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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 8
Explanation and Analysis—Replacement by a Gadget:
Chapter 8 ends with what could be a glimpse of the future as Bud foreshadows Paul’s job loss. Laid off by the machine he had constructed himself, he suggests that Paul could well be next in line:
“As far as that goes,” Bud was saying, “it wouldn’t be much of a trick to replace him with a gadget.” Paul had a good idea where Bud’s stubby index finger was pointing.
Buck’s prediction is somewhat ironic—the manager who was just replaced by machines seems to cope with his frustration by betting that his colleague will suffer the same fate. More notably, though, his foreshadowing sets in motion a feeling of uncertainty. Bud anticipates the possibility of Paul’s replacement, a threat that recurs consistently in the novel. At the engineers’ party in Chapter 5, Checker Charley seems poised to topple Paul’s checker-playing dominance. In the office, Lawson Shepherd positions himself as a contender for the Pittsburgh position. If not tested by gadgets, Paul is challenged by those around him. Competition lurks around every corner.
The greater irony of Bud’s prediction lies in what it misses. Paul loses his job not to gadgets, but in one of the novel’s rare moments in which a character asserts their agency. Fed up with his stifled life as an engineer, he formally gives up his position and testifies as a member of the Ghost Shirt Society. Paul removes himself by his own volition rather than any impersonal technology, proving Bud wrong in the work’s very last moments.
Related Themes:
Chapter 9
Explanation and Analysis—The Messiah:
During Paul’s visit to the bar in Chapter 9, James Lasher picks up a conversation with him about plans for revolution. In sharing with Paul his prophecies—in which an uprising puts an end to the “crusading spirit of the managers and engineers”—the reverend foreshadows a seismic change:
“That is a frightening question,” said Lasher, “and also my favorite rationalization for drinking. This is my last drink, incidentally; I don’t like being drunk. I drink because I’m scared—just a little scared, so I don’t have to drink much. Things, gentlemen, are ripe for a phony Messiah, and when he comes, it’s sure to be a bloody business.”
“Messiah?”
"Sooner or later someone’s going to catch the imagination of these people with some new magic."
Lasher foreshadows a popular revolt against the country’s technological worship and obsession with productivity. Laying out his vision of a “class war,” he predicts that a Messiah will manage to stir up a “feeling of participation, the feeling of being needed on earth—hell, dignity.” Lasher eagerly awaits someone who can helm the revolution.
As one of the Ghost Shirt Society’s leaders, Lasher's suggestions are not particularly prophetic—Lasher anticipates the uprising that he and Finnerty mastermind. Neither does the revolution pan out as planned. The Ghost Shirt Society manages to capture Ilium, but the disruption lasts just a few days. Paul, Lasher, and Finnerty turn themselves into the government as momentum sputter out and the protest fails. They lose Pittsburgh and, notably, fail to take down EPICAC XIV. As their fellow revolutionaries start repairing the old Orange-O machine, the movement has all but ended itself.
But Lasher ultimately finds his “phony Messiah” in Paul. As the disgraced manager of Ilium Works resigns, gets arrested, and testifies in court, Lasher awakens a leader who speaks up for the cause as powerfully as he can. Paul affirms his involvement in the Ghost Shirt Society and declares as “many poignant, anti-machine, pro-Ghost Shirt Society things as he could over a nationwide television network.” As Lasher predicted, he fills in the shoes of a maverick who leads his people toward change.
Related Themes:
