Narative Text

  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 Legend of Toba Lake 

Once upon time, there was a handsome man. His name was Batara Guru Sahala. He liked fishing. One day, he caught a fish. He was surprised to find out that the fish could talk. The fish begged him to set it free.

Batara Guru could not bear it. He made the fish free. As soon as it was free, the fish changed into a very beautiful woman. She attracted Batara Guru so much. He felt in love with that fish-woman. The woman wanted to marry with him and said that Batara Guru had to keep the secret which she had been a fish. Batara Guru aggreed and promised that he would never tell anybody about it.

They were married happily. They had two daughters. One day Batara Guru got very angry with his daughter. He could not control his mad. He shouted angrily and got the word of fish to his daugters. The daughters were crying. They found their mother and talked her about it.

The mother was very annoyed. Batara Guru broke his promise. The mother was shouting angrily. Then the earth began to shake. Volcanoes started to erupt. The earth formed a very big hole. People believed that the big hole became a lake. Then this lake is known as Toba lake.