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Flashbacks
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
Frenchie's Coming-To Story
Explanation and Analysis—Dreamless Ones:
In the following excerpt from "Frenchie's Coming-to Story," Frenchie reflects on the process of dreaming towards what he believes is the end of his life. The idea that the "end is just a dream" is a comforting thought to Frenchie, given the comfort and familial belonging he always finds in dreams. In reflecting on the dream-state, Frenchie naturally foreshadows the novel's dystopian premise, yet to be revealed to the reader:
Maybe the end is just a dream. That made me feel sorry for a minute for the others, the dreamless ones. What happened when they died? I imagined them just shutting off like factory machines at the end of a shift: functioning, purposeful, and then just out. I closed my eyes. Just for a minute. The dream came for me right away.
Frenchie foreshadows the central conceit of the novel, which has not yet been revealed at this point in the narrative. Specifically, he signals that in this post-apocalyptic world, "dreamless ones" and dreamers are two distinct classes. Frenchie does not yet explain why this distinction is important, foreshadowing that it will be explained later and become a crucial plot point. In an earlier excerpt, he also notes that the Recruiters are part of a "Department of Oneirology," though he does not explain what this means. Oneirology, within psychology, is the study of dreams.
Wab's Coming-To Story
Explanation and Analysis—Loss of Innocence:
In "Wab's Coming-to Story," Wab finally chooses to relate her personal history to an audience of older family members, Frenchie included. Her story is a grotesque one, filled with drug abuse, maternal neglect, and physical and sexual assault. Immediately after recounting her traumatic rape and disfigurement, the flashback cuts out, returning the reader to Frenchie's immediate surroundings:
And the dick who set up the run, who handed over the Danishes and scurried off into the alleyways, that was the man I saw a week ago in the woods. I’m sure of it.
“IS HE COMING to take Wab back to the bad guys?"
I jumped at the small voice behind me, pitched high with terror. RiRi had crept into the room.
The fact that RiRi was listening in on the flashback is immediately apparent: she cries out, "is he coming to take Wab back to the bad guys?" This rapid cut from reminiscence to present-day reflects the harsh immediacy of RiRi's lost innocence, breaking the adults and teenagers out of the stupor of memory and reminiscence. Tragically, it is this man from Wab's past who ends up having a hand in RiRi's death. Her reaction, and her lost naivety, foreshadows her heartbreaking death.
Related Themes:
The Other Indians
Explanation and Analysis—Dangerous Animal:
At the end of "The Other Indians," Dimaline provides Frenchie, her narrator, with momentary narrative foresight. Frenchie is made uneasy by Lincoln and Travis, two indigenous people with questionable backstories and circumstances too cushy to be born from a pure survival scenario. Furthermore, Wab seems to recognize one of the men from her own tumultuous past. The entire family has had near encounters with Lincoln and Travis, raising the question as to whether such proximity arises from coincidence or malicious intent.
In his moment of foresight, Frenchie foreshadows the future tragedy Travis and Lincoln herald:
The girls turned their backs to him, not so much to ignore his veiled remark as to show him they had no fear of him. But you don’t turn your back on a dangerous animal. Only squirrels should be able to see your spine. We didn’t know that he was an animal we had yet to imagine could exist.
Frenchie's use of language here implies that Travis and Lincoln are up to no good, foreshadowing their eventual betrayal and RiRi's murder. They are not only "animals," but ones Frenchie had not yet realized could exist: people willing to sell out their own kind to Recruiters in exchange for a cushier life.
