Structure

We Have Always Been Here is divided into twelve chapters that are roughly equal in length. The author does not include a prologue or epilogue which emphasizes the book's structure as a single cohesive narrative. This is further reinforced by the fact that the narrative is primarily chronological. Though there are brief and minor alternations to this chronology, for example, with a flashback to how Samra's parents met before she was born, the story is essentially a linear and chronological coming-of-age tale. It begins in Samra's early childhood and charts her growth and development up until roughly the present day at the time of her writing. Like most memoirs that chart the progress of a person's life, the book's structure does not follow a traditional narrative arc that rises, peaks, and falls. Because a person's life cannot possibly follow this prescribed structure, the plot of this book...