Narrative Text

Narrative text

Narrative Text, adalah teks yang isinya merupakan cerita atau kisah tentang sesuatu. Contoh narrative text: cerita rakyat (folktale), cerita binatang (fable), Legenda (legend), cerita pendek (short story), dan sejenisnya. Di dalamnya terdapat konflik/puncak masalah yang diikuti dengan penyelesaian. Fungsi utama teks ini adalah untuk berkisah atau menghibur pembaca.

Ciri-ciri narrative text:

1. Generic Structure:

• Orientation: berisi pengenalan tokoh, tempat dan waktu terjadinya cerita (siapa atau apa, kapan dan dimana)
• Complication: Berisi puncak konflik/masalah dalam cerita. Sebuah cerita boleh memiliki complication lebih dari satu.
• Resolution: Pemecahan masalah. Bisa berakhir dengan kegembiraan (happy ending) bisa pula berakhir dengan kesedihan (sad ending).

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, …

Contoh Narrative Text:

1. Three Fish

Once three fish lived in a pond. One evening, some fishermen passed by the pond and saw the fish. ‘This pond is full of fish’, they told each other excitedly. ‘we have never fished here before. We must come back tomorrow morning with our nets and catch these fish!’ So saying, the fishermen left.

When the eldest of the three fish heard this, he was troubled. He called the other fish together and said, ‘Did you hear what the fishermen said? W must leave this pond at once. The fishermen will return tomorrow and kill us all!’ The second of the three fish agreed. ‘You are right’, he said. ‘We must leave the pond.’

But the youngest fish laughed. ‘You are worrying without reason’, he said. ‘We have lived in this pond all our lives, and no fisherman has ever come here. Why should these men return? I am not going anywhere – my luck will keep me safe’.

The eldest of the fish left the pond that very evening with his entire family. The second fish saw the fishermen coming in the distance early next morning and left the pond at once with all his family. The third fish refused to leave even then.

The fishermen arrived and caught all the fish left in the pond. The third fish’s luck did not help him – he was caught and killed.

2. The Purse of Gold

A beggar found a leather purse that someone had dropped in a market place. Opening it, he discovered that it contained 100 pieces of gold. Then he heard a merchant shouted, "A reward! A reaward to the one who find my leather purse!"

Being an honest man, the beggar came forward and handed the purse to the merchant saying, "Here is your purse. Will you keep your word to give a reward now?"

"Reward?" scoffed the merchant greedily counting the amount of gold. "The purse I dropped had 200 pieces of gold in it. You've already stolen more than the reward I'll give to you.! Go away or I'll tell you to the police."

"I'm an honest man," said the beggar defiantly. "Let's take this matter to the court!" In the court, the judge patiently listened to both sides of the story and said, "I believe you both. Justice is possible! Merchant, you stated that the purse you lost contained 200 pieces of gold. Well, that's a considerable cost. But the purse the beggar found had only 100 pieces of gold. Therefore, it couldn't be the one you lost."

And, with that, the judge gave the purse and all the golds to the beggar.

3.A Legend of Candy Cane

A candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would be a witness, so he made the Christmas Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ.

He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the foundation of the church, and firmness of the promises of God.

The candy maker made the candy in the form of a "J" to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to earth as our Savior. It also represents the staff of the "Good Shepherd" with which He reaches down into the ditches of the world to lift out the fallen lambs who, like all sheep, have gone astray.

Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candy maker stained it with red stripes. He used the tree small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received by which we are healed. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Jesus on the Cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life, if only we put our faith and trust in Him. Unfortunately, the candy became known as a Candy Cane - a meaningless decoration seen at Christmas time. But the meaning is still there for those who "have eyes to see and ears to hear".

4. Silent Love

Once, there was a couple who love very much each other. From the very Begining, the girl's family objected strongly on her dating this guy. Saying that it has got to do with family background & that the girl will have to suffer for the rest of her life if she were to be with him.

Due to family's pressure, the couple quarrel very often. Though the girl love the guy deeply, but she always ask him: "How deep is your love for me?"

As the guy is not good with his words, this often cause the girl to be very upset. With that & the family's pressure, the girl often vent her anger on him. As for him, he only endure it in silence.

After a couple of years, the guy finally graduated & decided to further his studies in overseas. Before leaving, he proposed to the girl: "I'm not very good with words. But all I know is that I love you. If you allow me, I will take care of you for the rest of my life. As for your family, I'll try my best to talk them round. Will you marry me?"

The girl agreed, & with the guy's determination, the family finally gave in & agreed to let them get married. So before he leave, they got engaged.

The girl went out to the working society, whereas the guy was overseas, continuing his studies. They sent their love through emails & phone calls. Though it's hard, but both never thought of giving up.

One day, while the girl was on her way to work, she was knocked down by a car that lost control. When she woke up, she saw her parents beside her bed. She realised that she was badly injured. Seeing her mum crying, she wanted to comfort her. But she realized that all that could come out of her mouth was just a sigh. She has lost her voice......

The doctors says that the impact on her brain has caused her to lose her voice. Listening to her parents' comfort, but with nothing coming out from her, she broke down.

During the stay in hospital, besides silence cry,.....it's still just silence cry that companied her. Upon reaching home, everything seems to be the same. Except for the ringing tone of the phone. Which pierced into her heart everytime it rang. She does not wish to let the guy know. & not wanting to be a burden to him, she wrote a letter to him saying that she does not wish to wait any longer.

With that, she sent the ring back to him. In return, the guy sent millions & millions of reply, and countless of phonecalls,.. all the girl could do, besides crying, is still crying....

The parents decided to move away, hoping that she could eventually forget everything & be happy.

With a new environment, the girl learn sign language & started a new life. Telling herself everyday that she must forget the guy. One day, her friend came & told her that he's back. She asked her friend not to let him know what happened to her. Since then, there wasn't anymore news of him.

A year has passed & her friend came with an envelope, containing an invitation card for the guy's wedding. The girl was shattered. When she open the letter, she saw her name in it instead.

When she was about to ask her friend what's going on, she saw the guy standing in front of her. He used sign language telling her "I've spent a year's time to learn sign language. Just to let you know that I've not forgotten our promise. Let me have the chance to be your voice. I Love You. With that, he slipped the ring back into her finger. The girl finally smiled.

5. The moon, balloon and spoon

This is a very strange story about the moon, a balloon and a spoon-but who's to say it isn't true?

It happened late one night when everybody had gone to bed. All the children in the houses had been fast asleep for hours, and all the grown-ups too. Only the cats that sat on the rooftops were wide awake in the monnlight.

Suddenly there came a noise like..,,,...thunder perhaps, or a jet plane maybe, or the roaring, rushing sound of a hurricane......no-one could really say for sure.

All at once everyone was out of bed opening their windows and looking up into the sky.

There it was again, and again, and again. The noise was so loud that it knocked off some of the chimney pots and sent them rolling down the roofs.

"What is it?" the people in the houses cried with fright.

A ginger cat who had been sitting on the roof seemed to know the answer.

"Its the Moon!" he purred, looking very aloof. "The Moon has a bad cold and he keeps on sneezing!" and the ginger cat strolled off to find a quieter rooftop.

Sure enough when the people looked up into the sky, they could see that the Moon had a dreadful cold red nose and all!

The stars were scattered across the sky, for they found it very difficult to hang on when the Moon was sneezing so hard.

All through that night the moon sneezed and sneezed. No-one got a wink of sleep and everyone felt very tired and grumpy next morning.

"What are we going to do?" neighbours asked one another-but nobody had the least idea.

"How long does a bad cold usually last?" someone asked the chemist in the shop down the street.

"At least a week," he said gravely, "and in some cases up to a fortnight!"

Everybody groaned. No sleep for a fortnight.....it was unthinkable!.

"What the Moon really needs is a bottle of my best cold medicine," the chemist went on, "that will stop him sneezing in a jiffy."

"This all sounds very silly indeed," said a lady who lived in one of the houses. "How on earth can we give medicine to the Moon?"

"Somebody could float up there in a ballon," said one little boy "they do it all the time in nursery rhymes and fairy stories!"

"That sounds like a very good idea to me," a man spoke up, "I have a hot-air balloon and would gladly help the Moon's bad cold!"

First the medicine had to be mixed. The chemist found everything he needed and put all the ingredients into a great big bowl. He had a giant bottle in his shop window so he carefully poured the cold mixture into that.

"So far so good," smiled the chemist looking very pleased with himself.

"We shall need a giant spoon!" piped up the little boy (whose idea it was in the first place).

"I've just the thing," cried the baker. "I use it to stir my cakes at Christmas time.......I've such a lot to make!" 

So straight away he ran to his shop to fetch the giant spoon.

The man who owned the hot-air balloon started getting things ready.

The little boy (whose idea it was in the first place), was going up in the basket to give the Moon the medicine.

By the time darkness fell and the Moon appeared in the sky, everything was ready.

You could hear that the Moon's cold was no better, in fact he sounded much worse. Even the clouds were being blown all over the place.

"Soon we shall be sneezing instead of twinkling," some of the stars grumbled loudly.

At long last the man in the hot-air balloon and the little boy, (whose idea it was in the first place), reached the Moon.

Very, very carefully the little boy gave the Moon the cold medicine from the giant spoon.

"Is it alright to take the whole bottle?" asked the Moon wheezing and sneezing.

"Perfectly alright," the little boy replied, "it says so on the label!"

The cold medicine worked wonders. In next to no time the Moon recovered and all was peace and quiet.

Everyone in the houses had a good night's sleep, for there was nothing to disturb their slumbers......and the cats walked along the rooftops as usual and gazed up at the moon, who was asleep too!

6. JONAH

Once upon a time there was a village in North Israel. All the people lived peacefully there. One of them was Jonah. Jonah lived with his parents. They loved him very much.  In the north of Israel was Syria. It had powerful knights. They were very cruel and liked to invade other countries.

One night when the people of Jonah’s village were sleeping, the Syrian knights attacked his village. They burned down the houses. One of them threw a torch into Jonah’s house. Jonah’s house was on fire.

Jonah and his parents avoided the fire burning their house. They saved themselves by climbing a ladder to the upstairs. It was too high for them to jump down to the ground from the upstairs. Jonah’s father took a rope to get down from the stairs to the ground. They escaped to another village.

Jonah and his parents lived in a fishermen village. They became fishermen.

One day, when they were fishing in the sea, Jonah fell into the sea. Jonah was drawn into the sea. A whale came closed to him. He tried to swim avoiding the whale as fast as possible but he failed and at last the whale swallowed him. Jonah was still alive in the stomach of the whale. He prayed to God to be released from the stomach of the whale.

Fortunately God granted his prayer. The whale came closed to an island. It opened its mouth and Jonah came out from its stomach.

Jonah swam to the seashore and he lived in a new island.

7. Ali Baba

Once upon a time there were 40 cruel thieves who put their stolen money and treasures in a cave. They went in the cave by saying ”Open Sesame” to the cave entrance. A poor person, named Ali Baba saw them while they were doing that, so he heard the opening word. After they left, he went toward the cave and opened it. Suddenly he found a very large quantity of money and golden treasures. He took some of it and went back home. After that he became a rich man and his brother wanted to know how he became rich.

Ali Baba turned into the richest man in his village. His evil brother was really jealous of him, and wanted to know how he could get such a lot of money. Therefore, when Ali Baba went to the cave again to take some more money, his brother followed him. He saw everything, and decided to go back the next day to take some money for himself. The next morning he found a lot of money in the cave, and he wanted to take all of them. Unfortunately, when he was busy carrying the money to his house, the thieves came. The boss of the thieves asked him how he knew about the cave. He told everything, but unluckily they killed him and went to Ali Baba’s house.

After finding Ali Baba’s house, they made a plan to kill him the following night. Some of the thieves hid in big jars, and the boss pretended that he was a merchant who wanted to sell the jars to Ali Baba. Ali Baba who was a kind man invited the boss of the thief to have lunch together.

After lunch they took a rest. Luckily, the house maid went out of the house, and found that there were thieves inside the jars. She finally boiled hot oil and poured it into the jars to kill all of them. The boss of the thieves was caught, and put into prison.

Ali Baba was saved from the danger, and he finally lived happily ever after with his maid who became his wife shortly after.