narrative text

Narrative text

Narrative text is a kind of text to retell the story that past tense. The purpose of the text is to entertain or to amuse the readers or listeners about the story.

The generic structure of Narrative text :
Orientation :
It set the scene and introduce the participants (it answers the question : who, when, what, and where).

Complication :
Tells the problems of the story and how the main characters solve them.

Resolution :
The crisis is revolved, for better or worse.

Re-orientation :
The ending of the story.

Evaluation :
The stepping back to evaluate the story or the moral message of the story


Linguistic features :
1. Use active verbs.
2. Use past tense.
3. Use conjunction.
4. The first person (I or We) or the third person (He, She, or They).
5. Use specific nouns.
6. Use adjective and adverbs

Kind of Narrative text :
1. Legend : Sangkuriang, Malin Kundang, etc.
2. Fable : Mousedeer and crocodile.
3. Fairy tale : Cinderella, Snow white, Pinocchio, etc.
4. Science fiction

Example of Narrative text :

JONAH

Once upon a time there was a village in North Israel. All the people lived peacefully there. One of them was Jonah. Jonah lived with his parents. They loved him very much. (Orientation 1)

In the north of Israel was Syria. It had powerful knights. They were very cruel and liked to invade other countries. (Orientation 2)

One night when the people of Jonah’s village were sleeping, the Syrian knights attacked his village. They burned down the houses. One of them threw a torch into Jonah’s house. Jonah’s house was on fire. (Complication)

Jonah and his parents avoided the fire burning their house. They saved themselves by climbing a ladder to the upstairs. It was too high for them to jump down to the ground from the upstairs. Jonah’s father took a rope to get down from the stairs to the ground. They escaped to another village.(Resolution)

Jonah and his parents lived in a fishermen village. They became fishermen. (Reorientation)

One day, when they were fishing in the sea, Jonah fell into the sea. Jonah was drawn into the sea. A whale came closed to him. He tried to swim avoiding the whale as fast as possible but he failed and at last the whale swallowed him. Jonah was still alive in the stomach of the whale. He prayed to God to be released from the stomach of the whale.(Complication)

Fortunately God granted his prayer. The whale came closed to an island. It opened its mouth and Jonah came out from its stomach.(Resolution)

Jonah swam to the seashore and he lived in a new island.(Reorientation)

Moral value : Don’t give up when you face the problem
Pray to God to get the miracle