NARRATIVEWhat is a narrative?

A narrative is a text that tells a story and, in doing so, entertains the audience. The purpose of a narrative, other than providing entertainment, can be to make the audience think about an issue, teach them a lesson, or excite their emotions.

Written narratives often take the form of novels. The story is usually told by a narrator. If the narrator is one of the characters in the story, the story is said to be told in the first person. If a person outside the story is the narrator, then the story is being told in the third person.

Examples of narrative texts include: myths fairytales Aboriginal dreaming stories science fiction historical fiction romance novels

NARRATIVEFeatures of a narrative

Constructing a narrativeThe steps for constructing a narrative text are: an orientation in which the narrator tells the audience about WHO is in the

story, WHEN the story is taking place and WHERE the action is happening a complication that sets off a chain of events that influences what will

happen in the story A sequence of events where the characters react to the complication A resolution in which the characters solve the problem created in the

complication a coda that provides a comment or moral based on what has been learned

from the story (an optional step).

Grammatical features of a narrativeNarratives usually include the following grammatical features: nouns that identify the specific characters and places in the story adjectives that provide accurate descriptions of the characters and

settings verbs that show the actions that occur in the story time words that connect events, telling when they occurred.

NARRATIVEThe narrative scaffold

1. OrientationIn this paragraph the narrator tells the audience who is in the story, when it is happening, where it is happening and what is going on.

2. ComplicationThis is the part of the story where the narrator tells about something that will begin a chain of events. These events will affect one or more of the characters. The complication is the trigger.

3. Sequence of eventsThis is where the narrator tells how the characters react to the complication. It includes their feelings and what they do. The events can be told in chronological order (the order in which they happen) or with flashbacks. The audience is given the narrator’s point of view.

4. ResolutionIn this part of the narrative the complication is sorted out or the problem is solved

5. CodaThe narrator includes a coda if there is a moral or message to be learned from the story.

NARRATIVEMODEL OF A NARRATIVE

The Drover’s Wife(adapted from a short story by Henry Lawson)

The two-roomed house is built of round timber, slabs and stringy-bark and floored with split slabs. Bush all round-bush with no horizon, for the country is flat. The drover, an ex-squatter, is away with sheep. His wife and children are left here alone.

Four ragged, dried-up looking children are playing about the house. Suddenly one of them yells ‘Snake! Mother, here’s a snake!’

It is near sunset, and she knows the snake is there. She makes up beds for the children and sits down beside them to keep watch all night.

She has an eye on the corner and a green sapling club ready by her side. Alligator, the dog, lies nearby.

It must be one or two o’clock in the morning. The bush woman watches and listens, thinking about her life alone whilst her husband is gone.

It must be near daylight now. The hairs on Alligator’s neck begin to bristle. Between a crack in the slabs an evil pair of small, bead-like eyes glisten. The snake-a black one-comes slowly out.

Alligator springs. He has the snake now. Thud, thud as the woman strikes at the snake. The dog shakes and shakes the black snake. The snake’s back is broken. Thud, thud is head is crushed.

She lifts the mangled reptile and throws it on the fire. The eldest boy watches it burn and looks at his mother, seeing tears in her eyes.

He throws his arms around her and exclaims, ‘Mother, I won’t never go droving; blarst me if I do!’

Structures

ORIENTATIONTELLING WHOAND WHERE

SPECIFICCHARACTERS

Grammatical features

ADJECTIVESPROVIDING

DESCRIPTION

USE OF TIMEWORDS TOCONNECT

EVENTS

COMPLICATIONTHAT TRIGGERS

A SERIES OFEVENTS

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS WHERE

THECHARACTERSREACT TO THECOMPLICATION

RESOLUTIONIN WHICH THE

PROBLEM FROM THE

COMPLICATIONIS SOLVED

CODA THATGIVES THE

MORAL TO THESTORY

VERBS SHOWINGACTIONS

ADJECTIVESSHOWING

DESCRIPTIONS