Definisi dan fungsi narrative text

Narrative text adalah suatu jenis teks yang berupa cerita khayalan, kisah nyata yang direkayasa,
atau dongeng. Narrative text menceritakan suatu cerita yang memiliki rangkaian peristiwa
kronologis yang saling terhubung. Tujuan dari narrative text adalah untuk menghibur
pembacanya.

Struktur teks (generic structure)

Orientation: pendahuluan atau pembuka yang berupa pengenalan tokoh, waktu,

dan tempat.
Complication: pengembangan konflik atau pemunculan masalah pada cerita.
Resolution: penyelesaian konflik atau langkah yang diambil untuk merespons
masalah.
Re-orientation: ungkapan – ungkapan penutup yang menunjukan berakhirnya
suatu cerita. Re-orientation bersifat opsional atau tidak selalu ada pada narrative
text.
Coda: perubahan yang terjadi pada tokoh dan pelajaran/ nilai moral yang bisa
dipetik dari cerita. Coda juga bersifat opsional.

Unsur kebahasaan

Noun: pada umumnya kata benda (noun) digunakan sebagai kata ganti orang
hewan, atau benda dalam cerita, misalnya stepmother, the dwarfs, carriage, dan
lain-lain.
Past tense: narrative text menggunakan kata kerja bentuk lampau (verb 2),
misalnya went, ate, met, dan lain-lain.
Time connective: merupakan kata penghubung waktu untuk mengurutkan
kejadian, misalnya after, before, after that, dan lain sebagainya.
Action verbs: kata kerja yang menunjukan peristiwa atau kegiatan, misalnya
stayed, climbed, wrote, dan lain-lain.
 Saying and thinking verb: kata kerja yang menunjukan pelaporan atau ujaran,
misalnya said, told, thought, dan lain sebagainya.

Tujuan Narrative Text

Seperti yang sudah disebutkan pada bagian pengertian bahwa tujuan dari teks
narrative ini adalah untuk menghibur si pembaca mengenai suatu kisah atau cerita.

Dalam bahasa Inggris: The Purpose of Narrative Text is to amuse or to entertain

the reader with a story.

Jenis-jenis Narrative Text

 Personal experience (Cerita yang berupa pengalaman pribadi)

 Fairy stories (Cerita yang bersifat fantastik atau penuh dengan keajaiban)
 Fables (Cerita tentang binatang yang biasanya digambarkan berprilaku
seperti manusia)
 Legends
 Myth
 Romance
 Mysteries
 Science fiction
 Horror stories
 Adventure stories
 Historical narratives
 Slice of life
Language Features

 Pola kalimat yang digunakan biasanya berupa Simple Past Tense

 Permulaan kalimat biasanya diawali dengan kata keterangan waktu (Adverbs
of Time) seperti long time ago, once, one, once upon a time.
 Banyak menggunakan kata penghubung waktu
 Kadang-kadang terdapat dialog langsung antartokoh cerita.

Orientation
Pada bagian ini, merupakan bagian untuk pengenalan. Yaitu pengenalan cerita
tentang apa (what is the story about), siapa (who is the participant of the story),
dimana cerita itu terjadi (where is the place setting), dan kapan cerita itu terjadi
(when is the time setting).

Complication
Bagian ini merupakan bagian yang memunculkan permasalahan atau konflik yang
terjadi di dalam sebuah cerita teks naratif bahasa Inggris. Bagian Complication ini
juga merupakan bagian paling inti dari sebuah cerita narrative teks.

Konflik yang terjadi di dalam cerita naratif teks tersebut dapat dibedakan menjadi:

– Physical Conflict

Merupakan permasalahan yang muncul karena adanya konflik secara kontak fisik
atau segala sesuatu yang berhubungan dengan fisik.

– Natural Conflict

Merupakan permasalahan yang muncul karena pelaku dalam cerita berhadapan

dengan kekuatan alam.
Social Conflict

Sosial konflik merupakan permasalahan yang muncul karena para pelaku di dalam
cerita saling berhadapan dimana mereka bertemu pada saat yang bersamaan namun
memiliki kepentingan yang berbeda.

– Psychological Conflict

Psikologikal konflik adalah permasalahan yang muncul saat pelaku dalam cerita itu
berhadapan dengan dirinya sendiri. Hal ini biasanya terjadi ketika adanya
pertentangan antara nilai baik dan buruk, sifat sombong dan rendah hati, sifat rakus
dan tenggang rasa.

The Monkeys and The Cap Seller

Once, a cap seller was passing through a jungle. He was very tired and needed to
rest. Then, he stopped and spread a cloth under a tree. He placed his bag full of
caps near him and lay down with his cap on his head. The cap seller had a sound
sleep for one hour. When he got up, the first thing he did was to look into his bag.
He was startled when he found all his caps were not there.

When he looked up the sky, he was very surprised to see monkeys sitting on the
branches of a tree, each of the monkeys is wearing a cap of on its head. They had
evidently done it to imitate him. He decided to get his caps back by making a
humble request to the monkeys. In return, the monkeys only made faces of him.
When he begun to make gesture, the monkeys also imitated him.

At last, he found a clever idea. ” Monkeys are a great imitator,” he thought. So he

took off his own cap and threw it down on the ground. And as he had expected, all
the monkeys took off the caps and threw the caps down on the ground. Quickly, he
stood up and collected the caps, put them back into his bag and went away.
 “Two of Everything”
Once upon a time, old and poor Mr. Haktak found a large brass pot in his garden.
He decided to put his purse in it. Then, he carried it home. Mrs. Haktak was very
happy with the pot.

Suddenly, her hairpin fell into the pot. Mrs. Haktak reached and pulled out two
hairpins and two purses. What a magic pot! Then they began to drop items into the
pot and soon had two of everything.

One day, Mr. Haktak went to the market. At home, Mrs. Haktak did the house
works then rested for a while. She stooped over the pot to look inside. At that
moment, Mr. Haktak kicked the door open because his hands were full of
packages. Bang! Mrs. Haktak lost her balance and fell into the pot. Mr. Haktak
found that he had two of Mrs. Haktak. This presented a problem.

Finally, Mr Haktak got an idea. He fell into the pot and soon there was a second
Mr. Haktak. The two new Haktaks became husband and wife. All of them became
friends and built two identical houses with the identical furniture.

“The Gingerbread Man”

A long time ago, there lived an old little couple in a cottage. One day, the woman
decided to make a gingerbread man for dinner. As soon as the gingerbread man
was decorated with eyes, nose and mouth, he jumped out and ran away.

The gingerbread ran as fast as he could. The old woman and her husband tried to
chase him. However, the gingerbread man was too fast for them. Soon, he passed a
hungry pig and the pig wanted to eat him. The pig also tried to catch the
gingerbread man.

The gingerbread man said “Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me I’m the
gingerbread man.” Other animals like cow, horse, dogs and cats also wanted to eat
him but they couldn’t outrun him.

Now, the gingerbread man came to a river. He was afraid of water. A clever fox
came and offered help to cross the river. The fox asked the gingerbread man to
climb on his head. As soon as they reached the other side, the fox tossed up the
gingerbread man in the air, opened his mouth and finally ate him.

“The Fool and The Donkey”

One morning, a fool woke up and thought he needed a donkey. He went to the
town. There were many donkeys in the donkey stall. Then, he decided to buy one
donkey with long, floppy, silky ears.
Along the way home, two boys saw him. The boys thought that they could steal the
donkey from the fool. One boy took the rope around the donkey’s neck then put it
around his neck and followed the fool. The other boy led the donkey back to the
stall to sell it. The fool didn’t even notice it.

When they arrived at home, the fool shocked. He bought a donkey but he got a
boy; he asked why. The boy told him that he had been rude to his mother. Then the
evil had turned him into a donkey. The fool asked the boy to promise not to be
rude to his mother again and let him go.
The next morning, the fool woke up and thought he needed a donkey. He went to
the town. There were many donkeys in the donkey stall. Among all donkeys he
noticed there was one donkey with long, floppy, silky ears. He knew that donkey.
He went over to it and whispered: “You foolish boy, I said never be rude to your
mother again!”

“Dick Whittington and his Cat”

There was once a poor boy named Dick Whittington who lived in a village without
parents. He had heard stories about a big city called London where everybody was
rich and the streets were paved with gold. He wanted to go there.

One day, he met a friendly waggoner who gave him a lift to the city. He was
amazed at the big city. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any gold on the street. He
had no money and ate no food few days. He collapsed in front of a rich and kind
merchant’s house.

The merchant gave him a job in the kitchen. But the cook didn’t like him and used
to beat and pinch him. Dick Whittington had to sleep in a tiny room with many rats
and mice which bothered him every night. Then, he decided to buy a cat by using
his saving. Luckily, the clever cat was very good at catching mice and rats.

One day, the merchant would go on a long voyage and sell everything on his ship.
Dick Whittington asked the merchant to help him sell the cat. After arriving in the
destination, the merchant was invited by the king and queen to a feast. However,
hundreds of rats gobbled all of the food. The merchant offered the clever cat to
help the king solve the problem.
The king was very happy. He gave the merchant a ship full of gold in return.
Finally, the merchant gave all of the gold to Dick Whittington. He spent the money
wisely and helped people.

Fox and A Cat

One day, a cat and a fox were having a conversation. The fox, who was a conceited
creature, boasted how clever she was. “Why, I know at least a hundred tricks to get
away from our mutual enemies, the dogs,” she said.

“I know only one trick to get away from dogs,” said the cat. “You should teach me
some of yours!”.

“Well, maybe someday, when I have the time, I may teach you a few of the simpler
ones”, replied the fox airily.

Just then they heard the barking of a pack of dogs in the distance. The barking
grew louder and louder – the dogs were coming in their direction! At once the cat
ran to the nearest tree and climbed into its branches, well out of reach of any dog.
“This is the trick I told you about, the only one I know”, said the cat. “Which one
of your hundred tricks are you going to use?”.

The fox sat silently under the tree, wondering which trick she should use. Before
she could make up her mind, the dogs arrived. They fell upon the fox and tore her
to pieces.

Moral: A single plan that works is better than a hundred doubtful plans.