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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
Foreshadowing
Explanation and Analysis—The Birds:
Du Maurier uses foreshadowing throughout "The Birds" to create an atmosphere of suspense, particularly in the very first pages of the story. The titular birds are introduced in the third paragraph. Although their behavior isn't yet markedly abnormal, they're described as "restless" and "uneasy," congregating in "strange partnership." This foreshadows their violent attacks, which see "birds that by nature’s law kept to their own flock and their own territory [...] joining one with another in their urge for battle."
Nat, observing the birds, thinks that they seem like they're responding to some signal from the weather:
“Perhaps,” thought Nat, munching his pasty by the cliff’s edge, “a message comes to the birds in autumn, like a warning. Winter is coming."
From the very start, Nat picks up on a looming threat; mistakenly, he thinks the threat is posed by the cold is for the birds alone. Similarly, Farmer Trigg remarks on the strangeness but ascribes the birds' behavior to the weather:
"I have a notion the weather will change. It will be a hard winter. That’s why the birds are restless.”
The characters perceive warnings all around them, noting the oncoming cold as marking the transition to a more perilous time, a time of scarcity. This premonition proves to be truer than they initially realize—it's not just a hard winter approaching, but the end of the world as they know it.
