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Foreshadowing
Explanation and Analysis—Sea of Flames:
In Section One, the appearance of the Sea of Flames increasingly worries Marie-Laure, serving as an ill omen or foreshadowing of future tragedy. The gem is known to bring grief wherever it goes:
Rumors circulate through the Paris museum, moving fast, as quick and brightly colored as scarves.
The museum is considering displaying a certain gemstone, a jewel more valuable than anything
else in all the collections. [...] Some people call it the Shepherd’s Stone, others call it the Khon-Ma, but soon enough everyone is calling it the Sea of Flames. Marie-Laure thinks: Four years have passed.
The rumored appearance of the Sea of Flames foreshadows the coming tragedies of World War II and the invasion of France. Marie-Laure senses this, worrying that "four years have passed." This worry is in reference to a prior conversation she had with a tour guide at her father's museum:
“Eventually he was so convinced that his stone was the accursed Sea of Flames that he asked the
king to shut it up in his museum on the conditions that it be locked deep inside a specially built
vault and the vault not be opened for two hundred years.”“And?”
“And one hundred and ninety-six years have passed.”
Marie worries that "four years" have passed since her tour, signaling that the vault will soon be opened and the Sea of Flames will rain tragedy down on Paris. Whether or not the invasion of Paris is connected to the Sea of Flames, Marie-Laure's feelings of impending doom foreshadow Germany's future military action.
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