General Understanding of Narrative Text

comprehension. Furtheer, narrative text also has a main purpose that is to entertain the readers.

2. Language Features of Narrative Text

There are some language features that usually used in narrative text. 41 The first is using subject which is combined with adjective followed by noun, such as, Dika was a nice boy with brown hair and blue eyes. „Dika’ is a subject, meanwhile, „a nice boy’ is an adjective which is followed by a noun. The second language features in narrative text is character which always followed by adjective to identify hissheits appearance, mannerism, and personality, for example, a beautiful Javanese princess and two lazy children. From the example, it can be known that there is a character „Javanese princess’ who is good looking. The next is adverbial and adverbial phrases in narrative text usually indicate 5W+1H in the particular events, for instance, He ran in a slipped way and She ate hungrily. From both example, „a slipped way’ as adverbial phrase which indicates where the setting take place meanwhile „hungrily’ as an adverb which tell how the character or subject did something. Then, the language feature in narrative text is language which is used to describe something into word picture or image e.g., Some burglars had likely entered their house through the side window that had been broken for several days. From the sentence, it can be known that the author is trying to draw an image about the condition which is experiencing by the character. Also, it can be joined with time connector such as sentence above which is „several day’. Further, verb which is used to explain action what was said, felt, or thought by the character, such as, He immediately began to clean up his room, „I guess I will not be messy anymore”, said Dony. It means Dony had thought not to be lazy again. From the sentence, it also can be identified that when in a dialogue it changes into simple present form while narrative text usually used simple past form. The last sentence can be written in the first or the third person e.g., I knew the voice and He directly booked flight to Jakarta. 41 Targeting Text, op cit., p. 6. From language features above can be known that narrative has a characteristic that is different from other kind of text, such as, narrative text uses noun group creates a detailed, adjectives gives the character, adverb and adverbial phrases, describe the language creates word picture, verbs based on what the character said, told or felt, uses simple past form, tense changes into simple present tense in a dialogue, sentence can be written in a first or third person, and so on. Another source also mentioned some common features of narrative text. 42 The first, the narrative can be presented in the spoken or written from, such as Malin Kundang legend in the story book or Cinderella story in the movie. Next, it also usually presented through images or multimedia, for instance, images, video or audio. Then, the narrative text can be written in first or third person. The first person is like I knew the voice, and the third person is like he learnt it all day long. Furthermore, narrative text is always written or told in past tense form, such as, she got an idea or he woke up late. Narrative text also has chronological order which make it become good story which start from the beginning to the ending. e.g., Once upon a time there lived a beautiful Javanese princess beginning, One day, there was a handsome man killed and defeated her father middle, At once the princess turned into statue and people called it Prambanan temple ending. Also, narrative has typical story with usually contrast, e.g., story about the hero and the villain, or the story about the fairy and the witch. Moreover, the typical characters, settings, and events are used in each genre. Last not least, connectives are used in the narrative including time signal e.g., later that day, once upon a time, the setting e.g., meanwhile back to at the cave, on the other side of forest. From those explanation above the writer could take a conclusion that there is language or grammatical features which usually used in narrative text, such as, using past tense, using temporal chronological time is like once upon a time, the tense changes in a dialog, usually in dialogue in a narrative text use simple present, a text can be written in a first or third person and so on. 42 The National Strategies: Primary Support for Writing Fiction, op cit., p. 1 —2.

3. Generic Structures of Narrative Text

In a narrative text, there are generic structures which arrange the paragraph become good narrative text. 43 The first element of narrative text structure is orientation. Orientation introduces the character, setting of the story, such as, where the story takes place, when it is. The second is complication. Complication means conflicts. It means in this element the main character revolves around conflicts or problems that influence the setting, time or characters. The main character is not allowed to reach hisher goal. A problem or series of problem complicate the character’s life. A number of problems create a suspenseful complication. The next element is series of events. This element contains events whether it is expected or unexpected action that affects setting, character, or time. The last is resolution. It also can be called anti-climax element since in this element all problems which appear in complication are solved. Additionally, Anderson and Anderson also mentioned that narrative text has schematic structures including orientation, complication, sequence of events and coda. 44 Orientation tells about the beginning of the story. It also introduces the character of the story, and the place where the story is happening. Then, complication tells about problems which are happening in the story. It is usually confronted by the main character. Complication has main role in the narrative text. It makes the narrative text be more alive. Next, sequence of events tells about the main character’s reaction related to the problem which heshe is facing. It can be showed by an action. The sequence of events can be told systematically or not. Resolution tells about how those problems in the complication is solved whether it is happy or dad ending. The last is coda. Coda means value that can be taken from the story. Actually, coda is an option since sometimes coda is explicit from the text. From both explanations above it can be known that narrative text has the generic structure including orientation, complication, sequence of events, resolution and coda optional. Orientation is the first element in the narrative text. 43 Targeting Text, op cit., p. 6. 44 Anderson and Anderson, op. cit., p. 12. It can be called as an introduction of the story which tell about the character, setting and time where the story is established. The second element of narrative text is complication. This element is the problems or conflicts arise. Then, sequence of events is events which happened in story. It tells about ups and downs the story. The next is resolution. Resolution tells how the problem is solved, for better or worse. The semantic structure of narrative text, as follows: Bandung Bondowoso and Roro Jonggrang The Legend of Prambanan Temple . Once, there was a beautiful Javanese princess whose name was Roro Jonggrang, Roro Jonggrang whose beauty was very famous in the land was the daughter of Prabu Baka, an evil king. One day, a handsome young man with supernatural power, named Bandung Bondowoso, defeated and killed Prabu Baka. On seeing Princess Roro Jonggrang’s beauty, Bandung Baondowoso fell in love and wanted to marry her. Meanwhile, Princess Roro Jonggrang felt sad due to the death of her father. She didn’t want to marry Bandung because he had killed her father. But she was also afraid of Bandung. So to refuse politely, she made a condition. “I will marry you but you have to build one thousand temples in one night as a wedding gift.” requested Roro Jonggrang. Bandung agreed with this condition. Helped by the spirit of demons, Bandung Bondowoso started building the temples. Approaching midnight, the work was nearly done. Roro Jonggrang knew and thought, “What shall I do? Bandung is smarter than me. I will lose against Bandung.” Suddenly she got an idea. She woke up all the women in the palace and ordered them to make the noisy sounds of grinding rice so that the roosters would think it had already done. Bandung Bondowoso got frustrated because he felt to complete the thousandth temple. “The princess deceived me” following his anger, he cursed Roro Jonggrang, “You have cheated me. Now, the thousand temple is you” Orientation Major Complication Complication Resolution Resolution Complication