Foreshadowing is a device used to give hints about what is going to happen in a story. It is a way for authors to keep readers interested in the story and anticipate what is going to happen next. It does not give the ending away, but rather allows one to predict how the story will end. William Faulkner uses a variety foreshadowing in his story, A Rose for Emily. This story is about Emily, who has trouble letting go of the past and realizing that times change. This includes letting go of her boyfriend Homer. The foreshadowing Faulkner uses allows the reader to foresee the murder of Homer and of Emily sleeping with his dead body.
             Faulkner uses the smell of Emily's house throughout the story to foreshadow Homer's fate. For thirty years, Emily has kept Homer's body in an upstairs bedroom, and her house gave off a horrendous smell that the townspeople were aware of the whole time, "just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell." The town judge suggests it may be "a snake or a rat that nigger of hers killed in the yard." On the other hand, the ladies of the town think it is her dirty kitchen that smells. However, only a decaying body could smell so bad for that long. The townspeople had to use lime, "they broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there," to mask the smell coming from Emily's house. "After a week or two, the smell went away." Murder is one of the first things that may come to a person's mind when hearing about lime. It is known that killers often use lime to cover up the smell of their victims bodies. The use of lime in this story suggests that there may be a dead body within Emily's home. This is one of the most important illustrations of foreshadowing used in this story. The other ones may lead one to think that Emily will kill herself, not Homer.
             Emily's mental state is another example o...