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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
Foreshadowing
Explanation and Analysis—As If It Were a Hotel:
Near the beginning of the story, Shoba comes home from work and removes her shoes and bag haphazardly, something she never would have done before the loss of her stillborn child (and resulting grief). The narrator—channeling Shukumar—uses a simile to capture Shoba’s changing relationship to their home since the loss, as seen in the following passage:
Shukumar moved her satchel and her sneakers to the side of the fridge. She wasn’t this way before. She used to put her coat on a hanger, her sneakers in the closet, and she paid bills as soon as they came. But now she treated the house as if it were a hotel. The fact that the yellow chintz armchair in the living room clashed with the blue-and-maroon Turkish carpet no longer bothered her.
The simile here—in which the narrator notes how Shoba “treated the house as if it were a hotel”—communicates Shoba’s loss of investment in her home (and her relationship) in the wake of losing her child. Instead of being on top of cleaning, paying the bills, and curating the furniture, such things “no longer bothered her.” Shoba's lack of interest in her home subtly foreshadows the fact that, at the end of the story, she will announce to Shukumar that she signed a lease on an apartment in another neighborhood and will be moving out, ending their relationship in the process.
Related Themes:
