TIME

"Forward Anywhere" is a really interesting hypertext, pointing out some realistic aspects of life. Because of its specific form, the chronology isn't a normal one; it engages a lot of literature artifices in order to break the monotony of the traditional text.

The authors use a lot of temporal indices that try to help the following of the action of the story. One of the artifices used in this text is the use of the flashback. The authors introduce memories of their childhood and adolescence. These memories include characters and situations hard to imagine for an ordinary person. (She is sleeping with a man who appears to still be in love with his ex-wife). From the title we are prevented about the complicated time line. The two time adverbs show a relatively opposite situation. The first can indicate the courage of the authors to pass over the bad situations that can come up in life and go on with her head up. The second adverb could mean the acceptance of the future without confronting it.

The text reflects three stages of life: childhood, adolescence and maturity. The childhood of the author is presented just after the age of ten. The character, which tells her life, presents memories about her grandfather, her brothers and some of her friends. A moment that she remembers with great nostalgia is when her grandfather makes her promise that she won't cut her hair, but in the end she had to cut it because if she didn't cut it, she couldn’t go back to school.

"When I was eleven, my grandfather (my father's father,

a man who walked arthritically,

leaning on two steel-reinforced Mexican canes

carved with lizards and Aztec designs)

told me to promise him I'd

never cut my hair again.

I could feel the cold air tickling the back of my neck.

My hand went to the back of the top of my head to

check if my hair was still poufed high.

My teacher said I couldn't come back to class until I got it cut.

This was true; I didn't lie to him.

The ratted hill of hair on top was just a touch I added myself."

During the adolescence, the author remembers things that she did with her friends, before and after her going to University. She remembers some reunions that took place when she was a student.

The time is very ambiguous through this text because are mentioned only months and adverbs of time ("February", "October", "yesterday","5 AM"). It is true that there are mentioned several years like "Mid February 1990","October 1990","2nd of February, 1982" but their order is randomly and don't follow a rigid time order.

"Starting around the 2nd of February, 1982...

On July 9th, I planned to quit my job within two weeks.

On July 22nd, Corky was quietly evading an outstanding warrant.

On August 17th, I was stuck with security check for the whole basement.

On September 2nd, it was 108 in Pasadena."

This time order is very hard to follow, so a single reading is not enough to understand the text. A second reading reveals a bit the chronology and the characters situation and a third reading undoes the complicated time line.

During the whole text are mentioned a lot of characters, which have an important role in the life of the main character, whose evolution and situation is presented also along time. These characters affect the evolution of the main character during time. The loss of friends (Ann), her pregnancy with Sean (whose father is supposed to be Jim), her mother's reproaches make her a woman who keeps in her soul a lot of sadness and bitterness, things that are revealed through the progress of the text. Her words pass from sweet, normal to frightening and harsh.

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