Flashbacks happen when a character in a story thinks of or remembers an event or scene from the past. The story will then add the story that's in the past into the main line of the story. Flashbacks can tell the readers what it's like in the past and also learn more about the character. The flashback can also be compared and contrasted by the reader to better understand the story. A Mason-Dixon Memory and The Sand Castle are stories that used flashbacks. A Mason-Dixon Memory is a story about Clifton, a African-Amerian, watching a speech of Dondré and remembering his childhood story. Dondré’s speech was about how he went to a golf competition, but the competition doesn't allow black people, which Dondré is, so his friends helped him and left the competition. This story spread around the country and changed the law. On the other hand, Clifton’s flashback is about his childhood school excursion and one of the parks they are going to is over the Mason-Dixon line. It will be very dangerous for Clifton to go past the line because people on the other side hate black people and African-Americans like Clifton. Clifton cried, but after hearing about the story, his friends decided to stay with Clifton in the hotel and went to a baseball game. The Sand Castle is another interesting story with flashbacks. It is about a woman called Masha. Masha lives in the future, when global warming affected the sun and made it deadly so people have to wear protective clothes when going outside in the day. Although it is dangerous outside, Masha still makes her grandchildren go to the beach with her very often. One day, when Masha is waiting for her grandchildren to change, she remembers one of the events on the beach in the past. Masha remembered how every one of her family members was enjoying bathing in the sun at the beach where Masha was building a sand castle. After the flashback, Masha led her grandchildren to the beach and built a sandcastle with them. Both the stories used flashbacks to make the story more interesting. Flashbacks are used to compare and contrast to the mainline, give more details and impact the reader more.
Flashbacks can be compared and contrasted with the main line in the story. The flashbacks must be connected to the main line or the flashback would be useless. The flashback could be a similar event as the mainline or the past of the main line. Comparing and contrasting the memories and real life can give us more information and tell us the themes of the story or make us better believe the themes of the story. There must be some similarities between the flashback and the main line. For example, in reality, Dondré suffered because he couldn't join the golf competition, but his friends helped him by leaving the competition too. In the memory, Clifton suffers because he can’t go to the park and his friends helped by not going too and going to a baseball game together. There’s also differences between the flashback and the reality such as how Dondré impacted a country which is a lot while Clifton only showed his friends how cruel racism is. Flashbacks can give good information like how Clifton’s flashback told us that racism started a long time ago. We should carefully read flashbacks because they may contain some important information.
Details and space for thinking can also be added by flashbacks. Flashbacks are normally very long so they will contain a lot of details. They are also not at the same place and time as the main line so it will have very special and different information to the main line. The information in flashbacks can make the main line’
s idea clearer or make a brand new idea. In the story, A Mason-Dixon Memory, the main line is about racism and fighting for freedom, while in the flashback, the idea is the same, but the reader also learnt what a Mason-Dixon line is and that racism to African-Amerians and black people is there throughout history, from the time when Clifton was small to the present time when Dondré did the speech. Flashbacks can teach you about the new time and place it introduced and also the development of the story will give the story new ideas to share. Ideas from flashbacks can also give more space for thinking and imagining because it can add another setting into the story which will be more things people can use to imagine about the story. Flashbacks have important information which both helps the story continue and also helps the reader understand.
The use of flashbacks can give the writer a higher chance of convincing the reader about a theme or idea they want viewers to do or understand. Flashbacks can help impact the reader more on top of the main line. Flashbacks will be in a different place and time and will show how big and long-lasting a problem or event is and how important or bad it is. It is a great way to show the change or same things in different places or times. In The Sand Castle story, The flashback contrasted the reality because it showed how different the two settings are. In Masha’s memory, the sun is warm and friendly. Masha and her family often go out to the beach to bathe in the sun and play. In reality, The sun is blazing the Earth and is deadly for people. Barely anyone goes outside in the day and most human activities are done at night. The flashback made the story more convincing by showing how wonderful it is right now and how bad the world will become if we keep polluting the Earth. Flashbacks are a great way to make more viewers believe you and your idea that you want to share.
In conclusion, flashback is a great tool to use in stories and fictions where you want to convince your audience into thinking something. The stories A Mason-Dixon Memory and The Sand Castle both used flashbacks and are both effective in convincing people their information. The flashbacks added a time period to compare and contrast the memory and reality. The flashbacks also activated my imagination and made me imagine what would have happened between the time period flashbacks had created. Stories with flashbacks are entertaining and work well in making me believe in an idea. We should always consider adding a flashback in our own stories.
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