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

 

Queen of Arabia and Three Sheiks

 

Maura, who like to be thought of as the most beautiful and powerful queen of Arabia, had many suitors. One by one she discarded them, until her list was reduced to just three sheiks. The three sheiks were all equally young and handsome. They were also rich and strong. It was very hard to decide who would be the best of them.

One evening, Maura disguised herself and went to the camp of the three sheiks. As they were about to have dinner, Maura asked them for something to eat. The first gave her some left over food. The second Sheik gave her some unappetizing camel’s tail. The third sheik, who was called Hakim, offered her some of the most tender and tasty meat. After dinner, the disguised queen left the sheik’s camp.

The following day, the queen invited the three sheiks to dinner at her palace. She ordered her servant to give each one exactly what they had given her the evening before. Hakim, who received a plate of delicious meat, refused to eat it if the other two sheiks could not share it with him.

This Sheik Hakim’s act finally convinced Queen Maura that he was the man for her. “Without question, Hakim is the most generous of you” she announced her choice to the sheiks. “So it is Hakim I will marry”.