Examples of Narrative Genre

Narrative genre

The narrative genre it's a literary genre that recreates a fictional world from the perspective of a narrator. Although the narratives may be inspired by reality, they are still fictitious as they convey descriptions and perspectives that will always be subjective.

The narrative genre is usually written in prose, although there are some cases of poems narrative, such as "Martín Fierro" or "La Llíada".

The issuer of the narrative genre is called storyteller, an entity that states and relates the facts from a particular point of view. That narrator can use the first person (to generate a greater closeness with the facts), the second person (to establish a relationship with the reader) or the third person (to generate a more objective and wide).

In the narrative genre the language referential function, since it tells a story about a particular topic or reference (which can be real or fictitious).

The other two big literary genres They are the lyrical genre, which expresses feelings or states of mind, and the dramatic genre, which is written in dialogue and is intended for representation.

The narrative subgenres are:

Examples of narrative genre

1. The hare and the Tortoise. Fable example.

Once upon a time, there was a hare who was very vain for his speed. He always made fun of the slowness of the turtle. The turtle ignored her teasing, until one day he challenged her to a race. The hare was very surprised, but she accepted.

The animals were gathered to observe the race and the starting and finishing points were determined. When the race started, the hare gave the tortoise a long lead, while making fun of it. Then he started running and passed the tortoise very easily. Halfway there he stopped and rested. But inadvertently she fell asleep.

Meanwhile, the turtle continued to advance slowly, but without stopping. When the hare woke up, the tortoise was just a few steps from the finish line, and although the hare ran as fast as it could, it failed to win the race.

The hare learned valuable lessons that day. He learned not to make fun of others, as no one can be considered superior to others. In addition, he discovered that the most important thing is to maintain a constant effort when setting a goal.

1. The odyssey. Example of epic in verse.

(Fragment: Meeting of Ulysses with the sirens)

Meanwhile the solid ship on its light course
faced the Sirens: a happy breath impelled her
but suddenly that breeze ceased, a deep calm
he felt around: some god smoothed the waves.

Then my men arose, they folded the sail,
they dropped it to the bottom of the boat and, sitting at the oar,
they whitened the sea with foam with polished shovels.
I meanwhile took the sharp bronze, cut a wax loaf
and, breaking it into small pieces, I was pinching them
with my sturdy hand: they soon softened, they were
mighty my fingers and the fire of the sun from above.

One by one my men with them I covered my ears
and, in turn, they tied my legs and hands
on the mast, straight, with strong ropes, and then
to whip with the oars they returned to the foaming sea.

The coast was now no more than the reach of a cry
and the cruise ship flew, rather they perceived
Sirens passed by and raised their sonorous song:
"Come here, give us honor, glorious Ulysses,
of your march restrain the ardor to hear our song,
because nobody in his black boat passes here without paying attention
to this voice that flows in sweet honey from our lips.

Whoever listens to it happily knows a thousand things:
the works we know that there by the Troad and its fields
of the gods imposed power on Trojans and Argives
and even what happens everywhere in the fertile land ”.

So they said, exhaling a sweet voice and in my chest
I longed to hear them. Frowning my eyebrows commanded
my men loosen my tie; they rowed bent
against the oar and standing Perimedes and Eurylochus, throwing
on me new ropes, cruelly forcing the knots of him.

When we finally left them behind and it was no longer heard
any voice or song of Sirens, my faithful friends
they removed the wax that I had in his ears
placed when I came and freed me from my bonds.

1. The song of Roldán. Example of singing deed.

(Fragment)

Oliveros has climbed a hill. He looks to the right of him, and sees the host of the infidels advance through a grassy valley. He immediately calls Roldán, his partner, and says:

-I hear such a grown rumor coming from the side of Spain, I see so many heights shine and so many helmets sparkle! These hosts will put our French in serious trouble. Ganelon knew it well, the low traitor who elected us before the emperor.

"Shut up, Oliveros," Roldán replies; He is my stepfather and I don't want you to say another word about him!

Oliveros has climbed to a height. His eyes span the entire horizon of the kingdom of Spain and the Saracens who have gathered in an imposing multitude. The helmets in whose gold the precious stones are set, and the shields, and the steel of the heights shine, as well as the pikes and the gonfalons tied to the shields. He cannot even add up the various corps of the army: they are so numerous that he loses count. Inside him, he feels strongly disturbed. As fast as his legs allow, he goes down the hill, approaches the French and tells them everything he knows.

"I have seen the infidels," says Oliveros. Never has any man seen such a large crowd on earth. There are a hundred thousand who are before us with shields on their arms, their helmets tied and covered with white armor; their burnished shields gleam, with the iron upright. You will have to fight a battle like never seen before. French gentlemen, God help you! Resist firmly, so that they cannot defeat us!

The French exclaim:

-Bad who runs away! Until death, none of us will miss you!

1. Ceibo flower. Legend example.

Before the arrival of the Spanish to America, a young woman named Anahí lived on the banks of the Paraná River. She was not particularly beautiful, but her singing delighted all the inhabitants of her village.

One day the Spanish invaders arrived, who destroyed the town and captured the inhabitants who survived the attack. Anahí was among them. That night, when the jailer fell asleep, Anahí stabbed him with a knife and escaped. However, she was arrested shortly after and in revenge for her rebellion, they tied her to a tree and set her on fire.

However, instead of being consumed, Anahí turned into a tree. Since then there is the ceibo, a tree with red flowers.

1. The Tell-Tale Heartby Edgar Allan Poe. Story example.

Pay attention now. You take me for crazy. But the crazy people do not know anything. Instead... if they could have seen me! If you could see how fast I acted! With what care... with what foresight... with what dissimulation I went to work! I was never kinder to the old man than the week before I killed him. Every night around twelve, I would turn the handle of his door and open it… oh, so softly!

And then, when the opening was big enough to pass the head, he would hold up a flashlight deaf, closed, completely closed, so that no light could be seen, and behind her the head. Oh, you would have laughed to see how cunningly his head turned! He was moving her slowly… very, very slowly, so as not to disturb the old man's sleep. It took me a whole hour to insert my head completely through the opening in the door, until I saw him lying on his bed. Hey? Could a madman have been as prudent as me?

And then, when his head was fully inside the room, he would open the lantern cautiously… oh, so cautiously! Yes, she was cautiously opening the lantern (as the hinges creaked), she was opening it enough so that a single ray of light fell on the vulture eye. And I did this for seven long nights... every night, at twelve... but I always found the eye closed, and for that reason it was impossible for me to carry out my work, because it was not the old man who irritated me, but the the evil eye.

And in the morning, just beginning of the day, she fearlessly entered his room and spoke to him resolutely, calling his name in a cordial voice and asking how he had spent the night. You see, I would have to have been a very clever old man to suspect that every night, precisely at twelve o'clock, I would go to look at him while he slept.

1. Parable of the Sower. Gospel according to Saint Matthew.

That day Jesus left home and sat on the seashore. Such a crowd gathered near Him that He had to go up to sit in a boat, while the whole crowd remained on the shore. And he began to speak many things to them in parables, saying: Behold, the sower went out to sow. And when he put the seed in, some fell along the road and the birds came and ate it. Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was not much soil, and it soon sprouted because the soil was not deep; but when the sun rose, it withered and withered because it had no roots. Another part fell among thorns; thorns grew and choked it. Another, on the other hand, fell on good soil and bore fruit, one hundred, another sixty, and another thirty.

Everyone who hears the word of the Kingdom and does not understand, the evil one comes and snatches what is sown in his heart: this is what is sown along the way. What is sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy; but he has no root in himself, but he is unstable and, when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately stumbles and falls. What is sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this world and the seduction of riches suffocate the word and it remains sterile. On the contrary, what is sown in good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, and bears fruit and produces a hundred, or sixty, or thirty.

1. The war and the peace, by Leon Tolstoi. Novel example.

(Fragment)

My goal tomorrow will not be to prod and kill but to prevent my soldiers from fleeing the terror that will invade them and me. My goal will be for them to march together and scare the French and for the French to scare before us. It has never happened and never will happen that two regiments have collided and fought and it is impossible. (They wrote about Schengraben that we clashed with the French in this way. I was there. And it is not true: the French fled). If they had collided they would have been fighting until everyone was killed or injured, and that never happens.