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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
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—Fatherly Advice:
A conversation between John Grady and his father, Wayne Cole, in Part 1 foreshadows John Grady's resistance to the advice of others:
She’s gone to San Antonio, the boy said.
Dont call her she.
Mama.
I know it.
They drank their coffee.
What do you aim to do?
About what?
About anything.
She can go where she wants to.
The boy watched him. You aint got no business smokin them things, he said.
John Grady's mother has abandoned the family at this point, unaffected by the wishes of her son or husband. Wayne Cole sardonically remarks that "she can go where she wants to," meaning that he has no bearing on her choices.
Although Wayne Cole has seemingly given up on his marriage, he has clearly not given up on John Grady. Believing that John Grady's smoking habit is inappropriate or unhealthy (or both), he asks his son to stop. John Grady ignores his father's request, which foreshadows his more general tendency to ignore the wisdom of others. It also reveals desire to be free and appear as an adult despite his obvious innocence. It is clear to the outside world (given voice through his father) that John Grady is still a young boy of 16, but he does not see himself that way—or, at least, he hopes to craft an image of himself as a cigarette-smoking adult.
Ironically, even though John Grady is casting himself this way, his questions to his father make it obvious that he is still a child. He is uneasy about his mother’s absence (even though resists even calling her "Mama"), and he wants to know what his father will “do” about her leaving the family. As such, this passage is an early example of John's inner conflict between wanting to be treated as an adult while still wanting the presence and reassurance of his parents.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Blevins's Reappearance:
After John Grady and Rawlins first meet Blevins in Part 1, Rawlins foreshadows Blevins's reentrance into their journey:
There’s a lot of country out there.
Yep. Lot of country.
God knows where he’s got to.
Rawlins nodded. I’ll tell you what you told me.
What’s that?
We aint seen the last of his skinny ass.
Rawlins's statement indicates that he believes that he can predict the future in some way, and that he is powerless to change it—even though he would prefer to leave Blevins behind for good, he thinks that the pair will not be able to shake the boy. Rawlins's conviction that they are somehow cosmically bound to Blevins (despite his personal distaste for the boy) suggests that out West, there is some kind of fate that riders cannot avoid, and that the Americans are tied together. This prediction, as an example of foreshadowing, turns out to be true: the boys run into Blevins two more times, and his eventual dramatic death affects both of them deeply.
Related Themes:
