Pertama kali yang harus anda ketahui ketika mempelajari narrative text adalah tujuan; untuk apa anda menulis (writing), membaca (reading), berbicara (speaking), atau mendengarkan (listening) teks naratif. Saya khawatir ketika anda sudah susah payah menulis, karena salah menentukan the purpose of narrative text, tulisan tersebut gagal di depan pembaca.

 Tujuan teks naratif memang bisa lebih dari satu. Teks ini merupakan teks yang unik di pangkuan pembacanya. Ada banyak keinginan yang digantungkan kepada teks ini, misalnya saja, dengan membaca teks naratif seseorang ingin mendapatkan hiburan (entertainment), nilai-nilai moral (moral value), atau untuk mempermainkan/menggerakkan emosi (emotion game).

Macam-macam Narrative Text:

1. Dongeng (fairy tale)
2. Cerita rakyat (folk tale)
3. Legenda (legend)
4. Cerita binatang (fable), dan cerita rekaan lainnya.

Hal penting kedua,  generic structure atau stuktur teks, yaitu:

1. Orientation: bagian awal yang berisi pengenalan tokoh, setting tempat dan waktu, dan awalan  masuk ke tahap berikutnya. Contoh:

Once upon a time, there lived a sparrow with her husband on a tree. She had built a nice nest and laid eggs in it.

2. Complication: bagian ini tokoh utama berhadapan dengan masalah (problem). Bagian ini menjadi inti teks naratif; harus ada. Jika tidak ada masalah, masalah harus diciptakan. Contoh:

One morning, a wild elephant was in search of shade and he arrived at the tree. However, soon he became angry and shook the tree hard. He didn’t find enough shade.

Down came all the sparrow eggs and broke one by one. But both parents were saved. The mother sparrow was very sad.

3. Resolution: bagian ini merupakan kelanjutan dari complication, yaitu pemecahan masalah. Masalah harus diselesaikan dengan cara yang kreatif. Contoh:

The woodpecker, a friend of hers, offered to help her think of a way to kill the elephant.

The woodpecker flew to her friend, the gnat, which in turn went to the wise frog for advice. The frog devised a scheme for killing the elephant.

The frog asked the gnat to buzz in the ears of the elephant, so that the elephant would be thrilled to listen to the music of the gnat and close its eyes. Then, he asked the woodpecker to peck the elephant’s eyes out. He himself would be on the edge of a pit and would croak misleading the elephant to think that it was a pond.

4. Re-orientation: bagian penutup. Seperti dalam recount, orientation berisi gambaran perasaan tokoh atau penulis, atau kesimpulan tentang cerita. Contoh:

The next day at noon the three animals carried out the plan and the elephant was killed when he fell flat into a pit after being blinded by the woodpecker when he closed his eyes in response to the gnat. So the revenge was taken with collective wit of all three animals.

Tense yang digunakan

 Secara logika, sebenarnya kita bisa menebak. Semua teks narrative pasti terjadi pada masa lampau (in the past), sehingga tense atau kata kerja yang digunakan ialah past tense. Perhatikan kata kerja yang dicetak merah.

Features (ciri-ciri)

Untuk tingkat SMP, teks naratif yang dipelajari adalah teks naratif sederhana. Paragrafnya masih linier, simple dan sesuai dengan aturan baku. Biasanya, narative di buka dengan frasa seperti di bawah ini.

 -          Once upon a time…

-          A long time ago, ….

-          One day, ….

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Beauty. She lived with her father and her sisters in a small village. Beauty was a beautiful girl. She was also hard-working. She always helped her father on the farm.

One day, her father set out for the city. He saw an old castle and went in. No-one was in but there was food on the table. Then he walked around the castle. He picked a rose from garden for Beauty. Suddenly an angry Beast appeared. He wanted to kill Beauty’s father unless Beauty was brought to him.

Beauty’s father told her daughters what had happened. Beauty’s sisters ordered her to see the Beast. Beauty went to see the Beast and had to stay at the castle. She felt scared, lonely and sad. She tried to run away but was stopped by the Beast. The Beast treated Beauty well. Soon, Beauty began to like the Beast.

One day, through the Beast’s magic mirror, Beauty saw that her father was sick. The Beast allowed her to go home. Her father was happy to see her.

One night, Beauty had a dream. A fairly told her that the Beast was sick.
Beauty hurried back and saw the Beast dying. She began to cry. Tears fell onto the Beast. Suddenly, the Beast changed into handsome prince.

Beauty and the Beast got married and lived happily ever after.

A brief about Beauty and the Beast:

Late in the afternoon, the boys put up their tent in the middle of a field.

As soon as this was done, they cooked a meal over an open fire. They were all hungry and the food smelt good. After a wonderful meal they told stories and sang songs by the camp fire. But some time later it began to rain. The boys felt tired so they put out the fire and crept into their tent. Their sleeping bags were warm and comfortable, so they all slept soundly.

In the middle of the night, two boys woke up and began shouting. The tent was full of water! They all leapt out of their sleeping bags and hurried outside. It was raining heavily and they found that a stream had formed in the field.

The stream wound its way across the field and then flowed right under their tent.

Read another Narrative Story of Mine

A Mouse Deer and Mr. Farmer is my favorite story when I was child. I will retell  you and make it the narrative text model. Let’s enjoy…

One day, Mouse Deer went to the edge of the forest. He looked out at row after row of vegetables.

“Mmm,” said Mouse Deer. “Juicy cucumbers! Yummy yams!” he started into the garden.
Mouse Deer loved to eat the fruits and roots and shoots of the forest. But he loved something else even more. He loved the vegetables in Mr. Farmer’s garden.
Snap! “Oh!”

His leg was caught in a snare! Mouse Deer pulled and pulled. But he could not get away.
“Oh, no!” he said. “Mr. Farmer will have me for dinner!”

Then he saw Mr. Farmer coming. Mouse Deer thought fast. He lay on the ground and made his body stiff.

Mouse Deer laughed. “Mr. Farmer is smart, but Mouse Deer is smarter.”

“Well, well,” said Mr. Farmer. “Look what I caught. A mouse deer! But he looks dead.”
Mr. Farmer pushed him with his foot. Mouse Deer didn’t move.

“May be he’s been dead a long time,” said Mr. Farmer. “Too bad! I guess we can’t eat him.”

He pulled Mouse Deer’s leg out of the snare. Then he tossed Mouse Deer back into the forest. Mouse Deer landed with a soft plop. Then he jumped up and ran. Behind him, he heard Mr. Farmer yelled, “Hey, you trick me!”

Find the book of The Adventures of Mouse Deer at Amazon.com Store, click here or the picture below:

The Adventures of Mouse Deer:

Tales of Indonesia and Malaysia (or Indonesian and Malaysian Folktales)

>> Hot Birthday Gifts Like This tend to SELL OUT VERY QUICKLY <<

Stop, I still have another story: Cinderella. You are better have it.

Once upon a time there was a young girl named Cinderella who lived with her stepmother and stepsisters.

Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters were very mean and bad tempered. They treated Cinderella very badly. Her stepmother made Cinderella do the hardest work in the house, such as scrubbing the floor and cleaning the pots and pans. She gave Cinderella an old ragged dress to wear. The two stepsisters, on the other hand, did no work about the house. And their mother gave them many nice dresses to wear.

One day the two stepsisters received an invitation to a ball that the king’s son was going to give at the palace. They were excited about this and spent so much time choosing the dresses they would wear. At the last day of the ball came, and away went the sisters to it. Cinderella could not help crying after they had left.

“Why are you crying, Cinderella? a voice asked. She looked up and saw her fairy godmother standing beside her. “Because I want so much to go to the ball,” said Cinderella. “Well,” said her godmother, “you’ve been such a cheerful, uncomplaining, hardworking girl that I’m going to see that you do go to the ball.”

Magically, the fairy godmother changed a pumpkin into a fine coach and mice into a coachman and two footmen. Her godmother tapped Cinderella’s ragged dress with her wand, and it became a beautiful ball gown. Then she gave her a pair of pretty glass slippers. “Now, Cinderella,” she said, “you must leave before midnight.” Then, away she drove in her beautiful coach.

Cinderella was having a wonderfully good time. She danced again and again with the king’s son. Suddenly, the clock began to strike twelve. She ran towards the door as quickly as she could. In her hurry, one of her glass slippers came off and was left behind.

A few days later the king’s son proclaimed he would marry the girl whose foot fitted the glass slipper. The king’s page came to Cinderella’s house. Her stepsisters tried on the slipper but it was too small for them now matter how hard they squeezed their toes into it. The king’s page let Cinderella try on the slipper. She stuck out her foot, and the page slipped the slipper on. It fitted perfectly.

Finally, she was driven to the palace. The king’s son was overjoyed to see her again. They were married and lived happily ever after.

Find the book Cinderella [Hardcover] at Amazon.com, click here or the picture below:

Save up 28%

>> Hot Birthday Gifts Like This tend to SELL OUT VERY QUICKLY <<