Stories within novels are often referred to as “narratives” or “plotlines.” They can be a single sentence, paragraph, page, chapter, or an entire novel. Stories include characters and settings that help move the narrative forward. These stories may be fictional but they are not always based on real life events. Narrative techniques enable authors to create stories with a variety of effects; some stories have happy endings while others do not. Here we provide examples of narratives in different forms of literature and discuss how these techniques contribute to the story’s overall effect on readers.
Narrative Techniques: stories within novels are often referred to as “narratives” or “plotlines.” They can be a single sentence, paragraph, page, chapter, or an entire novel. Stories include characters and settings that help move the narrative forward. These stories may be fictional but they are not always based on real life events. Narrative techniques enable authors to create stories with a variety of effects; some stories have happy endings while others do not. Here we provide examples of narratives in different forms of literature and discuss how these techniques contribute to the story’s overall effect on readers.
Examples In Literature: The Hunger Games is written from Katniss Everdeen’s perspective throughout most of the book; however there are moments when the narrator changes to a third-person perspective, typically for an important event. In the first chapter of The Lion King, we are introduced to Scar as he murders Mufasa and then convinces Simba that it was his fault.
Narrative Techniques: narrative techniques enable authors to create stories with a variety of effects; some stories have happy endings while others do not. Here we provide examples of narratives in different forms of literature and discuss how these techniques contribute to the story’s overall effect on readers. There is no “right way” or one correct technique because every novel has its own purpose for using any number of storytelling tools so exploring them all would take forever! However there are three major types that dominate modern literary fiction:
Thesis: stories within novels are often referred to as narratives and the way in which they’re told through narrators, dialogue, or flashback scenes affects a reader’s experience.
stories within novels are often referred to as narratives and the way in which they’re told through narrators, dialogue, or flashback scenes affects a reader’s experience.
Narrative Techniques
narrative techniques enable authors to create stories with different effects on readers; some have happy endings while others do not. Here we provide examples of narratives from various types of literature and discuss how these tools contribute to the story’s overall effect on readers. There is no “right” technique because every novel has its own purpose for using narrators, dialogue, or flashbacks in addition to other literary devices such as symbolism and foreshadowing.
Examples
Narrative Techniques: Atwood uses a first person narrator who tells her life story over three parts beginning during childhood; continuing into adolescence when she begins studying at an elite school where boys are admitted only if they pass special tests (a reflection of the gender bias in society); and finally, an adulthood that finds her dealing with personal loss.
Narrative Techniques: In this novel, Steinbeck tells stories about a group of people who live together on California’s Salinas Valley during the Great Depression. His technique here is to tell their story from multiple perspectives so as to capture both individual experience and collective history
Narration Technique: When reading “A Tale of Two Cities,” one will notice Dickens uses many different narrators throughout his work some telling only brief segments while others provide lengthy chunks of text or dialogue. These techniques are useful because they allow for maximum understanding between characters living in vastly different times periods (the French Revolution era versus Victorian London). With these contrasting settings, Dickens can build a complex web of stories and attitudes.
Point of View: There are many different points of view in “A Tale of Two Cities.” One thing to note is that the style differs depending on who is narrating, which creates an effect where readers feel like they’re seeing into the minds and thoughts of multiple characters simultaneously. Pierre’s sections feel much more grounded as he tells his story with disillusioned realism while Sydney Carton’s passages display some level optimism or hope because they come from someone who seems less attached to reality than Pierre does
Perspective: Author James Joyce used perspective (and point-of-view) extensively throughout his work partially through stream-of consciousness writing techniques.
