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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—Lizabeth Coming of Age:
On the first page of “Marigolds,” Lizabeth foreshadows her big coming-of-age moment at the end of the story, as seen in the following passage:
Joy and rage and wild animal gladness and shame become tangled together in the multicolored skein of 14-going-on 15, as I recall that devastating moment when I was suddenly more woman than child, years ago in Miss Lottie’s yard.
In this passage, Lizabeth—an older woman narrating an experience she had in her childhood—foreshadows the fact that she will, by the end of the story, describe “that devastating moment when [she] was suddenly more woman than child." By highlighting it here, she is hinting to readers that this will be a significant scene in the story, which proves to be true.
This passage also prepares readers for Collier’s frequent use of metaphors throughout the story. Here, she metaphorically compares memories to a skein of yarn when she writes, “Joy and rage and wild animal gladness and shame become tangled together in the multicolored skein of 14-going-on 15.” In this metaphor, Lizabeth’s memories from when she was 14 years old are like a tangled ball of yarn with different colors of yarn representing different emotions and experiences she had that year (such as joy, rage, gladness, and shame).
Collier foreshadows here that readers will move through all of these different experiences alongside Lizabeth as she transforms from a joyful child to a rageful one (as she destroys Miss Lottie’s marigolds). Ultimately, she will mature into a young adult capable of feeling shame and regret over the harm that she caused her elderly neighbor.
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