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Neil’s depression and death are heavily foreshadowed throughout the text. The first example comes when Mavis, his wife, is introduced to Grace. Unlike the rest of the guests at the dinner party, she is openly unhappy and bitter about her life. Mrs. Travers comments that her life is trying because of her young children, but as more is revealed about Neil, it becomes obvious this isn’t the full story. After Mavis’ introduction, Mrs. Travers dances around the subject of Neil when she describes him as deep, unlike his siblings, and how she worries about him. Specifically, she comments on how he’s melancholy, which is a light term for what turns out to be depression. Almost immediately after this conversation, it is revealed that Mrs. Travers occasionally needs to be hospitalized for an undefined emotional problem and that it might be because her first husband died by suicide. The double presentation of Neil’s parents both suffering from mental health issues suggests that Neil also struggles with his mental health and foreshadows that he's fated to follow in his father’s footsteps. 

As Grace nears her coming-of-age epiphany, the final piece of foreshadowing comes in the form of Neil’s alcoholism. Grace describes Neil’s compulsion to drink alcohol as if he is imbibing medicine for a pre-existing condition. It is clear that Neil drinks as a way to self-medicate his depression and that the alcohol has a rebound effect of worsening his condition. Grace finally understands that Neil exists with a complete lack of hope, and this euphemism for depression coupled with the setting sun foreshadows that his depression will ultimately end his life. By the time the car crashes into the bridge, and the body is unidentifiable, the reader does not need to hear Neil’s name to know who died.

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