The author uses previous events not only to explain current events in the story but also to deepen the reader’s understanding of how a character might respond to a given situation.Most stories do not rely on a single linear narrative flow. While flashback builds drama by steadily deepening a reader’s understanding of characters and story, foreshadowing does so by hinting at greater events to come. Homer employs flashback in "The Odyssey," when Odysseus relates his earlier experiences to other people. This allows readers access to insights about a particular character, add context for the story, and provide further clarity about a current conflict. The narrator has a dream about past events. Additionally, it made him a sympathetic character because the audience witnesses the Grinch being bullied. This allows readers access to insights about a particular character, add context for the story, and provide further clarity about a current conflict.What is Flashback in Literature? As he finds both her love and an untimely end, the line foreshadows his fate.

While flashback, as suggested by the name, takes the reader back into a past moment, foreshadowing hints at or presages an event that has yet to come. They provide background information, add depth to characters, and provide clarity/reveal secrets.Flashbacks can function to stir up plot, add dynamic layers to characters, reveal information that would not otherwise be revealed, and even to shock or concern readers with secrets. Flashback and foreshadowing are different ways to accomplish the same end: to introduce events that are not happening in the story’s current moment. Flashbacks are usually introduced in the form of dreams or memories. Good pacing relies on sprinkling each technique throughout the story rather than simply piling them all in one place, thereby letting the reader in a little at a time. Done well, both can increase a story’s dramatic tension and deepen a character’s development. Flashback, in motion pictures and literature, narrative technique of interrupting the chronological sequence of events to interject events of earlier occurrence. Both also play on the differenc… n. 1. a. Extended narration or dialogue to achieve these ends can be boring and stilted, so instead flashback is often employed. Generally, flashbacks provide complication to a narrative that otherwise is straightforward but lacking in emotional understanding and/or depth.

Sometimes flashbacks can even complicate reader perceptions of villains by revealing past events that make the audience feel for the villain in a way they would not otherwise be able to. A flashback typically is implemented by: The narrator tells another character about past events. Done well, both can increase a story’s dramatic tension and deepen a character’s development. Just as in real life, a lot about a character may be buried in his or her past and it is often necessary for those past events to be revealed in order to advance the plot of a story.Capital vs. Capitol – How to Choose Your Words CorrectlyFlashback is important to many narratives because it adds backstory to a situation that might otherwise be lacking.

Flashback and foreshadowing are different ways to accomplish the same end: to introduce events that are not happening in the story’s current moment. Flashback devices that are commonly used are past narratives by characters, depictions and references of dreams and …

While flashback, as suggested by the name, takes the reader back into a past moment, foreshadowing hints at or presages an event that has yet to come. The best types of foreshadowing keep the hinted-at event a surprise, but are obvious to the reader in retrospect as pointing to a single outcome.Both flashback and foreshadowing are part of a much larger arsenal of literary techniques authors resort to when trying to pull readers into the reality of a story and reveal its characters. In this case, flashback added emotional depth to the narrative in addition to providing important background information.Relating to the overall conflict of a story or character, flashback adds tension to existing conflict. Flashbacks serve to further explain a story with background information. Flashbacks are usually introduced in the form of dreams or memories. Both also play on the difference between story time, or that experienced by the characters living the story as it unfolds, and discourse time, or that experienced by whoever is reading the story.Sarah Moore has been a writer, editor and blogger since 2006. A literary or cinematic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological order of a narrative. While the latter simply relies on a detour in time to a previous moment, foreshadowing is often used to build suspense toward a major event or finale that the reader has yet to experience. Because giving the surprise away destroys narrative tension, authors must use foreshadowing carefully to drop hints about what is to come. Definition: Flashback is a literary device wherein the author depicts the occurrence of specific events to the reader, which have taken place before the present time the narration is following, or events that have happened before the events that are currently unfolding in the story. Flashback is a tool used by writers that interrupts a story in order to take audiences back in time to examine past events.