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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 25: Magical Places
Explanation and Analysis—Nerve-Racking Falconry:
In Chapter 25, Macdonald begins allowing Mabel to hunt for herself, a practice that is ill-advised because it risks the bond between human and bird. Macdonald's thinking in this chapter subtly foreshadows the way they leave things with Mabel at the end of the memoir:
This is nerve-racking falconry, but a wonderful thing. I am testing the lines between us that the old falconers would have called love. They have not broken; they do not look likely to break. Maybe they will. I raise her weight even more, and slowly the world widens. But I’m pushing my luck, and I know it.
On a first read, this passage is suspenseful. It seems to hint at the near-inevitability that Macdonald will lose Mabel. Birds of prey aren't really bonded by "love" to the humans who handle them. Instead, falconers manufacture bonds of reliance. By controlling birds' access to food, falconers keep them just hungry enough to keep coming back to the person who habitually feeds them. Macdonald has come to realize that even the "lines" between themself and Mabel are made of something besides love. They hope but don't bank on affection to bring Mabel back to their wrist. The line "I'm pushing my luck, and I know it" all but urges the reader to prepare for disappointment.
Macdonald does have some scares with the self-hunting hawk. However, by the end of the book, Macdonald has not lost Mabel. In fact, they kept her until she died of an infection seven years after the events of the book. What does happen is that "the world widens," both before Macdonald and between them and Mabel. They begin treating Mabel more and more like a wild hawk they are privileged to see up close. Meanwhile, they begin treating themself more and more like a human who does not need to exile themself to the wild. The distance between Macdonald and the bird allows both of them to flourish. Even though the "widening" world is dangerous, it gives their relationship space to grow in ways that seemed impossible a few months earlier.
The book ends at the start of the molting season, when Mabel goes to stay in an aviary run by a friend of Macdonald's. Macdonald knows that when they return, Mabel will not remember them. Months ago, it may have been too painful for them to let the hawk forget them; now, however, they find that "wonder," not control or even love, is the greatest gift Mabel can give them. More than Mabel's recognition, they need Mabel's "wonderful" freedom to be a wild animal. To fly Mabel during the molting season would be a misguided attempt to strengthen the bond between bird and human. It would force Mabel to behave unnaturally to serve Macdonald's emotional needs. Macdonald departs the aviary on a bittersweet and even "nerve-racking" note, sad to think that they will be forgotten but with the understanding that they are allowing their hawk to be as "wonderful" as she can be.
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