NARRATIVE TEXT

A. Pengertian Narrative Text 
Disebutkan bahwa A narrative text is an imaginative story to entertain people (teks narasi adalah cerita imaginatif yang bertujuan menghibur orang). 

Jika melihat pada kamus bahasa Inggris, secara harfiah narrative bermakna (1) a spoken or written account of connected events; a story. (2) the narrated part of a literary work, as distinct from dialogue. (3) the practice or art of narration.

(Narrative bermakna : 1. sebuah cerita baik terucap atau tertulis tentang peristiwa-peristiwa yang berhubungan. 2. bagian yang diceritakan dalam sebuah karya sastra, berbeda dengan dialog. 3. Praktik atau seni bercerita).
Jika disimpulkan, maka sebuah narrative text adalah teks yang berisi sebuah cerita baik tertulis ataupun tidak tertulis dan terdapat rangkaian peristiwa yang saling terhubung.

B. Tujuan Komunikatif Narrative Text 
Tujuan Komunikatif Narrative Text seperti yang dijelaskan di atas adalah untuk menghibur pendengar atau pembaca tentang suatu kisah atau cerita masa lampau yang bertalian dengan pengalaman nyata, khayal atau peristiwa-peristiwa pelik yang mengarah ke suatu krisis, yang pada akhirnya menemukan suatu penyelesaian.

C. Generic Structure Narrative Text 
Setiap jenis teks bahasa Inggris (genre) memiliki struktur teks-nya sendiri-sendiri. Struktur dari Narrative Text terdiri dari tiga bagian yaitu :

1. Orientation

Pada bagian Orientation atau pengenalan berisi tentang pengenalan tokoh dalam cerita serta waktu dan tempat kejadiannya.

2. Complication

Pada bagian Complication berisi tentang gambaran munculnya krisis atau masalah yang di alami oleh tokoh pada cerita tersebut yang harus dipecahkan.

3. Resolution

Pada bagian Resolution berisi tentang bagaiman tokoh dari cerita tersebut memecahkan masalah yang ada pada bagian Complication. Biasanya terdapat lebih dari satu Resolution untuk satu Complication.

Pada beberapa referensi tentang Narrative Text, terdapat tambahan generic structure pada Narrative Text, yaitu penambahan Coda setelah Resoultion. Jadi susunan Narrative text adalah Orientiation, Complication, Resolution dan Coda. 
Coda adalah bagian terakhir dari structure Narrative Text yang berisi perubahan yang terjadi pada tokoh dan pelajaran yang dapat dipetik dari cerita tersebut. 
D. Ciri Kebahasan Narrative Text 
Pada Narrative Text, terdapat beberapa ciri-ciri antara lain sebagai berikut :

• Mengunakan Action Verb dalam bentuk Past Tense. Misalnya : Climbed, Turned, Brought, dsb.
• Menggunakan Nouns tertentu sebagai kata ganti orang, hewan dan benda tertentu dalam cerita. Misalnya : the king, the queen, dsb.
• Menggunakan Adjectives yang membentuk noun phrase. Misalnya : long black hair, two red apples, dsb.
• Menggunakan Time Connectives dan Conjunctions untuk mengurutkan kejadian-kejadian. Misalnya : then, before, after, soon, dsb.
• Menggunakan Adverbs dan Adverbial Phrase untuk menunjukkan lokasi kejadian atau peristiwa. Misalnya : here, in the mountain, happily ever after, dsb.

E. Contoh Narrative Text

TIMUN MAS

Orientation	Long long time ago, there was a farmer couple. They were staying in a village near a forest. They lived happily.
Complication 1	Unfortunately, they hadn’t had any children yet.
Resolution 1	Every day they prayed to God for a child. One day a giant passed their home. He heard what they were praying. Then the giant gave them a cucumber seed. "Plant this seed, then you’ll get a daughter,” said the giant. “Thank you, Giant,” said the couple. “But in one condition, in her 17-th birthday, you must give her to me,” said the Giant. The couple wanted a child so much that they agreed without thinking first. Then the couple planted the cucumber seed. Each day they took care the growing plant so carefully. Months later, a golden cucumber grew from the plant. The cucumber was getting heavier and bigger each day. When it was ripe, they picked it. Carefully they cut out the cucumber and how surprised were they when they found a beautiful baby inside. They were so happy. They named the baby Timun Mas, or Golden Cucumber.
Complication 2	Years were passing by and Timun Mas had grown into a beautiful girl. Her parents were very proud of her. But their happiness turned to fear when her 17th birthday came. The giant returned to ask for their promise. He was going to take Timun Mas away.
Resolution 2	The farmer tried to be calm. “Just a moment, please. Timun Mas is playing. My wife will call her,” he said. Then the farmer came to his daughter. “My child, take this,” as he was giving her a little bag to Timun Mas. “This will help you from the giant. Now, run as fast as you can,” he ordered. So Timun Mas ran away.
Complication 3	The couple was very sad about her leaving. But they didn’t want the giant to eat Timun Mas. Meanwhile, the giant had been waiting for too long. He became impatient. Somehow he knew that the couple had lied to him. So he destroyed their house and ran for Timun Mas. The giant was chasing Timun Mas and he was getting closer and closer. Timun Mas then took a handful of salt from her little bag. She spread out the salt behind her. Suddenly a wide sea appeared between them. The giant had to swim to reach her
Resolution 3	Timun Mas was still running, but now the giant almost caught her. Then she took some chilly and threw them to the giant. The chilly suddenly grew into some trees and trapped the giant. The trees grew some thorns as sharp as a knife. The giant screamed painfully. At the mean time, Timun Mas could escape again.
Complication 4	But the giant was very strong. Again he almost caught Timun Mas. So Timun Mas took the third magic stuff, the cucumber seeds. She threw the seeds and suddenly they became a wide cucumber field. The giant was very tired and hungry so he ate those fresh cucumbers. He ate too much that he felt sleepy and fell asleep soon.
Resolution  4	Timun Mas kept on running as fast as she could. But soon she was very tired herself. To make things worse, the giant had woken up! Timun Mas was so scared. Desperately she then threw her last weapon, terasi (a kind of shrimp pasta). IT did a miracle again. The pasta became a big swamp. The giant fell into it but his hands almost reached Timun Mas. Suddenly the lake pulled him to the bottom. The giant panicked and he couldn’t breathe. At last he was drown.
Re-orientation	Timun Mas was very relieved. She was safe now. Then she returned to her parents’ house. Her parents were of course very happy to see their daughter safe and sound. “Thanks God. You have saved my daughter,” they cried happily. From then on, Timun Mas lived happily with her parents with no fear anymore.

(Taken from : Kumpulan Cerita:  Mahayana: 2005)