Narrative

Narrative, or telling stories, is part of our universal human nature.

Even before the advent of writing and other methods of recording,
stories were passed from generation to generation for purposes
of
entertainment, education and art. But telling stories is even
more central to our being than this: on a daily basis, we enjoy
recounting and hearing about experiences and actions.
Retelling what happened, how we felt and who said what make
up the bulk of our interactions with people, and published
accounts. Even more, we engage in the process of telling
stories as a means of imagining or rehearsing possibilities. It is
not surprising to know that theorists, like Frederic Jameson,
consider narrative "the central function or instance of the
human mind."
Although narrative is a universal function of humans, it should not
be confused with every language act. It is possible, for instance, to
simply describe a phenomenon such as "It is very hot today." This is
not a narrative. Instead, at the very least narratives describe or
represent a series of events or potential events. John le Carre, a
British writer of espionage thrillers, once said that to write "the cat
sat on the mat" is not a story. But to write "the cat sat on the dog's
mat" presents an event, even a small one, from which a true story
may emerge. Following are further explanations of the main
elements of a narrative.
Plot
Al stories have plot; that is, something happens or becomes an
"event," as described above. Beyond this simple understanding plot
can be a very tricky term for many literary theorists and is often
de ned in relation to time and an arrangement of events within a
larger story. This element of a narrative is meant to refer to the
chronological time in which events in a story take place, and the
order in which they occur.
This is not as simple as it may at rst seem. In an essay, there is no
passing of time. Even if the writer refers to an event that happened
over time, an essay is meant to convey an idea in the moment and
not a series of events unfolding over time. But a story asks readers to

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 imagine events happening over time and this becomes plot. We understand
that the time elapsing in a narrative can be either much shorter or much longer
than the time it takes to hear or read a story.
Time is not always experienced as a linear chronology of events.
Plots can begin in the middle of an event and move backwards and
forwards across time. They can begin at the end and be lled in
with ashbacks. Or they can operate as a more linear chronology
starting with a clear beginning and moving through a middle on
the way toward an end. Although plot may seem like a straight-
forward element, it is quite a remarkable achievement that we are
able to hear or read narratives with widely varying plots and
reconstruct them meaningfully. For this reason, some prefer to
associate plot also with causality: it is not just that one event
happens before or after another but that there is a recognizable
causal link between events.

Freytag's pyramid

Exposition
Setting the scene. The writer introduces the characters and setting, providing description
and background.
Rising action Something happens (an event) to signal a con ict and the story builds and
gets more exciting.

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 Climax
The moment of greatest tension in a story. This is often the most exciting event. It is the
event that the rising action builds up to and that the falling action follows.
Falling action Events happen as a result of the climax and leading to the resolution where
the main problem or con ict is resolved.
Dénouement
The ending. All questions are solved or explained and we can contemplate futures for the
characters. A theme may become apparent.

Point of view
All narratives have narrators; that is a person or persons who tells the story. When
narrating the events of our day to one another, the narrator is easy to spot: they are the
one telling the story. But literary narrative can be told from di erent points of view
including combinations of points of view. Although there are several possibilities with
point of view, for our purposes it is about determining who tells a story or the vantage
point from which a story is told.
Usually, you will encounter literary narratives told from either a rst-person or a third-
person point of view. First-person point of view is when a story is told by a character
within that story through the use of "I." In these cases, a writer chooses to adopt the
persona of a character which can include limitations to understanding and unreliable
narration. It would be wrong, however, to assume all stories told from rst-person point of
view are unreliable. Sometimes a writer includes multiple rst-person points of view to
give accounts of the same event from several perspectives.
Third-person point of view is also referred to as omniscient. In this case, although the
literal meaning ("all-knowing") is an exaggeration, stories are told without the limitations of
any one character and includes comment, thoughts, feelings and emotions that may exist
outside of characters. Like other elements, point of view can be a complex consideration.
Stories can also be comprised of a mix of rst-and third-person narrative. Points of view
can range from those of minor to major characters, and can seem to be all-knowing and
objective to convey a summary viewpoint through more indirect or partial participation of
a broad range of individual characters. Points of view can, of course, be more or less
reliable and include a stream of consciousness. Being aware of such complexity can only
aid in our understanding of a narrative.

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 Character
The events that make up a narrative are not meaningful as narrative until a person, real or
imagined, is involved. "Person" here can be taken to mean not just a esh-and-blood
individual but rather human characteristics or personalities that are familiar to us. "The cat
sat on the dog's mat" conveys an emotional, and possibly physical, exchange that we
can imagine occurring between people.
A character in a literary narrative may not be human at all: animals, the elements,
unlikeable antiheros and other assorted creatures and creations may inhabit a story, but
the character they convey tends to align itself with human attributes that provide
motivation, growth and change from a decidedly human perspective. Characters can also
be either static or at (they do not change over the course of a narrative), dynamic or
round (they do change over the course of a narrative). As with point of view, the thoughts
and actions of even the most minor characters can make up important elements of a
narrative.
Finally, a character can often be referred to as an archetype. An archetype is a model
from which copies are made. In literature, this is often a character or an idea that
represents the most essential characteristics or type in the form of a person or concept.

Theme
The theme of a narrative is the central or dominant idea that a work reveals. It can be
helpful to think of this as the purpose of a narrative but it is generally understood that
literary narratives contain themes (even if the theme is to avoid conveying a theme!).
Locating the theme of a narrative may or may not be easy to do and can be represented
through subtle relationships within narratives as much as straight-forward messages.
Themes may also be determined to be constructed unintentionally within a narrative
rather than as a purposeful construction of the author.

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