Heroes and Citizenship
Senior 2 · English
Heroes and Citizenship
Lesson 4 of 4
20 min
Think of a film that opens with a hero receiving a medal and then jumps back to show how she earned it. Or a story in which an old man warns, "That bridge will break one day," and you keep reading because you want to know when. Writers play with time on purpose. The two tools they use most are flashback and foreshadowing. In this lesson you will read a short story that uses both, learn to spot them, and use them in your own writing.
An original short story written by Ganzaa.
Mutesi's hands were shaking. The whole school stood in rows on the football pitch for the Heroes' Day assembly, and the head teacher was holding a certificate with her name on it.
"For courage and responsibility," he read, "Mutesi Aline, Senior 2."
As she walked forward, Mutesi remembered the afternoon three months earlier. It had rained all day. On the way home, her grandmother had pressed a small silver whistle into her hand. "Keep it in your pocket," she had said. "One day you will need to be heard, and your voice will not be loud enough." Mutesi had laughed. What could a whistle do?
That afternoon, the stream below the school was brown and fast. The old log bridge creaked under every step. "One day that bridge will fall," the watchman always said, shaking his head, but nobody had ever repaired it.
Halfway across, Mutesi heard a crack. In front of her, a small boy from Primary 3 slipped between two broken logs and grabbed a branch just above the water. He was screaming, but the rain and the rushing stream swallowed his voice.
Mutesi did not jump in. She lay flat on the logs, held out her school bag strap for the boy to grab, and with her free hand she put the whistle to her lips. She blew and blew. Within a minute the watchman and two teachers came running with a rope, and the boy was pulled out, cold and frightened but alive. A week later, the district replaced the old log bridge with a new one made of concrete.
Now, on the football pitch, Mutesi took the certificate. In her pocket, her fingers found the silver whistle.
"I did not do anything special," she said when the head teacher asked her to speak. "I only did what every citizen must do. I called for help, and I did not wait for someone else to act."
A flashback is a part of a story that goes back in time to show events that happened before the main action.
Worked example
"The Whistle" begins at the assembly (the present of the story). Then the sentence "As she walked forward, Mutesi remembered the afternoon three months earlier" takes us back in time. We stay in the past until "Now, on the football pitch…" brings us back.
How to recognise a flashback:
Why writers use it: to explain a character's feelings or actions, and to open with an exciting moment before telling how it happened.
Foreshadowing is a hint early in a story about something that will happen later.
Worked example
The grandmother says, "One day you will need to be heard." This is foreshadowing: the whistle later saves the boy. The watchman's words, "One day that bridge will fall", and the bridge that "creaked under every step" also foreshadow the accident.
Common kinds of foreshadowing: a warning, an object that is described carefully (the whistle), the weather or the setting (rain, a fast brown stream), and a character's worried feeling.
Why writers use it: it builds suspense, the feeling of wanting to know what happens next, and it makes the ending feel right rather than lucky.
Tip
Back or forward? A flashback takes the reader back to the past. Foreshadowing throws a shadow of the future before it arrives. In an exam, quote the exact words and name the clue: a memory verb, a time phrase, the past perfect, a warning or an object.
Which sentence in the story brings the reader back to the present?
Solution: "Now, on the football pitch, Mutesi took the certificate." The word "Now" and the return to the pitch end the flashback.
Find two verbs in the past perfect in the flashback.
Solution: "had rained", "had pressed" (also "had said", "had laughed", "had repaired").
Is this foreshadowing or flashback? "Before the match, Gatete noticed that his shoelace was loose."
Solution: Foreshadowing. A small detail described early hints that the loose lace may cause a problem later.
Put these events in the order they actually happened: (a) Mutesi receives a certificate; (b) Grandmother gives Mutesi a whistle; (c) The boy falls through the bridge.
Solution: b, c, a. The story tells them in the order a, b, c because it opens at the assembly and then flashes back.
Write a paragraph of 80–100 words that opens in the present, flashes back to an earlier event, and contains one sentence of foreshadowing. Use at least two verbs in the past perfect.
Model answer: Keza stood at the front of the hall, holding the debate trophy. She looked at the audience and remembered the first time she had tried to speak in public. She had been in Senior 1, and her voice had disappeared. That evening, her uncle had told her, "Practise in front of the mirror every night, and one day the whole school will listen to you." She had practised for a year. Now the whole school was clapping. As she sat down, she noticed the head teacher smiling at a notice about the national debate championship. (The final sentence foreshadows a bigger challenge.)
Remember
Sources and credits
