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Foreshadowing
Explanation and Analysis—Swept Away in Time:
This passage from Chapter 2 contains vivid visual imagery that describes the contrast between the natural and urban environments in London. It also outlines and foreshadows the rapid changes to London currently happening and still to come:
One had the sense of a backwater, or rather of an estuary, whose waters flowed in from the invisible sea, and ebbed into a profound silence while the waves without were still beating. Though the promontory consisted of flats—expensive, with cavernous entrance halls, full of concierges and palms—it fulfilled its purpose, and gained for the older houses opposite a certain measure of peace. These, too, would be swept away in time, and another promontory would rise upon their site, as humanity piled itself higher and higher on the precious soil of London.
The visual imagery of the ocean community being “swept away” and reforming itself, and the auditory language of the sound of the waves, evoke a sense of natural continuity and flow. The architecture of London is aligned with the sea in this passage, which like its buildings rises and falls rhythmically. The imagery of the promontory rising and the old houses being swept away also conveys a sense of impermanence and transience in the face of constant change. The promontory in the above passage, with its “expensive flats” and “cavernous entrance halls,” also references the encroachment of the urban world on the natural environment of England.
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