object which is defined as mental, emotional, and social qualities to distinguish one entitiy to another.
50
Narrative text usually uses real people in real conflicts, with real feelings, needs, and characteristic which are used to
make the story more real and exciting for the reader. But, often the characters are made up based on the author’s imagination.
c. Action or Conflict Every narrative text has one major action or event
—sometimes involves conflict
—that leads up to the final, climatic scene, the final explosion or insight.
51
All good stories usually have some kind of conflict. The purpose is to make the story more interesting and keep the readers interest to finish the
story. Action, according to Amer is something that happen in the story or something that characters do as a result of a problem which is made up of
events that lead to the resolution.
52
In other words, it is a response of something that happen in the story. It can be characters attitude toward an
event, thoughts, dialogues, or statements.
d. Dialogue Dialogue in narrative is an action when the character talks between characters
or when the character talks to himself or herself which brings the story alive for the reader.
53
In other words, it is verbal exchanges between characters. In narrative text, the dialogue used is usually everyday conversation.
4. The Generic Structure of Narrative Text
The generic structure of narrative text is known as orientation, complication, and resolution which are the most common generic structure of
narrative text.
54
Other sources stated that the generic structures of narrative text
50
Hallet, op.cit., p. 7.
51
Ploeger, op. cit., p. 261.
52
Aly A. Amer, The Effect of Story Grammar Instruction on EFL Students’ Comprehension
of Narrative Text, Reading in a Foreign Language, 82, 1992, p. 712.
53
Ploeger, loc. cit., p. 262.
54
National Literacy Trust, op. cit.
are orientation, complication, sequence of events, resolution, and coda.
55
Here are the descriptions:
a. Orientation. This is the very first part of the story which is known as an introductory
paragraph. In orientation, the writer provides information about who is in the story, when the story is taking place and where the action is happening.
b. Complication. This part provides events that influences what will happen in the story. in
other words complication is a part where the problem or event start to happen. c. Sequence of events.
It is a part where the characters in the story react to the complication. It can be said that sequence of events are character’s reaction that result other events
happened in the story. d. Resolution.
Resolution is the part in which the characters solve the problem that appear in complication.
e. Coda. It is a comment or moral based on what has been learned from the story.
Coda is an optional part which is not always found in narrative text.
5. Example of Narrative Text
Here is one of the examples of narrative text taken from the revised English K-6 Syllabus by Jane Cavanagh
. The title of the text is “The Fight”.
56
Orientation gives a setting for events
and introduces the “I” the narrator.
Complication includes
evaluation,
e.g. I didn’t mind this
It all happened when I was walking home from school. Two kids from my class decided to pick on me. They started
yelling stupid names like spazzo, pigface, etc. I didn’t mind
this. I also didn’t mind Kelly punching me in the shoulder. What I did mind was the Kelly kept me occupied while
Matthew better known as Roberts rode my bike around the cul de sac of the street.
55
Anderson and Anderson, op. cit., p. 3.
56
Cavanagh, op. cit., p. 10.
