Intensive Reading Extensive Reading
Chatman classified narrative text into four basic elements as follows:
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a. Characters
All stories have characters that presents in the story. These are the easiest elements for students to locate. Many writers insist that the
character is the single most important element in the narrative text. In the delineation of character has certain method as their disposal. They
can describe us character physically: age, height, weight, and so forth. They can develop the character through action: what he does in
different situation, how to react the problems. The author can also depict character through dialogue: how the character talks, what he
says. Sometimes the author tells what the character thinking. b.
Setting Writers, to add interest always let readers know where and when
the story takes place. Sometimes the writer gives so many details; it seems to paint a picture you can see in your imagination. These details
are called “setting” of the story. c.
Plot Every story has ongoing events, plus actions by characters. A
writer usually starts a story by introducing characters, as they respond to and solves
problems, is called “plot”. d.
Conclusion At the end of the story, the author brings action to a climax the
most exiting point in the whole story. Then events are brought to a “conclusion” here the writer brings together all the important things
that happened in the story, and tells how events work out for the characters.
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Chatman, S., and B, Aubery, Reading Narrative Fiction, New York: McMillan, 1993, p. 23
From those statements, we know that narrative is one of the literary text that tell about an imaginative story complete with the time, the place, the
plot, and also the characters in that story.