What is 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 :

1. Orientation :
It set the scene and introduce the participants (it answers the question : who, when, what, and
where).

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

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

4. Re-orientation :
The ending of the story. Maybe, happy ending or sad ending.

5. 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 (and, then, after that, next, etc)

Also Temporal conjunction, like: once upon a time, one day, long time ago, …

4. The first person (I or We) or the third person (He, She, or They).

5. Use specific nouns.

6. Use adjective and adverbs

M.Shabirin
Kind of Narrative text :
1. Legend : Sangkuriang, Malin 6. Real-life drama
Kundang, etc.
7. Classic
2. Fable : Mousedeer and crocodile.
8. Fantasy
3. Fairy tale : Cinderella, Snow white,
Pinocchio, etc. 9. Adventure

4. Folktale 10. Science Fiction

5. Short story 11. Myth

12. Mystery

Example of Narrative text :

The Legend of Toba Lake

Once upon a time, there was a man who was living in north Sumatra. He lived in
a simple hut in a farming field. The did some gardening and fishing for his daily life.
One day, while the man was do fishing, he caught a big golden fish in his trap. It was the biggest catch
which he ever had in his life. Surprisingly, this fish turned into a beautiful princess. He felt in love with
her and proposed her to be his wife. She said; "Yes, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about
the secret that I was once a fish, otherwise there will be a huge disaster". The man made the deal and
they got married, lived happily and had a son.
Few years later, this son would help bringing lunch to his father out in the fields. One day, his son was so
hungry and he ate his father’s lunch. Unfortunately, he found out and got furious, and shouted; “You
damned son of a fish”. The son ran home and asked his mother. The mother started crying, felt sad that
her husband had broke his promise.
Then she told her son to run up the hills because a huge disaster was about to come. When her son left,
she prayed. Soon there was a big earthquake followed by non-stop pouring rain. The whole area got
flooded and became Toba Lake. She turned into a fish again. Finaly it became a lake. People then call it
LAKE TOBA