Comparing Foreshadowing in Train from Rhodesia and Dead Mens Path Essa

Foreshadowing and Alliteration in Train from Rhodesia and asleep(predicate) Mens Path       Authors often use literary devices to appeal to their audience without their awareness. By doing so, trusted parts of a story or book leave alone seem more important, in a very private way. They wont scream for attention, but they will stick, for they are catchy. Sometimes, authors are not aware that they are using a device to persuade their audience, it occurs naturally. Common literary devices and elements are metaphors, similes, alliteration, mayhap even twain rhyming. Though presage is not necessary a literary device, it is often an element that many authors use in their work as well.  Foreshadowing with adjectives and alliteration are two devices used in both The Train from Rhodesia by Nadine Gordimer and Dead Mens Path by Chinua Achebe.   The Train from Rhodesia by Nadine Gordimer shows foreshadowing elements through its adjectives and other importan t devises. It alludes to the end mood of the story through adjectives used throughout. At the end of The Train from Rhodesia, there is an overwhelming feeling of emptiness, perhaps even a persistent sadness. Throughout the story, many of the adjectives point to that. The words pale and dead in the sentence, ...on either side of a uniform railway system vase with its pale dead flower. (p. 909) and even the word uniform points to the emptiness which will prevail toward the end of the story. Empty may seem desire a word to describe the empty sand. (p. 910) but it likewise points to the emotion of the girl at the end. Words that show uncertainty, basted in melancholy occur all over the book, like waiting, wandered, faint, da... ...more vibrant than a fulfilled smile, and the way a school should be run contains power within the statement. There is no dubiousness that Achebe did not use alliteration gratuitously, but to show the reader which elements of his story he fee ls are the most powerful-to serve a purpose.   The Train from Rhodesia by Nadine Gordimer and Dead Mens Path by Chinua Achebe both employed foreshadowing through adjectives and alliteration in their stories. The use of these devices was not to be charming, or cute, but to add purpose and meaning to their stories. A story without purpose is simply meaningless drivel, and a story with a purpose that cannot be remembered because of a lack of devices is also equally as meaningless. The devices used in both stories illustrate the authors point as concisely as possible. Both stories have maintained their purpose.