By: Robin Rivera
It’s easier to have discussions about
foreshadowing techniques when almost everyone knows the story. Since The
Fault in Our Stars (TFIOS) was a runaway YA crossover bestseller
and a major motion picture, I’m using it for my examples. Fingers crossed I’m
not spoiling this story for too many people.
Foreshadowing is a technique used to hint
at events that will take place later in the novel. The most overused method of
foreshadowing usually involves the weather. Storm clouds gathering and birds
fleeing the treetops are foreshadowing tropes for impending doom. Sunny skies
and flowers blooming are used to foreshadow a change for the better.
As a narrative element, it works best for
me when used indirectly. I want the plot pieces to fall into place, but I
want it to happen slowly. However, other writers, including Green, like to use
both direct and indirect in the same story. Going back to the weather example,
indirect foreshadowing is having tree branches tapping on the protagonist’s
window during a storm. Making the lights flicker is a more direct method
of foreshadowing that something bad is about to happen. A writer can sprinkle
several methods of foreshadowing into the same story, and in the case of TFIOS,
Green does just that. He builds and layers the foreshadowing from his very
first words.
Foreshadowing is often used to:
. . .
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