Narrative Text

Narrative Text

Narrative text is the kind of text which tell about a certain event in the past. The purpose of the text is to amuse or entertain the readers and to deal with actual vicarious experience in different ways.

v  The examples of the type in this text such as:

-          Folk Lore

-          Legend

-          Historical Story

-          Horror Story

-          Mystery Story

-          Etc.

The Generic Structure

When we read a text, we can call it narrative as we see the following of generic structure inside the text:

1.       Orientation      : In this part of the story, the characters are introduced, then the

                                 place and the time of the story happened are mentioned.

2.       Complication : In this part, the obstacles and conflicts between the participants

                                 usually appear. The conflicts can be shown as natural, social or

                                 psychological conflict. This part of the story also grows more and

                                 more intense until it reaches climax.

3.      Resolution        : In this part, the story reaches its conclusion with gives some

                                 solutions of the problems. It’s no matter whether the participants

                                 succeed or failed. The point is all of the conflicts become ended.

The Language Features

Narrative text also has the language features, they are:

1.       Simple Past Tense

a.      Nominal

	S + Tobe (was, were)

 

Example: She was a beautiful girl

                     S     Tobe

b.      Verbal

	S + VII

 

Example: He lived in small village

                       S          V_II

2.       Past Continuous Tense

	S + Tobe (was, were) + Ving

 

Example: They were walking around the river

                                    S       Tobe       V_ing

3.      Past Perfect Tense

	S + Had + VIII

 

Example: He had bought some vegetables

                    S    Had       V_III

The Story of Narrative Text

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 agreed 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 was known as Toba lake.

From the story “The Legend of Toba Lake”, we can determine:

·         The first paragraph is the orientation part, because the characters, the place and the time are introduced.

·         The second and the third paragraph are the complication part, because the obstacles and conflicts appear until it reaches climax.

·         The fourth paragraph is the resolution part, because the story reaches its conclusion and all of the conflicts become ended.

The moral values of the story are:

·         We should help everyone which have the troubles.

·         If we have promised, then we have to keep and fulfil it.

·         Don’t be emotional person.

Conclusion

Narrative text is telling us about a certain past event, which has the purpose to amuse or entertain the readers. The generic structure of this text are orientation, complication, and resolution. In the orientation  part, the characters, the place and the time will introduced. Then, in the complication part, the obstacles and conflicts will appear until it reaches climax. And the last, in the resolution part, the story reaches its conclusion and the ending of the story. For the language features, there are three tenses which are used. They are Simple Past Tense, Past Continuous Tense, and Past Perfect Tense.