Foreshadowing

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by time" (Hurston 1). Hurston uses foreshadowing to display how the story will unfold.  The first few sentences are the best example of how Hurston displays this literary technique.  The beginning of the novel speaks of ships at a distance and their unknown cargo. By the end of the novel, Hurston talks about the full fishing nets of Janie’s spirit. This example of foreshadowing serves as a precedent of Janie’s character.

Foreshadowing continues throughout the story to be a major element in Their Eyes Were Watching God. In the novel, death is a character.  In chapter 8 “Janie began to think of Death. Death, that strange being with huge square toes who lived way in the West.  The great one who lived in the straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof” (Hurston 84).  This description of Death foreshadows Joe Starks’ death.

Further along in the novel, when Janie and Tea Cake are in the Everglades, Janie sees the Indians and animals heading east to escape. She asks one what they are running from in which the Indian responds: “Going to high ground. Saw-grass bloom. Hurricane coming” (Hurston 154). The people of the land are used to hurricane warnings so they thought little of it. A few days passed and as Janie watched the sky she knew there was a storm coming.  Sure enough, a massive hurricane comes and results in mass destruction. Foreshadowing is one of the main literary techniques used in Hurston’s construction of Their Eyes Were Watching God.”