman even speaks.
When she stepped in the room, her scent floated out to me, dark and spicy like the snuff she packed inside her cheek. She held her small jug with its coin-size mouth and a handle for her to loop her finger through. I watched her press it along her chin, her lips fluted out like a flower, then spit a curl of black juice inside it.
Chewing snuff is a type of smokeless tobacco that a person packs inside the cheek. It makes the user salivate, which releases a steady stream of “black juice” that must be spat out. In this scene, Rosaleen shows that she has total control over the “black juice,” to the extent that even her spit looks graceful. While chewing snuff was a common activity in the 1950s and remains so in some areas of the U.S., spitting would not have been considered a ladylike gesture. The simile in this passage compares Rosaleen’s scent to snuff and her lips to a flower. Because she’s always chewing snuff, Lily associates its typically masculine scent and habits with her. However, the graceful way she spits out the tobacco juice makes her mouth seem delicate, feminine, and soft, like a “fluted” flower.
However, this is also a moment of foreshadowing for Rosaleen’s arrest. When a group of men accost her in the street on her way to vote, Rosaleen fights back. She stands up for herself when they shout racist comments at her, and pours the “black juice” all over their shoes in a pattern like writing her name on the ballot slip. She also does this gracefully, but this time it’s met with violence instead of Lily’s secret admiration.
Related Themes:
