Narrative Examples

Narrative is writing that tells a story. It has a sequence of events, the plot. Narratives also have characters and a setting, as well as a narrator or person from whose point of view the story is told.

When your friend tells a story about seeing a deer on the way to school, he or she is using characteristics of a narrative.

Fairy tales are narratives. The plot typically begin with "Once upon a time ..." and end with "happily ever after."

Novels that you read are narratives. For example the Harry Potter series is a set of books that relate the story of Harry's education as a wizard at Hogwarts, and his fight against the evil Voldemort.

Another novel, Charlotte's Web, tells the story of how a young pig's life is saved by a spider who writes words about him in her web.

Plays also have narrative plots. For example, Romeo and Juliet tells the story of two young lovers whose families' hatred of each other leads to their untimely deaths.

Another play, Macbeth, tells the story of the ambitious Macbeth and his wife, who plot to kill the king, and then instead of gaining power, their plot is found out.

Sometimes, poetry can be narrative. For example, "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe tells the story of a man whose young wife died, but he goes and sits in her tomb to be near her.