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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
1921
Explanation and Analysis—A Sledge Hammer:
In the following passage from 1921, Morrison foreshadows the death of Plum using a simile to illustrate Eva’s growing hatred for her son:
A high-pitched big-city laugh that reminded Eva of Chicago. It hit her like a sledge hammer, and it was then that she knew what to feel. A liquid trail of hate flooded her chest.
Morrison compares Plum’s new “big-city laugh” to a “sledge hammer” through simile. Plum has become an entirely different person to Eva after returning from the war, including his new laugh that shows off all the cities he has traveled to. Eva is reminded that her domestic lifestyle and role as mother have condemned her to the Bottom, while men such as Plum or BoyBoy can exercise greater independence and travel as they please. This contrast between the restrictive qualities of her womanhood and her newly independent son is essentially what leads her to resent her son.
This passage contributes to the novel’s overall examination of motherhood and womanhood, especially in relation to children. Many of the mothers in Bottom experience a similar love-hate relationship with their children, as they are bound to a static lifestyle by these relationships. Morrison explores the potentially destructive effects of such unresolved emotions through this relationship between Eva and her son.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Smoke in Her Hair:
In the following passage from 1921, Morrison foreshadows how Eva will come to murder her own son, Plum, by setting him on fire:
Happy or not, after BoyBoy's visit she began her retreat to her bedroom, leaving the bottom of the house more and more to those who lived there: cousins who were passing through, stray folks, and the many, many newly married couples she let rooms to with housekeeping privileges, and after 1910 she didn't willingly set foot on the stairs but once and that was to light a fire, the smoke of which was in her hair for years.
Morrison writes that despite retreating to her bedroom, Eva will set foot on the stairs once more to light the fire that will kill her son. Morrison also foreshadows, through the fact that the smoke from this fire will remain “in her hair for years,” that Eva will have to deal with the consequences of this decision for years after Plum’s death. Not only does this detail foreshadow the fire that will kill Hannah Peace, but it also refers to how Eva’s relationships with Hannah and Sula will suffer because of their suspicion.
As the novel takes the perspective of a third-person narrator, these moments of foreshadowing establish the narrator's omniscience and remind the reader that this story takes place in the past and that its characters’ fates have already been decided. Through foreshadowing, Morrison endows her narrator with omniscient insight that ultimately adds credibility to the story.
Related Themes:
