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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
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Prophet of Destruction:
In the following passage from the beginning of Chapter 1, Sheriff Bell sets the novel's tone with a grim monologue. As a character, Bell tends towards catastrophic thinking and pessimism, foretelling a future fraught with violence, civil unrest, and terror. Through his use of language, Bell foreshadows future tragic events in the novel:
Somewhere out there is a true and living prophet of destruction and I dont want to confront him. I know he's real. I have seen his work. I walked in front of those eyes once. I wont do it again. I wont push my chips forward and stand up and go out to meet him.
In this instance of foreshadowing, Sheriff Bell expresses his fear at the thought of some ultimate criminal—a "true and living prophet of destruction"—whom he dreads meeting. This alludes to Chigurh's appearance in the novel, implying some grand future threat readers have yet to anticipate. If Chigurh is the "living prophet of destruction," he himself must serve as a portent for something darker: an American age of Chigurhs, where people commit murder without motive. Bell views Chigurh, and those like him, as both a source of destruction and as the calling card for future catastrophe.
Related Themes:
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Redtail:
In Chapter 2, Sheriff Bell considers the corpse of a redtail hawk, found dead on the side of a highway. The hawk, ever a competent hunter, died mid-pursuit while awaiting its prey. This hawk's death is an ill omen, foreshadowing later deaths in the novel:
It was a big redtail. He picked it up by one wingtip and carried it to the bar ditch and laid it in the grass. They would hunt the blacktop, sitting on the high powerpoles and watching the highway in both directions for miles. Any small thing that might venture to cross. Closing on their prey against
the sun. Shadowless. Lost in the concentration of the hunter. He wouldnt have the trucks running over it.
The death of this bird, a great hunter, serves as an ill omen for Moss's future. He himself is a great hunter, introduced to readers as a man capable of stalking antelope for miles through harsh, hazardous terrain. Moss is a military man, trained in Vietnam, capable of using weapons of all kinds to achieve his ends. He is intelligent, good in a crisis, and highly capable—and still, in spite of all this, Moss is ultimately killed by a more competent hunter. The hawk's death foreshadows this and other surprising deaths to come.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—What's Coming:
At the beginning of Chapter 2, in his monologue, Bell muses over the morning newspaper, caution entering into his tone. As a narrator, Bell tends towards catastrophic conclusions, dead set on the assumption that the world around him will only continue to morally deteriorate. Bell looks to the newspapers as a source of information about the disasters he anticipates, foreshadowing future tragic events in the novel:
I read the papers ever mornin. Mostly I suppose just to try and figure out what might be headed this way. Not that I've done all that good a job at headin it off. It keeps gettin harder.
Bell's anxieties about the future serve as a portent for others in the novel: he worries about "something coming," and that something could very well be Moss's eventual tragic death. McCarthy uses Bell as a means of commenting on catastrophism in the news: the man reads the papers religiously, finding evidence for the dire situations he feels certain will come his way. Indeed, news agencies tend to over-report tragedy, looking to foster the very same sense of dread and impending doom Bell feels. If people are afraid, they will keep buying newspapers; and Bell—whether his fears are unfounded or not—has likely fallen victim to this impulse.
Related Themes:
Chapter 5
Explanation and Analysis—Dark Liquid:
In the following passage from Chapter 5, Sheriff Bell discusses Moss's fate with Carla Jean. Their conversation and the visual symbolism of the scene foreshadow Moss's eventual tragic end:
These people will kill him, Carla Jean. They wont quit.
He wont neither. He never has.Bell nodded. He sipped his coffee. The face that lapped and shifted in the dark liquid in the cup seemed an omen of things to come. Things losing shape. Taking you with them.
Bell speaks with Carla Jean about the risks facing Moss. Immediately after Carla Jean claims that Moss "wont [quit] neither," Bell's mood takes a dour turn. He perceives the distortion of his own face, reflected in the coffee mirrored back at him, as an ill omen of "things to come." Bell claims that things around him are "losing shape" and taking him with them, alluding to the violence growing within society and its incipient crescendo.
The above passage foreshadows Moss's tragic death, unanticipated in a novel that, in part, centers his perspective as a character. Moss's death comes as a shock to audiences, yet another of the shocking, violent events Bell seems to take as evidence of America's moral deterioration as a society.
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