Literary Devices: Foreshadowing, Allegory and Symbolism

Remember from Grade 6

In Grade 6 you explored hyperbole and idioms, and in earlier grades similes, metaphors and personification. All of these are literary devices: tools writers use on purpose.

In Grade 7 you'll explore three devices that work across a whole text, not just one sentence: foreshadowing, allegory and symbolism.

Hook: Did you see that coming?

Think of a movie or book where the ending surprised you, but when you thought back, you realized the clues were there all along. Or a story where a simple object, like a necklace, a tree or a key, seemed to mean much more than itself. Writers plan these things. Let's find out how.

Foreshadowing

Loose Wire (a story written for this website)

On the night before the science fair, Amira tested her model solar oven one more time. The little fan whirred, the light glowed, and the thermometer climbed. But when she brushed the red wire at the back, the fan stuttered for a second.

"I'll fix it in the morning," she said.

Her older brother, Yusuf, looked up from his own project. "Famous last words."

In the morning, Amira overslept. Her mom pressed a roll of electrical tape into her hand at the door. "Just in case," she said. Amira rolled her eyes but stuffed it in her pocket.

The school bus hit every pothole on Maple Street.

At 10:15, the judge arrived at Amira's table. She smiled, took out her clipboard and said, "Show me how it works." Amira flipped the switch. Nothing happened.

Amira's stomach dropped. Then she thought of the red wire, and her hand went to her pocket.

Allegory

The Beavers of Long River (a fable written for this website)

The beavers at the top of Long River were the busiest in the valley. Each year their dam grew higher, and their pond grew wider and deeper. "We worked for it," they said. "It's ours."

But downstream, the marsh began to dry. The frogs went quiet. The muskrats moved away. The young ducks had nowhere to hide.

At last, the downstream animals came to the great dam. "The river is drying up below you," said the turtle.

"Then build your own dam," said the beavers.

An old heron, who had fished both the pond and the marsh for many years, spoke up. "The river was here before any dam," she said. "It runs through all of us. When you hold it all, you don't become richer. You only become alone."

The beavers looked at their huge, quiet pond, with no frogs singing and no ducks paddling. That night, they opened a gap in the dam. By spring, the marsh was loud again.

An allegory works on two levels:

• Surface level: a story about beavers, a dam and a marsh.
• Deeper level: a story about sharing resources fairly. The beavers could stand for any group that has plenty and takes more than its share: a wealthy town, a country, even a person. The dried marsh stands for those left without. The heron stands for wisdom and fairness.

Famous allegories include fables like Aesop's, and longer works such as George Orwell's novel Animal Farm, in which farm animals stand for people and events in history. Allegories let writers teach a lesson or criticize something in a way that is memorable and sometimes safer than saying it directly.

Symbolism

The Maple (a poem written for this website)

The week we came to Canada, my father bought a tree, a maple barely taller than my brother, thin as string. He dug the hole himself in the hard November ground. "Roots take time," he said. "So do we."

That first winter, it stood bare against the snow, and so did we, learning words like toque and slush. Now, eight autumns later, it burns red above the roof, and my brother hangs his hammock in its arms.

Symbols and culture

Some symbols are widely shared: light often stands for hope, winter for hardship, spring for new beginnings. But many symbols depend on culture:

• White is often worn at weddings in many Western cultures, while in some cultures, white is worn for mourning.
• Red is associated with good luck and celebration in many Chinese traditions, and with danger or stop on traffic signs.

So when you interpret a symbol, consider who created the text and for whom. Ask: What might this mean in the creator's culture?