Examkin

Question

Difficulty: EasyPlot Structure and Narrative Devices

Read the following prose extract carefully:

"As Chief Ebenezer stood before the roaring crowd at the town hall, his thoughts drifted back thirty years to the dusty village schoolyard where he had first sworn to conquer poverty. He recalled the faded uniform he wore and the stern advice of his old schoolmaster before the cheers of the audience pulled him back to the present moment."

Which narrative device is predominantly used in the passage above to interrupt the chronological sequence of events?

  1. A
    Dramatic irony
  2. FlashbackAnswer
  3. C
    Climax
  4. D
    First-person narration

Answer

Flashback
The correct answer is Flashback because the narrator pauses the present action at the town hall to describe events that happened thirty years prior in Chief Ebenezer's youth before returning to the present moment.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Examine the movement of time in the narrative extract.
The narrative shifts from Chief Ebenezer's present moment at the town hall to a memory from thirty years in his past.
Tracking temporal movement identifies structural plot devices.
2
Relate the temporal shift to narrative device definitions.
A device that interrupts present action to show an earlier event is a flashback.
Flashbacks provide historical context by breaking strict chronological order.

Key Concept

Flashback (Analepsis)
Estimated Time:45s
Rate this question

Topics

Plot Structure and Narrative Devices

More questions from this topic