Tas Guru Aceh

Now let's read the following example of narrative text !
The Myth of Malin Kundang

A

long time ago, in a small village near the beach in West Sumatra, a woman and her son lived. They were Malin Kundang and her mother. Her mother was a single parent because Malin Kundang's father had passed away when he was a baby. Malin Kundang had to live hard with his mother.
Malin Kundang was a healthy, dilligent, and strong boy. He usually went to sea to catch fish. After getting fish he would bring it to his mother, or sold the caught fish in the town.
One day, when Malin Kundang was sailing, he saw a merchant's ship which was being raided by a small band of pirates. He helped the merchant. With his brave and power, Malin Kundang defeated the pirates. The merchant was so happy and thanked to him. In return the merchant asked Malin Kundang to sail with him. To get a better life, Malin Kundang agreed. He left his mother alone.
Many years later, Malin Kundang became wealthy. He had a huge ship and was helped by many ship crews loading trading goods. Perfectly he had a beautiful wife too. When he was sailing his trading journey, his ship landed on a beach near a small village. The villagers recognized him. The news ran fast in the town; “Malin Kundang has become rich and now he is here”.
An old woman ran to the beach to meet the new rich merchant. She was Malin Kundang’s mother. She wanted to hug him, released her sadness of being lonely after so long time. Unfortunately, when the mother came, Malin Kundang who was in front of his well dressed wife and his ship crews denied meeting that old lonely woman. For three times her mother begged Malin Kundang and for three times he yelled at her. At last Malin Kundang said to her "Enough, old woman! I have never had a mother like you, a dirty and ugly woman!" After that he ordered his crews to set sail. He would leave the old mother again but in that time she was full of both sadness and angriness.
Finally, enraged, she cursed Malin Kundang that he would turn into a stone if he didn't apologize. Malin Kundang just laughed and really set sail.
In the quiet sea, suddenly a thunderstorm came. His huge ship was wrecked and it was too late for Malin Kundang to apologize. He was thrown by the wave out of his ship. He fell on a small island. It was really too late for him to avoid his curse. Suddenly, he turned into a stone.

(Re-written from www.st.rim.or.jp)


Narrative Analysis on Generic Structure
Many believe that a story can teach a society certain moral value. Most stories are build in narrative. Because it is a narrative story, it must consists of complication. That complication, in fact, is the moral value which like to be taught.


Orientation; the first paragraph is set to be the story introduction. Reading the orientation, reader will know that the story is characterized with Malin Kundang and his mother. Wes Sumatra is set as the place.

Complication; this is the main element of narrative story. From the Malin Kundang myth, we know that there are more than one complication. Many stories are composed with multi complications. They are minor complication and major complication. When Malin Kundang and her mother did life hard, it can be the minor complication. this hard life in the first time was solved by his successful trading as new merchant. However this narrative sotry is more interesting when we see the major complication among the participants- Malin Kundang denied his mother after being successful merchant. In every story, complication must be ended; happy ending or sad one

Resolution; this is the end of the story, the sad ending one. Malin Kundang faces his curse of turning into a stone.


Narrative is the most famous type of any text. Various purposes are communicated in a narrative type. However the way it is constructed is describing certain event, character or phenomenon in detail. Narrative prefer showing to telling and that the power of narrative. Reader will feel as he show by him self what happen in the text. Actually narrative can be fiction such as short story or novel and non-fiction like memoirs.
According to Madison smart Bell, the narrative design, or what we call form or structure, is of first and final importance to any work of fiction. In that structure, we will find elements of story; characterization, point of view, theme and plot. Plot is the way of the story constructed.

When we read a text, we can call it narrative as we see the following generic structure inside the text:
Orientation; the introduction of what is inside the text. What text is talk in general. Who involves in the text. When and where it happen.

Complication; what happens with the participants. It explores the conflict among the participants. Complication is the main element of narrative. Without complication, the text is not narrative. The conflict can be shown as natural, social or psychological conflict.

Resolution; this is the phase where the participants solve the problem aroused by the conflict. It is not matter whether the participants succeed or fail. The point is the conflict becomes ended.

A narrative is a story that is created in constructive form. A narrative is commonly found in fiction. That is why we often see a narrative as a story.
There are several kinds of narrative form. The types of narratives are:
A. fable
B. myths
C. legend
D. fairytales
E. science fiction story
F. short stories
G. parables
H. novels
I. horror story
J. Etc, can you give us some more narrative texts? Feel free to have comments!

I

n simple word, narrative text has generic structure as orientation, complication and resolution. This complication is the heart structure of narrative text. The complication will determine whether the text "lives" or not. If the narrative text consider as the "live" text, it will arouse the reader. It will intrude to the emotion of the reader. Commonly narrative text appears as story text. In literary term, the complication structure is called conflict. Basically, conflict is divided into three kinds. In any writing, each type will not take place with its own type. Each often combines to other type in building the story.

Physical conflict, or in other word as elemental conflict, is description of man's struggle to his physical word. It represents man versus nature force, difficulty and danger. How man survives from flood, exploding mount is clear example of physical conflict.
Social conflict is the second type. It will show the struggle of man against his society. It is description of struggle between man and man. Cinderella wants to go to party but her step mother and sisters do not permit her. She eagerly to have the opportunity to meet the prince but her step mother and sister try to block this opportunity and take it for themselves. It is a perfect picture of social conflict.

Internal or psychological conflict is a conflict which happens inside the participant. A man struggles against himself, his conscience, his guilty. He wants to steal money in the other hand he knows that stealing is not good. The fight of stealing money against having good deed is a psychological conflict
The struggle among these conflicts includes verbal and physical attempts. Narrative text will be perfectly composed by these kinds of conflict. Some time it will apply one type but it often combines these three kinds of conflict.

Now let's read the following example of narrative text !

Kite’s tale
The sun shone brightly and the west breeze blew. The kite was flying this way and that way tied to her string.
Suddenly the string snapped. The kite was free. She soared high in the air until she could see far, far away.
The kite followed some parrots who took her to see the rainforests. The air was cool and the kite got wet.
The kite followed some crocodiles who took her to see the rivers. The air was misty and the kite caught a fish.
The kite followed some wallabies who took her to see the deserts. The air was hot and the kite got tired.
So the kite followed the sun who took her back home, right to her string

Note on Narrative Text

The example of Narrative above is taken from Jeany Eather. We see that Narrative will be a narrative if the text include any complication among the characters. Narrative is mainly to tell a story. Telling a story is intended to entertain as well teach certain moral values.
From the narrative example above, we can see the specific generic structure which actually makes this text different from other text types
The first paragraph is setting the scene. This scene set up will include information of who, what, when and where. This is actually what we know as Orientation to introduce the participant in the text, kite and information near it.
The second paragraph is introducing a problem as complication set which is followed by other three paragraphs as series of event.
The last paragraph is the resolution to end the story. Resolution can be good or bad.

Now let's read the following example of narrative text !
The Legend of Toba Lake

O

nce 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 aggreed 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 is known as Toba lake.

Note on Narrative Generic Structure
ORIENTATION: The first paragraph presents information about the participant of the story. In literary term, the participant is called as character. Orientation commonly introduces information about WHO, WHERE and WHEN.

COMPLICATION: Paragraph two explores the niche of the story. That is conflict among the characters of the story. This conflict will involve physical and psychological conflict. The conflict is actually the heart of any narrative text. It will drive the participant to make effort in solving the crisis.

RESOLUTION: The last paragraph closes the story with solving the crisis. However it can be better or worse.