Writing Help 129 | - ☆ Freelance Writer
Apr 05, 2013 | #1
Terms You Need for Writing about the Novel
Foreshadowing is one of those terms that gets defined for you very early in your academic career, often as early as middle school but certainly by the time you have reached 10th grade. The basic idea behind the term is easy to grasp, and the word is colorful and memorable, which makes it easy to identify; it is as if an event in the future is casting a shadow on the present, which is precisely what the term is used to describe. Knowing how to identify this device is an essential skill you cannot afford to be without.
Foreshadowing is the process by which an author drops portentous hints and clues early in a novel (or other prose narrative), which, if we notice them and read them carefully, will allow us to predict events in the future of the fictional world. It must be noted at this point that students tend to over-identify this device, and apply it far too broadly. For example, suppose I am reading a novel and come across a sentence which reads "Billy looked up at the mountain, and got ready to climb its dizzying heights." Now, this passage certainly allows me to make the prediction that Billy is going to climb the mountain, but to identify this as an example of foreshadowing would be absurd. If the text is obviously and directly telling you something, foreshadowing is not present. For foreshadowing to be present, there must be only a hint at what will come, a line or image that is easily missed, but which will have great significance when we look back on it from a point in time after the foreshadowed event takes place.
One of the best ways to find foreshadowing is through hindsight, and some of the best novels and films make foreshadowing dominant. Perhaps the greatest example of this in contemporary film is The Sixth Sense, where we are given clues throughout the entire move as to what the shocking ending will be; the clues are subtle on their own, but when they are presented together as they are at the end of the film, they paint a clear picture and cause us to exclaim "Of course! Why didn't we think of that?" Effective foreshadowing provides connections and continuity as well. When something happens which has not been foreshadowed at all, we often feel somewhat cheated, as if the author or director was too lazy to create a plot that followed from its own events. Large events that are not foreshadowed seem random and at times pointless, and while this can serve (when used in moderation) to create shocking and comic effects, if done too often you are left with a thoroughly unsatisfying work.
One of my favorite examples of foreshadowing occurs in the opening scenes of Hamlet (which you must read immediately if you have not already), where we are told very early on about Hamlet's father's ghost haunting the battlements of the castle. Hamlet and Horatio decide to camp out there one night to see if they can encounter it, and get immersed in a long discussion about life, the current situation in the castle, and so on. We as readers, as well as the characters themselves, get so wrapped up in this discussion that we are all surprised when the ghost actually does appear, event though we really should have expected nothing less. The reason this is effective is because of excellent timing, which is essential to good foreshadowing. If the foreshadowing occurs at a distance too far removed from the event it foreshadows, we forget about the hints we received, and the event seems random. If the foreshadowing occurs too close to the event, foreshadowing disappears, and it merely seems as if we were just told the event would happen. The best authors employ a medium distance, immersing us in interesting and distracting events, so that when the foreshadowed event comes, we quickly remember the instances of foreshadowing leading up to it, despite not having thought about them for some time.
Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing is one of those terms that gets defined for you very early in your academic career, often as early as middle school but certainly by the time you have reached 10th grade. The basic idea behind the term is easy to grasp, and the word is colorful and memorable, which makes it easy to identify; it is as if an event in the future is casting a shadow on the present, which is precisely what the term is used to describe. Knowing how to identify this device is an essential skill you cannot afford to be without.
Foreshadowing is the process by which an author drops portentous hints and clues early in a novel (or other prose narrative), which, if we notice them and read them carefully, will allow us to predict events in the future of the fictional world. It must be noted at this point that students tend to over-identify this device, and apply it far too broadly. For example, suppose I am reading a novel and come across a sentence which reads "Billy looked up at the mountain, and got ready to climb its dizzying heights." Now, this passage certainly allows me to make the prediction that Billy is going to climb the mountain, but to identify this as an example of foreshadowing would be absurd. If the text is obviously and directly telling you something, foreshadowing is not present. For foreshadowing to be present, there must be only a hint at what will come, a line or image that is easily missed, but which will have great significance when we look back on it from a point in time after the foreshadowed event takes place.One of the best ways to find foreshadowing is through hindsight, and some of the best novels and films make foreshadowing dominant. Perhaps the greatest example of this in contemporary film is The Sixth Sense, where we are given clues throughout the entire move as to what the shocking ending will be; the clues are subtle on their own, but when they are presented together as they are at the end of the film, they paint a clear picture and cause us to exclaim "Of course! Why didn't we think of that?" Effective foreshadowing provides connections and continuity as well. When something happens which has not been foreshadowed at all, we often feel somewhat cheated, as if the author or director was too lazy to create a plot that followed from its own events. Large events that are not foreshadowed seem random and at times pointless, and while this can serve (when used in moderation) to create shocking and comic effects, if done too often you are left with a thoroughly unsatisfying work.
One of my favorite examples of foreshadowing occurs in the opening scenes of Hamlet (which you must read immediately if you have not already), where we are told very early on about Hamlet's father's ghost haunting the battlements of the castle. Hamlet and Horatio decide to camp out there one night to see if they can encounter it, and get immersed in a long discussion about life, the current situation in the castle, and so on. We as readers, as well as the characters themselves, get so wrapped up in this discussion that we are all surprised when the ghost actually does appear, event though we really should have expected nothing less. The reason this is effective is because of excellent timing, which is essential to good foreshadowing. If the foreshadowing occurs at a distance too far removed from the event it foreshadows, we forget about the hints we received, and the event seems random. If the foreshadowing occurs too close to the event, foreshadowing disappears, and it merely seems as if we were just told the event would happen. The best authors employ a medium distance, immersing us in interesting and distracting events, so that when the foreshadowed event comes, we quickly remember the instances of foreshadowing leading up to it, despite not having thought about them for some time.