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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, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Sly Letter:
In this passage, the author uses personification and foreshadowing to convey Irene's unease about receiving a letter from Clare. On the novel's first page, Irene sees a letter on her table that she knows is from Clare and broods over the consequences of opening it:
And there was, too, something mysterious and slightly furtive about it. A thin sly thing which bore no return address to betray the sender. Not that she hadn’t immediately known who its sender was.
The personification of this small, unassuming letter as a "thin sly thing" imbues it with the human traits of deception and unpleasantness. By attributing “slyness” to the letter, Larsen displays how intensely threatened Irene feels by Clare’s renewed presence in her life. She has such strong feelings of anxiety and discomfort around Clare that even an unopened letter from her seems evil and threatening. The letter seems to possess its own malicious intentions before Irene even touches it, reflecting Irene's internal confusion about her relationship with Clare. This use of personification transforms the inanimate letter into a living thing, an embodiment of the tension between the two women.
The passage also employs foreshadowing to hint at future troubles in Irene's life. Larsen’s description of the letter as "mysterious and slightly furtive" suggests that the content of Clare's communications will be unsettling and potentially dangerous. Irene's immediate recognition of the sender despite the lack of a return address points to how much Clare perplexes her; she’s always on the lookout for letters that “betray the sender.” This early passage foreshadows the events of the novel, as Clare's presence becomes increasingly disruptive and disastrous for Irene.
Related Themes:
Part 2, Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Heights and Depths:
As Clare and Irene argue, the narrative uses foreshadowing to point to the trouble fast approaching for Clare. When Irene tells Clare she shouldn't associate with Black people if she wants to "pass," she feels choked and frustrated by Clare's abrupt refusal:
Her voice was brittle. For into her mind had come a thought, strange and irrelevant, a suspicion, that had surprised and shocked her and driven her to her feet. It was that in spite of her determined selfishness the woman before her was yet capable of heights and depths of feeling that she, Irene Redfield, had never known. Indeed, never cared to know. The thought, the suspicion, was gone as quickly as it had come.
The foreshadowing in this passage suggests impending difficulties for Clare in several ways. Irene's realization that Clare possesses profound emotions ("heights and depths of feeling") that she herself has "never known" or "cared to know" shows just how little she truly knows Clare. Irene has relied on her ability to protect herself through predicting other people’s actions. She believed that she could "handle" Clare’s presence in her life because she understood her completely. Here, she has a premonition that that assumption is disastrously incorrect. It’s fleeting, but the fact that it disappears so quickly also implies that the problem cannot be avoided through Irene’s usual methods of manipulation. Finally, the suddenness with which the thought appears and disappears implies that the problems to come will be as unpredictable and surprising as Clare Kendry is herself.
Related Themes:
Part 3, Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—Footprints in the Snow:
In this passage, Nella Larsen uses visual imagery to intensify a moment of foreshadowing for Irene. Near the end of Passing, Irene gazes out at the snowy street while worrying about Clare.
After a breakfast, which had been eaten almost in silence and which she was relieved to have done with, Irene Redfield lingered for a little while in the downstairs hall, looking out at the soft flakes fluttering down. She was watching them immediately fill some ugly irregular gaps left by the feet of hurrying pedestrians [...]
The visual imagery of the white snowflakes filling the "ugly irregular gaps" left by pedestrians paints a stark, black-and-white picture for the reader. The white snow covering the dark pavement below also visually mirrors the act of passing—the footprints that melt the snow mirror the way outward appearances can conceal inner realities. Like Clare, the snow is a white covering for the "blackness" beneath. This reflects Irene's internal anxieties about Clare's decision to "pass" as white while married to Bellew, a white supremacist. The inevitable melting of the snow aligns with her fears that Clare’s true Black identity will someday reveal itself, no matter how careful she is.
This imagery also foreshadows the trouble that is about to unfold, as Clare contacts Irene immediately after this moment of anxious reflection. The unsettling scene sets a tone of apprehension for whatever follows it, tainting Clare’s phone call with a sense of impending disaster.
Related Themes:
