Introduction
In
literature, a flashback is an occurrence in which a character remembers an
earlier event that happened before the current point of the story. The
definition of flashback is identical to that of analepsis, which comes from the
Greek for “the act of taking up.”
What is Flashback Techique
There
are two types of flashbacks—those that recount events that happened before the
story started (external analepsis) and those that take the reader back to an
event that already happened but that the character is considering again
(internal analepsis).
Many
of us have flashbacks quite frequently. We may have flashbacks when we think of
someone whom we haven’t thought of in a while, and remember some memory that
that person was a part of. Or we may look at an object and think of when we
first got it, or why it’s significant. Lots of different things in our daily
lives can trigger flashbacks and we are not always aware of it.
Flashbacks
in Literature
Authors
use Flashbacks as a means of adding background information in the present
events of their story. They interrupt a specific event within their story by
using event that have already occurred
or that have not been presented. This gives the reader added information about
a character's past, including his or her secrets, inner or external conflict ,,
or significant events that affected his
or her life. If the author is able to do this well, the reader will begin to
convey reasoning for the actions of the characters throughout the story and
develop a better understanding of present events. This also helps the author
create a theme for the story and increase the emotional impact it will have on
the reader.
It
is precisely in the act of recalling and reflecting on the past
that A Grain of Wheat constructs a narration of the nation: the pedagogic
moment (the act of recalling the liberation struggle) materializes in a per
formative moment (Bhabha 1990a) disseminated in lots of narratives, each of
which is a speech act. The narration becomes therefore an active
(re)construction of the past, an act of writing, in the sense of modeling. Flashbacks
are often used to recount events that happened before the story‛s primary
sequence of events to fill in crucial back story. For example an early example
of flashback is in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, where the main story is narrated through
a frame story set at a later time.
Revealing
stories in flashback
The
stories are intertwined, making a complex story with many
threads.
The two main story lines are there in the novel. There
are
some other stories- the story of the Thompsons, the story of Kihika, the story
of Wambuku and the story of Njeri. There is
also
a story of the old woman and her deaf son. These stories
intercept
at different points as Mugo walks into the old woman‛s room, as Mugo saves
Wambuku‛s life, as Mugo confesses to Mumbi as Gikonyo reveals to Mugo, as Mumbi
reveals to Mugo.
Point
of view
The
novel is told by an omniscient narrator, who exposes the point of view of
different characters at different times, revealing their inside. Though the
subject matter is dense, the author freely opens the character‛s mind. Several
events from the past are examined in flashback revealing the points of view
from different characters.
The
narrator only occasionally uses the first person, leaving the majority
of the novel to be told in third person. In addition to the narrator revealing
characters inner thoughts, the characters also tell their stories to each
other.
Structure
The
novel is divided into fourteen numbered chapters plus fourshort
named chapters at the end. The four named chapters at the end wrap up the
stories of the main chapters. The novel shortly begins before the Kenyan Uruhu
celebration, and it climaxes at the celebration itself. In between, it travels
back in time and then returns to Uruhu, filling in all the events that lead up
to the day of independence. Each character‛s story is revealed in bits and pieces,
throughout the novel.
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