narrative

Narative 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 : 

THE SMARTEST PARROT

Once upon time, a man had a wonderful parrot. There was no other parrot like it. The parrot could say every word, except one word. The parrot would not say the name of the place where it was born. The name of the place was Catano.

The man felt excited having the smartest parrot but he could not understand why the parrot would not say Catano. The man tried to teach the bird to say Catano however the bird kept not saying the word.

At the first, the man was very nice to the bird but then he got very angry. “You stupid bird!” pointed the man to the parrot. “Why can’t you say the word? Say Catano! Or I will kill you” the man said angrily. Although he tried hard to teach, the parrot would not say it. Then the man got so angry and shouted to the bird over and over; “Say Catano or I’ll kill you”. The bird kept not to say the word of Catano.

One day, after he had been trying so many times to make the bird say Catano, the man really got very angry. He could not bear it. He picked the parrot and threw it into the chicken house. There were four old chickens for next dinner “You are as stupid as the chickens. Just stay with them” Said the man angrily. Then he continued to humble; “You know, I will cut the chicken for my meal. Next it will be your turn, I will eat you too, stupid parrot”. After that he left the chicken house.

The next day, the man came back to the chicken house. He opened the door and was very surprised. He could not believe what he saw at the chicken house. There were three death chickens on the floor. At the moment, the parrot was standing proudly and screaming at the last old chicken; “Say Catano or I’ll kill you”.