Writers often utilize various literary devices in order to enhance, or empower their works. One of the most effective of these devices is flashback. Flashback is commonly used to tell the reader more about the history of the plot, and also the history of the characters within the plot. In Elizabeth Bowen's "The Demon Lover", for example, flashback is used to explain Kathleen and the way she acts today based on events that took place in her past. Bowen writes:
             Kathleen behaved well then, some months later, her fiancé was Reported missing, presumed killed(102).
             This, being told after Kathleen finds the letter from this fiancé some twenty-five years later, helps the reader to understand Kathleen's surprise. It also serves to explain more about the people and events that have influenced her throughout her lifetime.
             The concept of flashback is not only employed, but mastered by James Baldwin in his short fiction, "Sonny's Blues". Baldwin's brilliantly smooth transitions from past to present, and then back to past, almost redefine flashback and influence how it is used today.
             Baldwin tells the story of "Sonny's Blues" through the eyes of Sonny's brother, a limited narrator. In the present, Sonny is in jail. He was arrested on drug related charges (more specifically heroin), but the reader knows nothing more. Until, that is, Baldwin incorporates flashback to help the reader understand Sonny, his brother, and their past at another level. Baldwin delivers our first look into this past on page thirty-six, with the a reflection of Sonny as an adolescent:
             Years ago, when he was around fourteen, he'd been all hipped up on the idea of going to India. He read books about people sitting on rocks, naked, in all kinds of weather, but mostly bad, naturally, and walking barefoot through hot coals and arriving at wisdom.
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