Definition and Examples of Narratives in Writing

The definition of narrative is a piece of writing that tells a story, and it is one of four classical rhetorical modes or ways that writers use to present information. The others include an exposition, which explains and analyzes an idea or set of ideas; an argument, which attempts to persuade the reader to a particular point of view; and a description, a written form of a visual experience. Key Takeaways: Narrative Definition A narrative is a form of writing that tells a story.  Narratives can be essays, fairy tales, movies, and jokes.  Narratives have five elements: plot, setting, character, conflict, and theme.  Writers use narrator style, chronological order, a point of view, and other strategies to tell a story. Telling stories is an ancient art that started long before humans invented writing. People tell stories when they gossip, tell jokes, or reminisce about the past. Written forms of narration include most forms of writing: personal essays, fairy tales, short stories, novels, plays, screenplays, autobiographies, histories, even news stories have a narrative. Narratives may be a sequence of events in chronological order or an imagined tale with flashbacks or multiple timelines. Narrative Elements Every narrative has five elements that define and shape the narrative: plot, setting, character, conflict, and theme. These elements are rarely stated in a story; they are revealed to the readers in the story in subtle or not-so-subtle ways, but the writer needs to understand the elements to assemble her story. Heres an example from The Martian, a novel by Andy Weir that was made into a film: The plot is the thread of events that occur in a story. Weirs plot is about a man who gets accidentally abandoned on the surface of Mars.The setting is the location of the events in time and place. The Martian is set on Mars in the not-too-distant future.The characters are the people in the story who drive the plot, are impacted by the plot, or may even be bystanders to the plot. The characters in The Martian include Mark Watney, his shipmates, the people at NASA resolving the issue, and even his parents who are only mentioned in the story but still are impacted by the situation and in turn impact Marks decisions.The conflict is the problem that is being resolved. Plots need a moment of tension, which involves some difficulty that requires resolution. The conflict in The Martian is that Watney needs to figure out how to survive and eventually leave the planets surface.Most important and least explicit is the theme. What is the moral of the story? What does the writer intend the reade r to understand? There are arguably several themes in The Martian: the ability of humans to overcome problems, the stodginess of bureaucrats, the willingness of scientists to overcome political differences, the dangers of space travel, and the power of flexibility as a scientific method. Setting Tone and Mood In addition to structural elements, narratives have several styles that help move the plot along or serve to involve the reader. Writers define space and time in a descriptive narrative, and how they choose to define those characteristics can convey a specific mood or tone. For example, chronological choices can affect the readers impressions. Past events always occur in strict chronological order, but writers can choose to mix that up, show events out of sequence, or the same event several times experienced by different characters or described by different narrators. In Gabriel Garcà ­a Mà ¡rquezs novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the same few hours are experienced in sequence from the viewpoint of several different characters. Garcà ­a Mà ¡rquez uses that to illustrate the peculiar almost magical inability of the townspeople to stop a murder they know is going to happen. The choice of a narrator is another way that writers set the tone of a piece. Is the narrator someone who experienced the events as a participant, or one who witnessed the events but wasnt an active participant? Is that narrator an omniscient undefined person who knows everything about the plot including its ending, or is he confused and uncertain about the events underway? Is the narrator a reliable witness or lying to themselves or the reader? In the novel Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, the reader is forced to constantly revise her opinion as to the honesty and guilt of the husband Nick and his missing wife. In Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, the narrator is Humbert Humbert, a pedophile who constantly justifies his actions despite the damage that Nabokov illustrates hes doing. Point of View Establishing a point of view for a narrator allows the writer to filter the events through a particular character. The most common point of view in fiction is the omniscient (all-knowing) narrator who has access to all the thoughts and experiences of each of her characters. Omniscient narrators are almost always written in the third person and do not usually have a role in the storyline. The Harry Potter novels, for example, are all written in third person; that narrator knows everything about everybody but is unknown to us. The other extreme is a story with a first-person point of view in which the narrator is a character within that story, relating events as they see them and with no visibility into other character motivations. Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre is an example of this: Jane relates her experiences of the mysterious Mr. Rochester to us directly, not revealing the full explanation until Reader, I married him. Points of view can also be effectively shifted throughout a piece—in her novel Keys to the Street, Ruth Rendell used limited third-person narratives from the point of view of five different characters, enabling the reader to assemble a coherent whole out of what first appears to be unrelated stories.   Other Strategies Writers also use the grammatical strategies of tense (past, present, future), person (first person, second person, third person), number (singular, plural) and voice (active, passive). Writing in the present tense is unsettling—the narrators have no idea what will happen next—while past tense can build in some foreshadowing. Many recent novels use the present tense, including The Martian. A writer sometimes personalizes the narrator of a story as a specific person for a specific purpose: The narrator can only see and report on what happens to him or her. In Moby Dick, the entire story is told by the narrator Ishmael, who relates the tragedy of the mad Captain Ahab, and is situated as the moral center. E.B. White, writing columns in 1935s New Yorker magazine, often used the plural or editorial we to add a humorous universality and a slow pace to his writing. The barber was cutting our hair, and our eyes were closed—as they are so likely to be... Deep in a world of our own, we heard, from far away, a voice saying goodbye. It was a customer of the shop, leaving. Goodbye, he said to the barbers. Goodbye, echoed the barbers. And without ever returning to consciousness, or opening our eyes, or thinking, we joined in. Goodbye, we said, before we could catch ourselves.—E.B. White Sadness of Parting. In contrast, sportswriter Roger Angell (Whites stepson) epitomizes sports writing, with a quick, active voice, and straight chronological snap: In September 1986, during an unmomentous Giants-Braves game out at Candlestick Park, Bob Brenly, playing third base for San Francisco, made an error on a routine ground ball in the top of the fourth inning. Four batters later, he kicked away another chance and then, scrambling after the ball, threw wildly past home in an attempt to nail a runner there: two errors on the same play. A few moments after that, he managed another boot, thus becoming only the fourth player since the turn of the century to rack up four errors in one inning.—Roger Angell. La Vida.

Movie Analysis Gun Violence - 1287 Words

Rush Hour is filled with numerous different acts of violence. Of the eight types of violence counted in the film, gun violence was the most prominent type of violence with eighty-six acts of gun violence throughout the film. Any time a weapon was drawn or shots were fired it was counted as gun violence. The next most common type of violence in the film was physical violence, with seventy-six incidents, which involved any hitting, kicking or pushing. There were nineteen acts of violence with a weapon other than a gun. Items such as shipping containers used to attempt to smash Lee between two in the first scene, pool sticks and bar stools in the scene at the pool hall and the ax used by Sang in the scene where Lee and Carter chase him through a building. There was a lot more action and a lot less verbal threats in this movie, with only nine acts of verbal abuse. There were three explosions throughout the film which was also counted as an act of violence considering the use of C-4. Thre e time throughout the movie a vehicle was used as a weapon either in a chase or when Sang attempted to rundown Cater and Lee after a failed attempt of his capture. The kidnapping of Soo Yung was counted as an act of violence as well as the armed car theft perpetrated by Carter when in pursuit of the fleeing Lee. The total acts of violence counted throughout the movie was an astounding 198 making this film a very violent one. The violence in the movie was made to be mostly comedic, unrealisticShow MoreRelatedGun Violence1387 Words   |  6 PagesGun Violence Sociology 1010 Kenneth Cornwell Zanestate College Carl A. Field Today in our society we have a massive problem with gun violence. Many people are abusing their right to own guns by doing was is called a shooting. A shooting is a kill spree of mostlky public areas. This happens because of people wioth a mental background not being check for illnesses and abeing allowed to purchase firearms. 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The kind of family a person should have Free Essays

INTRODUCTION Every person longs to have the kind of family that is ideal for him. When we talk of an ideal family, it means that it is the family that a person views to be perfect. Even in a person’s early years in life, admiration to different families starts and thus making one dream of having a family someday that is picture perfect for him. We will write a custom essay sample on The kind of family a person should have or any similar topic only for you Order Now Although there are different forms of family that are being accepted and acknowledged, the choice still depends upon ones perspective. What kind of family then a person should have? THE IDEAL FAMILY There are three main characteristics that I deem to be essential in having an ideal family. First, it must have a traditional structure. Second, must have only two to three children. Third, must be God centered. A traditional family is a functional family in structure. Every member has its own appropriated function. The father is delegated to find means for the whole family’s subsistence. He works and is known to be the bread winner of the family. He will provide the physiologic needs of family and fill the house with love, happiness, security and discipline.   He is also the one who can be called the head in reference to problem solving and decision making. On the other hand, the mother has an extraordinary task in the family and that is to take care of the entire household, this means that she will attend to the different needs of the family; she will be the one who will wake up early and sleep late at night and a role model in the house. She also has the responsibility of inculcating the best values in their children and giving them the best of care. The children have to take their education and help the mother in cleaning the house and other house tasks. Traditional type of family is considered as an ideal type of family. The children, who are the center of care, love and attention must equip with good values because they are the pillar of the family. In this type of family, each has to function well and must do their part to make it an ideal one. The number of choice of children varies on parents, other desire to have one child only to focus their care and attention and to securely provide all that he needs. However, two or three children are perceived to be the ideal one. This is based on practical and economical reasons. Having lesser number of children would have greater opportunity for education and experience luxury in life. Giving a child an education now costs big and giving him a luxurious life costs even bigger. Having many children could deprive them on their rights on physical, emotional and mental needs due to economic crises. Lesser children in the family open opportunities. An ideal family is a God centered family because. It is the foundation of a strong family and a wonderful home. It comprises a responsible father, a loving mother and the obedient children.   This means that having God at home is a perfect home for a family of which joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, patience and love overflows. As Rev. Sun Myung Moon would say, â€Å"The ideal family is the place of the eternal love of parents, the eternal love of husband and wife, and the eternal love of children centering upon God. Rev. Sun Myung Moon indeed captured the essence of an ideal family which is beneficial to all because having God means good work. God preaches people to be good and not mandated by evil. Society will greatly benefit if all people will have this kind of family. In a structured family, even if the father is working, the mother can take care of the children and has the time to guide and teach them with values. Having only two to three children would entail a great chance in having all the people in a society to have proper education and a comfortable life. Lastly, in a family that is God centered, people will surely do away from misconduct and evil deeds because the primary teaching of God is to do good to others. CONCLUSION Therefore, a family that a person should have is a traditional family having two to three children and making God as the center of their lives. By virtue of this kind of a family, our society will have peace and harmony. BIBLIOGRAPHY Diem, G. N.. The Definition of â€Å"Family† in a Free Society. Retrieved July 29, 2007 from http://libertariannation.org/a/f43d1.html#3 The reading is about different definitions from different point of views of society regarding a family. It helps readers to know different types of a family. Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Blessing and Ideal Family. Retrieved July 30, 2007 from http://www.unification.net/bif/bif-7-2a.html The author makes people understand what a God centered family is all about. It also let people understand the importance of a family. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY http://www.studyjesus.com/more/the_family/characteristicsofthechristianfam.htm The reading is all about the characteristics of a Christian family. It also discusses what kind of life a Christian family has and must have. How to cite The kind of family a person should have, Essay examples