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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
One (1934): Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle
Explanation and Analysis—Sea of Flames:
In Section One, the appearance of the Sea of Flames increasingly worries Marie-Laure, serving as an ill omen or foreshadowing of future tragedy. The gem is known to bring grief wherever it goes:
Rumors circulate through the Paris museum, moving fast, as quick and brightly colored as scarves.
The museum is considering displaying a certain gemstone, a jewel more valuable than anything
else in all the collections. [...] Some people call it the Shepherd’s Stone, others call it the Khon-Ma, but soon enough everyone is calling it the Sea of Flames. Marie-Laure thinks: Four years have passed.
The rumored appearance of the Sea of Flames foreshadows the coming tragedies of World War II and the invasion of France. Marie-Laure senses this, worrying that "four years have passed." This worry is in reference to a prior conversation she had with a tour guide at her father's museum:
“Eventually he was so convinced that his stone was the accursed Sea of Flames that he asked the
king to shut it up in his museum on the conditions that it be locked deep inside a specially built
vault and the vault not be opened for two hundred years.”
“And?”
“And one hundred and ninety-six years have passed.”
Marie worries that "four years" have passed since her tour, signaling that the vault will soon be opened and the Sea of Flames will rain tragedy down on Paris. Whether or not the invasion of Paris is connected to the Sea of Flames, Marie-Laure's feelings of impending doom foreshadow Germany's future military action.
Related Themes:
One (1934): Our Flag Flutters Before Us
Explanation and Analysis—Elena's Nervousness:
In Section One, Doerr includes a wide array of details and context clues intended to foreshadow the impending war, hinting at an increasingly hostile social climate in Germany and an increasingly tense political climate in France. In one passage, Doerr highlights Frau Elena's increasing reticence to speak French around the Zollverein orphans, using this reality to foreshadow future events in Nazi Germany:
Frau Elena speaks French less and less frequently whenever Hans and Herribert are present. She finds herself conscious of her accent. The smallest glance from a neighbor can make her wonder.
Elena's reticence to speak French around the two German orphans—both of whom are in the Hitler Youth—foreshadows Germany's upcoming invasion of France and increasing lack of tolerance for foreigners. Elena's fear signals the increasingly fascist turn of German culture. She is not Jewish, but neither is she German "enough" for the Nazis; and, given the later invasion of France, Frau Elena's wariness is not entirely unfounded. Fascist ideologues, especially young and impressionable ones, are quick to create, identify, and ostracize anyone deemed foreign or different from themselves. Frau Elena has evidently picked up on this sociopolitical shift and moves to obscure her foreignness before she is found out.
Related Themes:
One (1934): Sea of Flames
Explanation and Analysis—Sea of Flames:
In Section One, the appearance of the Sea of Flames increasingly worries Marie-Laure, serving as an ill omen or foreshadowing of future tragedy. The gem is known to bring grief wherever it goes:
Rumors circulate through the Paris museum, moving fast, as quick and brightly colored as scarves.
The museum is considering displaying a certain gemstone, a jewel more valuable than anything
else in all the collections. [...] Some people call it the Shepherd’s Stone, others call it the Khon-Ma, but soon enough everyone is calling it the Sea of Flames. Marie-Laure thinks: Four years have passed.
The rumored appearance of the Sea of Flames foreshadows the coming tragedies of World War II and the invasion of France. Marie-Laure senses this, worrying that "four years have passed." This worry is in reference to a prior conversation she had with a tour guide at her father's museum:
“Eventually he was so convinced that his stone was the accursed Sea of Flames that he asked the
king to shut it up in his museum on the conditions that it be locked deep inside a specially built
vault and the vault not be opened for two hundred years.”
“And?”
“And one hundred and ninety-six years have passed.”
Marie worries that "four years" have passed since her tour, signaling that the vault will soon be opened and the Sea of Flames will rain tragedy down on Paris. Whether or not the invasion of Paris is connected to the Sea of Flames, Marie-Laure's feelings of impending doom foreshadow Germany's future military action.
Related Themes:
One (1934): Bye-bye, Blind Girl
Explanation and Analysis—Great Hand:
In the following example of foreshadowing, Marie-Laure imagines the descent of the German army on Paris as a giant hand, closing in around herself and her city:
Those last nights in Paris, walking home with her father at midnight, the huge book clasped
against her chest, Marie-Laure thinks she can sense a shiver beneath the air, in the pauses between the chirring of the insects, like the spider cracks of ice when too much weight is set upon it. As if all this time the city has been no more than a scale model built by her father and the shadow of a great hand has fallen over it.
In the days before the Germans bomb Paris, Marie-Laure feels an impending sense of doom. Nature itself feels ill-at-ease, as though an unnatural hand (symbolizing the German army) might descend from the sky to crush Paris. Curiously, this example of imagery told from Marie-Laure's perspective aligns with how she imagines the world, through the lens of her city models. She envisions a threat as a hand descending from the sky, much like her own hand might descend onto the models she uses to imagine and navigate her world. Marie-Laure imagines the appearance of threats in Paris along the preexisting axes of her imagination, the basis of which she formed with her hands, models, and mind.
Related Themes:
