CHAPTER 2CHAPTER 2NARRATIONNARRATIONCHAPTER 2CHAPTER 2NARRATIONNARRATION

The Purpose of The Purpose of NarrationNarration

1. to interest the reader in a story that illustrates a particular idea clearly. (13)

2. a mode of development used by writers to tell a story or give an account of a historical or fictional event. (290)

3. It calls for compressing and reshaping experience to that the reader relives it with

you and is left with a particular point.

SkillsSkills1. Shaping narrative draws on:

keen observation careful selection of details (pertaining to the narration) coherent sequencing conflict resolution

Dramatic StructureDramatic Structure• This structure is derived from Freytag's Pyra

mid. Gustav Freytag developed a diagrammatic outline of the structure of a five act tragedy in Technik des Dramas (1863). This proved useful in generally speaking about dramatic structure for tragedy or comedy, for novels, short stories, cinema or television.

Time Order Time Order (Chronological Order)(Chronological Order)

1. The information is arranged according to time. (290) The writer often tells about

events in the order in which they took place. This method of organization ensures that the sequence of the incidents will be logical. (14)

2. Details are listed as they occur in time. To put simply, chronological order is, a list of event.

3. Time signals:

first, then, next, after, as, before, meanwhile, soon, now, during,

eventually, finally. . .

Point of ViewPoint of View(15-6)(15-6)

First-Person ApproachFirst-Person Approach:

A strongly individualized point of view.

You draw on your own experience and

speak to your audience, using pronouns

like I, me, mine, we, our, and us.

Second-Person ApproachSecond-Person Approach:

The writer speaks directly to the reader, using the pronoun you. this approach is considered appropriate for giving direct instructions and explanations to the reader.

Third-Person ApproachThird-Person Approach: The most commonly used approach in ac

ademic writing. In this approach, the writer includes no direct reference to the reader (you) or the self (I, me). The writer writes as an outsider or “third person” observing and reporting matters of public rather than private importance.

Flashback (16)Flashback (16)

The interruption of chronological The interruption of chronological

sequence (as in a film or literary sequence (as in a film or literary

work) by interjection of events of work) by interjection of events of

earlier occurrence.earlier occurrence.

a past incident recurring vividly in a past incident recurring vividly in

the mind.the mind. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9ye5fW8

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Nonfiction & FictionNonfiction & Fiction Narrative writing is called Narrative writing is called nonfiction nonfiction if if the story or event is true and actually hthe story or event is true and actually happened. (16) appened. (16)

If a story is not true or did not actually If a story is not true or did not actually occur, it is called occur, it is called fictionfiction. (17). (17)

John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic.

““The Movie House” The Movie House” John UpdikeJohn Updike

Answer to Questions About the Reading1. Updike probably did enjoy horror movies as

a young boy. Although he was obviously frightened, he implied that he saw many horror movies.

“I always ran to the movies” (14). 2. Updike running to and from the theater and

the images of creaking doors, flashing lighting, shadowy tombs, suffocating halls, and gapping doorways.

3. Updike never mentions being at the movies with friends. He implies that he spent much time alone.Answer to Questions About the Writer’s

Strategies1. The main idea is not directly stated but is i

mplied in the vividness of the writer’s memories of the neighborhood theater. The main idea is that movies, especially horror movies, were at the center of the writer’s childhood.

2. The first-person point of viewfirst-person point of view is applied. “It

was two blocks from John’s home; he began to go alone from the age of six. His mother, so strict about his kissing girls, was strangely indulgent about this” (2-3).

3. The images of people turning into cats and of tombs, creaky houses, monsters and lighting would give an idea of what a horror movie would be like. Moreover, the sense of fear and excitement that the writer felt as he watched them and as he ran home would help the reader imagine what the movies were like.

4. Overall, the paragraph is subjectivesubjective in the way the writer expresses his own feelings about watching the movies. It is objectiveobjective in the way the writer describes the environment.

5.5. memoirmemoir (n.) Usually, memoirs. An account of one's personal life and experiences; autobiography.

Elizabeth Bishop (8 February 1911 – 6 October 1979) was an American poet and writer. She was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1949 to 1950, and a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1956.

““Geography”Geography”Elizabeth BishopElizabeth Bishop

Answer to Questions About the Reading1. a. “. . .the third and fourth grades” were “on their side of the room, . . .” (1-2). b. “, . . . made it hard for me to see them properly from where I sat” (8). c. “Only dimly did I hear the pupil’s recitations of capital cities and islands and bays”(12-13). These statements indicate that she wasn’t in th

e third or fourth grade but in a different grade.

2. “Only dimly did I hear the pupil’s recitations of capital cities and islands and bays” (12-3). The writer wasn’t paying attention to the class.

3. The essay is narrativenarrative, descriptivedescriptive, and subjectivesubjective. The writer pictures a one-room schoolhouse and a colorful view of the world via a geography class.

Answer to Questions About the Writer’s

Strategies

1. a. The main idea: While the maps for

the geography lesson gave the

writer an impression that Canada

was “the same size as the world”

(14) and “the sun was always shining

and . . . dry and glittering” (16), she still

knew that impression was not true.

b. Topic sentence: “But I got the general impression that Canada was the same size as the world, which somehow or other fitted into it, or the other way around, and that in the world and Canada the sun was always shining and everything was dry and glittering. At the same time, I knew perfectly well that this was not true” (13-17).

2. The paragraph explains a personal personal experience—theexperience—the geography lesson.

(A) The incidents: pulling down the maps, wanting to touch them, and hearing the recitations.

(B) The main event: the pulling down the pulling down of the mapsof the maps, which generates the writer’s fascination and response.

3. Apart from narrating what happened, the writer describes the classroom and the material, condition, and colors of the maps.

• Russell Wayne Baker (born August 14, 1925) is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning writer known for his satirical commentary and self-critical prose, as well as for his autobiography, Growing Up.

““Learning to Write”Learning to Write”Russell BakerRussell Baker

Answer to Questions About the Reading1. He believed essays to be boring. He changed his

mind when he saw the topic “The Art of Eating Spaghetti” as an option on the essay list. He remembered eating what was then “exotic” Spaghetti for the first time with his family and the good humor and laughing arguments about the “socially respectable method” of eating Spaghetti.

2. They were delighted by the novelty and challenge of eating Spaghetti.

3. Baker comments that “Of all forms of writing, none seemed so boring as the essay”; that the choice of essay topics seemed almost as dull” as “What I did on My Summer Vacation.” He also considers English the “dreariest of subjects.”

4. At first, Mr. Fleagle is pictured as a “comic antique.” However, as the story progresses, he becomes the person who unlocks the key to Baker’s future career. Mr. Fleagle becomes somewhat heroic, even if inadvertently.

5. The main event—the realization of

the pleasure and power that came form his classmates’ laughter and his teacher’s approval—impelled Baker to begin believe that he might become a writer.

Answer to Questions About the Writer’s Strategies

1. The act of writing caused Baker to understand who he was and what he might become.

2. Paragraph 7: Baker says that he wanted to re-create the pleasure he had had at his aunt’s house by writing it down for himself rather than for Mr. Fleagle.

3.3. Chronological orderChronological order

4. Subjectively. (the focus is on Baker’s feelings about those events occurred in the classroom.)

““The Story of My Ring”The Story of My Ring”Annie ReevesAnnie Reeves

Answer to Questions About the Reading

1. The writer’s grandparents did. 2. Her grandparents gave her the ring

when she graduated.3. A mine in India.4. The ring is not an engagement ring.

Answer to Questions About the Writer’s Strategies

1.1. Thesis statementThesis statement: “What is significant about this ring is not the symbolism or the look of the ring, but rather the story of how my grandfather came to possess the stones in World War II.”

2.2. Chronological orderChronological order

3. The Ma Phone worker was described as “thin, still shaped like a boy, camouflaged by his Khaki uniform . . . and shrouded in a pale cloth hiding his feet and torso” and his surroundings as “a small one-room shack” with a dirt floor.

4.4. First person point of viewFirst person point of view is employed in the 1st1st and 3rd3rd paragraph when the writer tells the story of her grandfather visiting the mine and getting the stones for her ring. The changed is justified since the writer is relating her grandfather’s story of how he got the stones for her ring.

5. The essay is subjectivesubjective in the writer’s feelings about her ring. Nevertheless, it is presumably objectiveobjective in her telling of her grandfather’s story of visiting the mine and buying the stones from the Burmese man.

““Learning, then College”Learning, then College”Meg GiffordMeg Gifford

Organization and Ideas1. It sets out the subject, “time off before college

” and engaged the reader who wonders how it changed Gifford’s life.

2. Gifford’s going back and forth between the time of the decision and then ending up two years later makes the reader appreciate the toughness of the decision and the benefits of its results.

3. Her employment of chronology might be confusing.

4. “Taking a year off is a tough decision but well worth doing.” (inferred)

Technique and Style1. The primary audience is high scho

ol students, perhaps college students as well.

2. We might find Gifford’s tone condescending, i. e., she thinks that she is more intelligent than other people.

4. The repetition (“I learned . . .”) creates emphasisemphasis, particularly on the word “learned,” which is what college (and life) is supposed to be about.

5. The range of examples is impressive and interesting since the examples are distinct from usual, ordinary ones.

““The Yellow Ribbon”The Yellow Ribbon”Peter HamillPeter Hamill

1. Returning from prison, the ex-convict Vingo found that his wife still loved him. (inferred)

2. B

3. A

4. B

5. (A) He tells his story “slowly and painfully and with great hesitation.” (Page 1, Line 3 from the bottom)

(B) He asks his wife to leave a signal (the handkerchief), rather than confront her directly. (Page 2, Paragraph 19, Line 3 from the bottom)

6. Vingo doesn’t express any self-pity about being in jail. He owns up to (admits) his crime. He offers his wife her

freedom.

7. (A) Fort Lauderdale, New Jersey

(B) 34th Street terminal in New York

(C) Washington, Jacksonville

(D) Philadelphia, Brunswick

8. “But if she didn’t, if she would take me back she should let me know.” (Line 2)

9. D

10.D