Your question identifies what this short story is so
famous for, and why it is so successful. One of the ways that writers create suspense is
through foreshadowing, the use of clues that hint at later events in the story.
Foreshadowing makes you curious, even anxious, to know what will happen
next.
For me, one of the first pieces of foreshadowing that
occurs in the story is in the discussion between Rainsford and Whitney. Note what they
say:
"The
best sport in the world," agreed Rainsford."For the
hunter," amended Whitney. "Not for the jaguar.""Don't talk
rot, Whitney," said Rainsford. "You're a big game hunter, not a philosopher. Who cares
how a jaguar feels?"
Of
course, this is ironic as Rainsford himself is going to discover how the jaguar feels as
he becomes the hunted rather than the hunter.
The second
piece of foreshadowing I will focus on comes very close to the first. The evil
reputation that the island has clearly forebodes some kind of ill, as we will later
discover. Note how this is introduced:
"Yes, even that though-minded old Swede, who'd
go up to the devil himself and ask him for a light. Those fishy blue eyes held a look I
never saw there before. All I could get out of him was: 'This place has an evil name
among seafaring men,
sir.'
This clearly hints at
some kind of danger that will feature in the rest of the
story.
Clearly another highly significant piece of
foreshadowing occurs once Rainsford is on the island and he sees the evidence of a hunt,
but he is not able to work out what kind of animal was
hunted:
Some
wounded thing, by the evidence a large animal, had thrashed about in the underbrush; the
jungle weeds were crushed down and the moss was lacerated; one patch of weeds was
stained crimson.
Of course,
later on Rainsford will no precisely the identity of the species of animal that was
hunted.
So there you are - three examples of foreshadowing
which arguably help to make this a unique story of suspense story and one which keeps
the reader engaged.
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