Narrative Text
1. The Purpose of Narrative Text
The purpose of narrative text is to amuse or entertain the readers.
Narratives deal with problematic events which lead to a crisis or turning point of some kind, which in turn a resolution.
2. The Generic Structure (Parts) of Narrative Text
There are three parts of narrative text, those are:
1) Orientation
It sets the scene and introduces the participants of the story.
2) Complication
It shows when the crisis arises.
3) Resolution
It shows when the crisis is resolved, for a better or worse condition.
Note:
The structure of narratives occurs in
the text variously. A text may have only one complication and
resolution, but another text may have more than one complication and
resolution.
3. The grammatical features of narratives
There are some grammatical features of narratives, those are:
1) Use of adjectives to build noun groups to describe the people, animals, or things in the story, such as …. a nice, diligent and kind-hearted man;
2) Use of time connectives and conjunctions to sequence events through time, such as however, although, later, then;
3) Use of adverbs and adverbial phrases to locate the particular events, such asonce upon a time, long time ago;
4) Use of past tenses, such as Aji Saka went to the kingdom, measured the size of the turban ….;
5) Use of action verbs to indicate the actions, such as fleed, explained, provided, smashed; and
6) Use of saying and thinking verbs to indicate what characters are feeling, thinking, or saying, such as told, realized, decided.
Example of Narrative Text
Snow White
Once upon a time there lived a little, named Snow White. She lived with her aunt and uncle because her parents were died.
One day she heard her aunt and uncle talking about leaving Snow White in
the castle because they wanted to go to America and they didn’t have
enough money to take Snow White with them.
Snow White didn’t want her uncle and aunt to do this. So she decided to
run away. The next morning she run away from home when her aunt and
uncle were having breakfast, she run away into the wood.
In the wood she felt very tired and hungry. Then she saw this cottage.
She knocked but no one answered so she went inside and felt asleep
Meanwhile seven dwarfs were coming home from work. They went inside.
There, they found Snow White woke up. She saw the dwarfs. The dwarfs
said; “What is your name?”. Snow White said; “My name is Snow White”.
One of the dwarfs said; “If you wish, you may live here with us”. Snow
White told the whole story about her. Then Snow white ad the seven
dwarfs lived happily ever after.
Example of Narrative Text
The Bear and Rabbit
Once upon a time, there lived a bear and a rabbit. The rabbit is a good
shot. In contrary, the bear is always clumsy and could not use the
arrow.
One day, the bear called over the rabbit and asked the rabbit to take his bow and arrows.
The rabbit was fearing to arouse the bear's anger so he could not refuse
it. He went with the bear and shot enough buffalo to satisfy the hungry
family. Indeed he shot and killed so many that there were lots of meats
left after.
However the bear did not want the rabbit to get any of the meat. The
rabbit could not even taste the meat. The poor rabbit would have to go
home hungry after his hard day's work.
The bear was the father of five children. Fortunately, the youngest
child was very kind to the rabbit. He was very hearty eater. The mother
bear always gave him an extra large piece of meat but the youngest child
did not eat it. He would take it outside with him and pretended to play
ball with the meat. He kicked toward the rabbit's house.When he got
close to the door he would give the meat with such a great kick. The
meat would fly into the rabbit's house. In this way, the poor rabbit
would get his meal.
