Narrative Text

Purpose: to entertain the reader with a story that deals with complications a problematic events
which lead to a crisis and in turn a resolution.
Text organization:
1

Orientation. Sets the scene: where and when the story happened, introduces the
participants of the story, who and what is involved in the story.

Complication. Tells the beginning of the problem which leads to the crisis (climax) of
the main participants.

Resolution. The problem (the crisis) is resolved, either in a happy ending or in a sad
(tragic) ending.

Re-orientation. This is a closing remark to the story and it is optional. It consists of a

moral lesson, advice or teaching from the writer.

Catatan:
Terkadang juga susunannya (generic structure): Orientation, Complication, Evaluation,
Resolution dan Reorientation. Untuk Evaluation dan Reorientation merupakan optional;
bisa ada bisa tidak. Evaluation berisi penilaian/evaluasi terhadap jalannya cerita atau konflik.
Sedangkan Reorientation berisi penyimpulan isi akhir cerita.
2. Grammatical features menggunakan tenses past 3. Sering menggunakan kata
penghubung waktu (temporal conjunction), misalnya: once upon a time, one day, long time
ago,
Example for narrative text:

Two Travelers and a Big tree

Once, two men traveled on a dusty and rough road that had no trees on its sides. They
were walking to a distant village during daylight to attend a wedding feast. (dusty and rough road
that had no trees on its sides: noun phrase; They were walking the use of past continuous)
(Orientation)
The summer Sun was so hot that they were sweating a lot. (they were sweating a lot: the
use of past continuous) (Complication)

They looked for a shady tree for shelter from the Sun. after some time, they saw a big old
tree with thick, green leaves and branches spread far and wide like a big umbrella. They made
the tree a shelter, put their small bundles on the ground and stretched themselves out in the cool
shadow of the tree. They felt relieved and rested for a while, talking about the wedding feast.
(They looked for a shady tree: the use of simple past; saw a big old: the use of simple past; felt
relieved: the use of feeling verbs) (Resolution)
After about an hour, one of the travelers said to his friends, Look! What a useless ugly
old tree! So big and yet it bears no fruit at all! (After about an hour: the use of connectives; said:
the use of saying verbs). (Complication)
Oh hearing this, the tree felt insulted. Angrily, it yelled, You, ungrateful man! You are
enjoying my cool shadow and using it for a shelter, yet you call me useless and ugly! Can there
be a more wretched creature than you? So now, get up and get away from here! (Angrily, cool
shadow, away from here: the use of adverbs) (Resolution)
Feeling scared that a tree could talk, the two men ran away in horror. (away in horror: the
use of adverbs) (Re-orientation).