What is deus ex machina in Lord of the Flies?

The Latin phrase ‘deus ex machina’, literally means the god out of the machine and ultimately referring back to ancient Greek plays where actors playing gods would be lowered onto stage by a crane. The naval officer is therefore the deus ex machine who will save Ralph and put a stop to Jack’s marauding forces.

What do flashbacks do?

Flashbacks interrupt the chronological order of the main narrative to take a reader back in time to the past events in a character’s life. A writer uses this literary device to help readers better understand present-day elements in the story or learn more about a character.

What is a example of flashback?

Another example of flashback is the ballad of The Cruel Mother, in which a mother remembers her murdered child. While going to church, she remembers her child’s birth, growing up, and death. Later, she thinks back further to a distant time in her past to remember how her own mother was ruthless to her.

Are flashbacks good or bad?

And with good reason. Flashbacks are a multi-functional technique for stepping outside your story’s timeline and sharing interesting and informative nuggets about your characters’ pasts. But just as they can be used to strengthen your story, they can even more easily cripple it. A flashback is basically a memory.

How do you start a flashback?

The more usual way to do it is to have the character begin remembering something. Then have a scene break and switch to showing the memory as a flashback. At the end of the flashback, have another scene break and return to the character.

What tense should a flashback be written in?

Flashbacks take place in the past, just like the rest of your story. But there needs to be a distinction between pasts, or it will confuse your reader. If your story takes place in the simple past, the flashback needs to take place in the perfect past.

Are flashbacks bad storytelling?

Flashbacks are not a weak method of storytelling. With restraint they can greatly advance the plot and emotional undertones of a story.

How do you get a flashback out of a story?

When you’re ready to end the flashback, revert to past perfect for the last few verbs. Then use past tense to resume story time. This is the way Perry comes out of the flashback quoted above: As Eddie hustled him away, he had heard people saying something about heart attacks and strokes.