Narrative Text + Generic Structure & Moral: The Story of Joan And Amy

This example of narrative text is adapted from the Story of Tortoise And Hare which I have posted and labelled as fable. For other kinds of narrative story, you can see 16 narrative texts which some of them are also provided with generic structure analysis.

The purposes of writing narrative text is to entertain by retelling a story. It is also to educate the readers about certain moral value. Due to the contain of such moral lesson, narrative text can be used to teach people and society in general to have valuable lessons for better life. The story below is about how the weak figure struggling for what should he/she has against the stronger. Let's see the following example of narrative text.

Narrative Text: The Story of Joan and Amy

There was once an arrogant girl called Amy, who wanted to prove that she was the best student in the class. So she chose the weakest student, Joan, and challenged her to a contest; both had to make a toy windmill out of lolly sticks. Whoever got the highest mark from their teacher would be the winner.

Joan accepted and a deadline of one week was set for the completion of each model. Joan began collecting lolly sticks straight away, but Amy messed about, visited her friends, and told them how she was better than Joan, and how Joan’s windmill would inevitably suck.

It was the night before the deadline, and Amy, so confident that she would win the contest, hadn’t even begun building yet.

At 10 pm she decided that she had better get started, but she was so tired from visiting her friends that she fell asleep before she had even opened a tube of wood glue. The day of the contest dawned, and the teacher wanted to see both windmills.

Joan presented her model, which was small, leaned slightly to one side, and looked a little odd, due to the fact that the lolly sticks were all dirty and used. Joan explained that she had collected them from all around town. Next came Amy’s turn. Her name was called, but she wasn’t there.

The teacher was about to award the prize to Joan, when her rival burst into the classroom, red in the face, holding aloft a beautifully-crafted and lovingly-painted toy windmill made out of brand new lolly sticks. The teacher and all the students were astonished, and Amy’s face glowed with pride. The only problem was the price tag, which read $25. It was still visible for everybody to see, dangling beneath Amy’s model. Amy was humiliated, but Joan was named the winner of the contest, and placed her model on the teacher’s desk nervously.

Narrative Text: The generic Structure and Moral

Well that is the story which makes weak Joan wins the competition against the stronger Amy. Can you see the points which becomes the generic structure of the text? I'm sure you can see it as the story clearly states which events and conditions to become the participants, conflicts, and resolution. Ok, now let's make it simply written.

Orientation: In the first paragraph, it clearly states who is the participants of the text. They are the weak Joan and the strong Amy.

Complication: The conflict is set tobe a social conflict, Joan vs Amy. The major conflict is, of course, the way of how Amy wants to prove as the best student. On the other hand, Joan who is weak stuggles hard and does the best to win the competition.

Resolution: This complication is ended with a good solution for Joan. Happy ending is for Joan and sad ending is for Amy.

That is the story of Joan and Amy which is good as example of narrative text. What moral lesson do we get from this narrative story? Reading this story, we should learn that strength and speed are not good enough if they are not managed well. We can be slow in doing something, but if we are steady, we will succeed and win.

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