Flashback and Point of View in the Odyssey

A type of lotus flower

Flashback is a technique used by writers to create suspense and deliver background information by interrupting a story to take the reader into the past. Homer uses flashback in The Odyssey to allow Odysseus to tell his own story. At the beginning of the epic, Homer is telling of Odysseus’ journey, using a third person omniscient narrator who knows and sees all. However, once the story flashes back into the past, the point of view changes to first person, as Odysseus relates his own story. This allows Odysseus to recount the story of his adventures with the Lotus-Eaters and Cyclops to King Alcinous in Book IX.