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Literary Devices

Comparison workshop

ForeshadowingversusFlashbackWhat's the Difference?

Both alter how narrative time is understood but point in opposite temporal directions.

Explore ForeshadowingExplore Flashback

Read the pair

How They Differ

First idea

Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing plants clues that prepare a later event.

Explore Foreshadowing
versus

Second idea

Flashback

Flashback shifts narration to an event that occurred earlier.

Explore Flashback

See the signal

Examples

Foreshadowing

The loose stair rail shakes before the later fall.

Flashback

At the station, she remembers the morning she first arrived there.