The use of symbolism to foreshadow the future in Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour and Toni Cade Bambara's LessonOften authors use signs to foreshadow events that will happen in the future in their stories. For example, an author might write "As he walked down the dark and eerie path, dark skies began to form." Here the writer uses a usually negative sign to foreshadow a negative future. This is the most common way authors use to foreshadow a story, but it's not the only way. In some cases, authors use symbols to foreshadow a character's future. Like foreshadowing with signs, symbols can also be used to foreshadow both positive and negative futures. In the two stories "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara the authors use symbols to prefigure both a positive and negative future. In "The Story of an Hour" Chopin uses positive symbols to foreshadow the future of a woman without her husband, who died in a train accident. In "The Lesson" Bambara uses a toy sailboat to foreshadow both the positive and negative future of a little girl named Sylvia. Chopin's story begins with a woman who has locked herself in her room and looks out the window incessantly after learning about her husbands. death. As the woman looks out the window, she begins to think about her new life and what awaits her now that she has been widowed. An important note about this story is that it is set in 1890. In 1890 women had very few rights and were very dependent on their husbands, whether they loved them or not. As the woman looks out the window, the reader quickly learns her true feelings. Through foreshadowing with symbolism we discover...... middle of paper ......here the poor will remain poor and the rich will remain rich. It is wrong that a child's daycare costs more than any other children's home. Toys are toys so they shouldn't cost large amounts of money, but since the toys in that store are for wealthy people and wealthy people only, they make it impossible for poor families like children to afford them. they used symbolism effectively to foreshadow the future of their main characters. In Chopin's “Story of an Hour” the symbolism was all positive and indicated a positive future for women. On the other hand in Bambara's "Lesson" the symbolism was very subjective and could be interpreted as positive or negative symbolism. I feel that the subjectivity of Bambara's use of symbolism was more effective because it could be interpreted as positive and negative things.