Narrative Paragraphs Explained

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Navigating Index

 

• Opening Remarks
• Narrative Reading and Paragraphs
• References

 

Opening Remarks

Paragraphs are used to make a reader aware that the author has made a change in the flow of ideas that he or she is trying to express. These changes are listed below.

 

• Shift to a New or Different Idea
• Shift to a Different Part of a Previous idea
• Shift to a New or Different time
• Shift to a New or Different place
• Shift to a New or Different character
• Shift to a New or Different speaker
• Shift to a New or Different action
• Shift to a Different Part of a Previous Action

 

As a reader, you need to be aware that these changes can be anticipated by a reader if you know what kind of material you are reading.

 

In order to know what kind of material you are reading you must be able to identify the nature and purpose of the two most common forms of writing, Narrative and Expository. For a chart that explains the difference between these two modes of communication, click here: Narrative and Expository Chart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Narrative Reading 

Narrative Text: Reading Stories 

Stories (narratives) use setting, character and plot in order to express an idea or lesson about a theme. In order to present setting, character and plot, it is necessary to write about when, where, who, and what; it is necessary to use time, place, character, speaker, action, or part of an action.

As a reader, when you are reading a story, you should be aware of what a paragraph is presenting to you. You should be constantly questioning yourself to keep track of the flow of the story and the facts and details involved.

Time

 

Because life must take place in time, so must all stories (narratives). Notice the shift from one time to another between the paragraphs that follow.

That night his nose bled badly. For hours he had been underwater, learning to hold his breath, and now he felt weak and dizzy. His mother said, "I shouldn't overdo things, darling, if I were you."

That day and the next, Jerry exercised his lungs as if everything the whole of his life, all that he would become, depended upon it. Again his nose bled at night, and his mother insisted on his coming with her the next day. It was a torment to him to waste a day of his careful self-training, but he stayed with heron that other beach, which now seemed a place for small children, a place where his mother might lie safe in the sun. It was not his beach.³

Notice that the time, in paragraph two, has shifted from the previous night to the next day. The author uses the paragraph marker to let the reader know about a change in time. As a reader, you should be aware of the change and be making a mental note about the sequence of the story and its actions.

 

 

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In the following paragraphs note how the story shifts from one scene, the railway platform, to another, the hotel. In addition you have a preview in the first and second paragraphs of a shift from one part of an action to another, as it shifts from the mother's activity to the father's on the railway platform.

My mother, on the railway platform, suddenly exclaimed, "I hate the Augusts." This surprised me, because we were all Augusts__I was an August, my father was an August, Uncle Quincy was an August, and she, I had thought, was an August.

My father gazed serenely over her head and said, "You have every reason to. I woulnd'nt blame you if you took a gun and sht us all. Except for Quin and your son. They're the only ones of us ever had any git up and git." Nothing was more infuriating about my father than hs way of agreeing.

Uncle Quinn didn't meet us a Pennsylvania Station. If my father was disappointed, he didn't reveal it to me. It was after one o'lclock and all we had for lunch were two candy bars. By walking what seemed to me a very long way on pavements only a little broader than those ofmy home town, and not so clean, we reached the hotel, which seemed to sprout somehow from Grand Central Station...⁴

In paragraph three, the author has shifted from the scene on the platform to their arrival at the hotel. As a reader you should be noting the different places at which events occur. You should be asking as you read a paragraph, "What is going on here? Where is this occuring?"

In stories, authors will describe characters to help make a story more real or to set up actions that will relate to their abilities or personalities later. When an author introduces a character and spends some time describing that character, this is a paragraph that is a shift to a character. That is different that a paragraph in which a character is doing something, that is an action.

In the paragaraphs that follow, notice how the author shifts from describing the man to describing the dog. It is not what they are doing, but who and what they are that is the subject of the writing.As a reader, you should look at a paragraph and ask, "What is this telling me?" If it is describing a character, note the description and apply it later for comparisons or predictions.

He plunged in among the big spruce trees. The trail was faint. A foot of snow had fallen since the last sled had passed over, and he was glad he was without a sled, traveling light. In fact, he carried nothing but the lunch wrapped in the handkerchief. He was surprised, however, at the cold. It certainly was cold, he concluded, as he rubbed his numb nose and cheek-bones with his mittened hand. He was a warm-whiskered man, but the hair on his face did not protect the high cheek-bones and the eager nose that thrust itself aggressively into the frosty air.

At the man's heels trotted a dog, a big native husky, the proper wolf-dog, gray-coated and without any visible or temperamental difference from its brother, the wild wolf. The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew that it was not time for traveling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man's judgment.⁵

 

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Writers use paragraphs to make sure readers don't get confused as to who is speaking to whom in a dialogue sequence. This is particularly important when the dialogue is long, or the author omits using tags such as "John said", Mary sneered", or "Carl murmered", in order to make the dialogue sound more like real life speech. Note the dialogue below.

"What grade you in now, Raymond?"

"You got anything to say to my brother, you say it to me, Mary Louise Williams of Raggedy Town, Baltimore."

"What are you , his mother?" sasses Rosie.

"That' Right, Fatso. And the next word out of anybody and I'll be their mother too."⁶

In this dialogue there are three characters: Mary Louise, Rosie, and the narrator twice. As a reader you must keep track of who is saying what to whom and you should be able to use it later when recounting the story or discussing character or theme. What would it be like reading this dialogue if it were all in one paragraph?

 

References

¹ Reading and Understanding Nonfiction: Level 1. Jamestown Literature Program: Growth in Comprehension and Appreciation. Providence: Jamestown Publishers, Inc., 1990. 146.

² Reading and Understanding Nonfiction: Level 1. 146.

³ Reading and Understanding Short Stories: Level 1. Jamestown Literature Program: Growth in Comprehension and Appreciation. Providence: Jamestown Publishers, Inc., 1990. 70.

⁴ Harris, Raymond, ed. Best Short Stories: Middle Level. Providence: Jamestown Publishers, Inc., 1983. 407-408.

⁵ Harris, Raymond, ed. Best Short Stories: Middle Level. Providence: Jamestown Publishers, Inc., 1983. 65.

⁶ Harris, Raymond, ed. Best Short Stories: Middle Level. Providence: Jamestown Publishers, Inc., 1983. 118-119.

⁷ Harris, Raymond, ed. Best Short Stories: Middle Level. Providence: Jamestown Publishers, Inc., 1983. 328.