My grandmother gave me bad advice and good advice when I was in my early teens. For the bad advice, she said that I should becom
e a barber because they made good money and listened to the radio all day. “Honey, they don’t work como burros,” she would say every time I visited her. She made the sound of donkeys braying. “Like that, honey!” For the good advice, she said that I should marry a Mexican girl. “No Okies, hijo”—she would say— “Look, my son. He marry one and they fight every day about I don’t know what and I don’t know what.” For her, everyone who wasn’t Mexican, black, or Asian were Okies. The French were Okies, the Italians in suits were Okies. . . . she lectured me on the virtues of the Mexican girl. The complex narrative structure used in the excerpt is an example of
This excerpt is an example of a flashback. As readers, we know within the first sentence of the passage that its contents happened in the past. We learn this from the narrator telling us that it happened in his "early teens", implying that he is no longer in his early teens. The use of a flashback such as this briefly discontinues the plot structure, but often gives valuable information that enhances the reader's understanding of the story.
