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Foreshadowing
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.
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 [...]
The visual imagery of the white snowflakes filling the "ugly irregular gaps" left by pedestrians paints a stark, black-and-white picture for the reader. The white snow covering the dark pavement below also visually mirrors the act of passing—the footprints that melt the snow mirror the way outward appearances can conceal inner realities. Like Clare, the snow is a white covering for the "blackness" beneath. This reflects Irene's internal anxieties about Clare's decision to "pass" as white while married to Bellew, a white supremacist. The inevitable melting of the snow aligns with her fears that Clare’s true Black identity will someday reveal itself, no matter how careful she is.
This imagery also foreshadows the trouble that is about to unfold, as Clare contacts Irene immediately after this moment of anxious reflection. The unsettling scene sets a tone of apprehension for whatever follows it, tainting Clare’s phone call with a sense of impending disaster.
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