First Part Last - flashback

FLASHBACK = a literary technique in which a scene of a movie, play, short story, novel, or narrative poem that interrupts the present action of the plot to show events that happened at an earlier time.

QUESTION: Why do you think the author, Angela Johnson, uses flashbacks to tell the story? Why doesn't she just tell the story in chronological order versus the use of flashbacks? Do you like this technique, or would you prefer the story were told in a different way?