Careers
Senior 3 · English
Careers
Lesson 5 of 5
25 min
Let's begin
Two writers can tell the same events and produce two very different stories, because they choose a different order. In S2 you met the flashback as a single scene inside a story. In S3 you look at the shape of a whole plot: does the story march straight ahead, come back to where it began, or start near the end and look back? Read the story first, then decide.
A short story written for this lesson.
The headteacher of Kabeza Primary School did not recognise the electrician who climbed out of the pick-up truck. She was young, she wore blue overalls, and she carried a battered red toolbox that looked older than she was.
"The lights in the Primary 6 classroom have been flickering for a week," the headteacher said. "The pupils are revising for their examinations in the dark."
Ishimwe looked at the long brick classroom and stopped. The same crack ran up the wall beside the door. The same mango tree leaned over the roof. Eleven years earlier, she had sat in that room.
It had been the third day of the Primary 6 examinations, and a storm had turned the sky the colour of ash. Halfway through the mathematics paper, the lights had gone out. The invigilator had collected the papers and sent the class to wait on the veranda, and twenty minutes later a thin man had arrived on a motorbike with a red toolbox tied to the back.
"You," he had said, pointing at Ishimwe, who was standing nearest the door. "Hold this torch. Keep it still." So she had held it, and as he worked he had explained each wire. "This one brings the power. This one takes it home. Mix them up, and the building will remember." When the lights came back, the whole class cheered. Before he left, he looked at her. "You held the light steadily," he said. "That's half the job."
She had finished the mathematics paper that afternoon, but it was the wires she remembered.
Now she opened the same red toolbox. Mr Rugwiro had trained her as his apprentice, and when he retired he had given it to her. Within ten minutes she had found the loose connection. When she switched on, the lights came on and stayed on.
Through the window, a small girl in a blue uniform was watching every move. Ishimwe beckoned to her.
"Come," she said. "Hold the torch for me. Keep it still. That's half the job."
Definition
plot: the series of events in a story and the way they are linked, each causing or leading to the next.
linear plot (also chronological): the events are told in the order in which they happened, from the beginning to the end.
circular plot: the story ends where it began, in the same place, situation or words, but the character, or the reader's understanding, has usually changed on the way.
flashback plot (a non-linear plot): the story opens in the present, often at an important moment, then goes back to tell earlier events, and finally returns to the present.
| Type | Order of telling | What it does for the reader | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linear | first event first, last event last | clear and easy to follow; suspense comes from "what happens next?" | "The Red Toolbox" retold from the storm to the girl at the window |
| Circular | ends in the same place or situation as it began | invites comparison: what has changed, and what has not? | A young man leaves his hill to look for work, works in a market, a garage and a hotel, and years later opens a workshop on the same hill where he once herded goats (an outline, illustrative). |
| Flashback | present, then past, then present | raises a question first ("why does she stop?"), then answers it; links past causes to present effects | "The Red Toolbox" as written |
Worked example
Identifying the plot type from the order of events
Worked example
Retelling the story as a linear plot
Put the events in the order they happened: a storm cuts the power during the P6 examination → a technician repairs it while Ishimwe holds the torch → she becomes Mr Rugwiro's apprentice → he retires and gives her the toolbox → she is called back to her old school → she repairs the lights → she calls the girl to hold the torch.
What changes? The linear version starts with the storm, so the reader knows from the beginning why the toolbox matters. The flashback version holds back that information, so the reader first wonders why a stranger stops and stares at a classroom.
Tip
Listen for the past perfect. Writers often signal a flashback with the past perfect (she had sat, the lights had gone out) and a time phrase (eleven years earlier). The return is marked by now or by a switch back to the past simple.
Warning
"What is a Flashback?", a literary guide for students from Oregon State University's School of Writing, Literature and Film (about 3 minutes). Note the reasons the speaker gives for using a flashback, and test each one on "The Red Toolbox".
Practice
Further reading
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa.
