Final answer:
Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett used flashbacks to add emotional depth, context, and richness to their storytelling, providing insights into characters and events that shape the narrative. These flashbacks also help tie the fictional story to historical realities, creating a deeper connection for the reader.
Step-by-step explanation:
Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, like many authors, used flashbacks as a storytelling device to create a more compelling narrative. The purpose of a flashback is often to provide insight into a character's past or to reveal events that shape the current situation. For instance, in a historical or trauma-related story, flashbacks can build emotional depth or provide context that helps readers understand the impact of past events on the present.
Flashbacks can take various forms in literature. Authors might use dates and time stamps, or symbolic images to signify a jump in time. In the case of Goodrich and Hackett, they may have used flashbacks to delve into the psyche of their characters, exploring memories that reveal motivations or emotions not evident in the current timeline of the story.
Moreover, flashbacks allow authors to construct stories that are not confined to a linear progression. This nonlinear approach can maintain suspense, develop character backstories, or set up future plot points that might otherwise be less impactful if presented in chronological order. Flashbacks in episodic plots, especially in series, can also keep possibilities open for new storylines or twists in future episodes.
Lastly, flashbacks provide a unique way for fiction writers to interact with history. By anchoring a fictional story in a factual setting and weaving in characters' recollections, an author ties his fictional characters to actual historical events or eras, as seen in works like Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. This method offers readers a framework rooted in historical accuracy while enjoying the creative liberties taken with the fictional elements.
In conclusion, Goodrich and Hackett's use of flashbacks was likely a choice to add depth, context, and richness to their storytelling, enabling them to weave together a narrative that resonates with emotional truth and historical connections.