Of Mice and MenJohn Steinbeck
The opening riverbank scene is repeated almost exactly before the ending.
The repetition sets the shape of the tragedy, so the final event arrives as a rhyme rather than a shock.
← The devices guide
Foreshadowing
A hint planted early that pays off later. Good foreshadowing is invisible on a first read and obvious on a second.
How to spot it
Reread the first three pages after finishing. What felt like atmosphere is usually plot.
Why writers use it
It makes an ending feel inevitable without feeling announced.
In the texts
The Fall of the House of UsherEdgar Allan Poe
A crack runs down the front of the house in the first paragraph.
The building's structural failure is the family's, announced before either happens.
MacbethWilliam Shakespeare
The witches' prophecies are technically true and entirely misleading.
Every later 'impossible' condition is a promise that will be kept in the worst available way.
Common misread
Foreshadowing is not the same as a spoiler. It creates dread, not information.