KEY TERM!
FOREGROUNDS / FOREGROUNDING / FORESHADOWING
When words draw attention to a related idea, they could be said to foreground that idea. Foregrounding is very common in literature when a writer wants to create a particular mood.

A related word is foreshadowing. This is a literary means of sowing the seeds of something that will arise later in a story. In the novella, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck's decision to have Candy's dog shot by Carlson foreshadows the later events of the novel when Lennie is shot.