Examples of Narrative Essays in Literature

Example #1: New Directions (by Maya Angelou)

“Annie, over six feet tall, big-boned, decided that she would not go to work as
a domestic and leave her “precious babes” to anyone else’s care. There was
no possibility of being hired at the town’s cotton gin or lumber mill, but maybe
there was a way to make the two factories work for her. In her words, “I looked
up the road I was going and back the way I come, and since I wasn’t satisfied,
I decided to step off the road and cut me a new path.” She told herself that
she wasn’t a fancy cook but that she could “mix groceries well enough to
scare hungry away and keep from starving a man.”

This paragraph is an example from a narrative essay of Maya Angelou. She

has described how a girl looks, and how she behaves. She has also written
direct dialogues to show that it is a narrative.

Narrative Example #2: Saturday Evening Post (by Russell Baker)

“When I burst in that afternoon she was in conference with an executive of the Curtis Publishing
Company. She introduced me. He bent low from the waist and shook my hand. Was it true as my
mother had told him, he asked, that I longed for the opportunity to conquer the world of business?

My mother replied that I was blessed with a rare determination to make something of myself.

‘That’s right,’ I whispered.

‘But have you got the grit, the character, the never-say-quit spirit it takes to succeed in business?’

My mother said I certainly did.”

In this piece from a narrative essay by Russell Baker of the famed Saturday Evening Post, the author has
fully described the efforts of his mother by her dialogue. Both character and dialogue are very clear

Example #2: We Are Training Our Kids to Kill (by Dave Grossman)

“Our society needs to be informed about these crimes, but when the images
of the young killers are broadcast on television, they become role models. The
average preschooler in America watches 27 hours of television a week. The
average child gets more one-on-one communication from TV than from all her
parents and teachers combined. The ultimate achievement for our children is
to get their picture on TV. The solution is simple, and it comes straight out of
the sociology literature: The media have every right and responsibility to tell
the story, but they must be persuaded not to glorify the killers by presenting
their images on TV.”
This is an excerpt from Grossman’s essay. He is clearly convincing the public
about the violent television programs and their impacts on the kids. See how
strong his arguments are in favor of his topic.

Example #3: The Real Skinny (by Belinda Luscombe)

“And what do we the people say? Do we rise up and say, ‘I categorically

refuse to buy any article of clothing unless the person promoting it weighs
more than she did when she wore knee socks?’ Or at least, ‘Where do I send
the check for the chicken nuggets?’ Actually, not so much. Mostly, our
responses range from ‘I wonder if that would look good on me?’ to ‘I don’t
know who that skinny-ass cow is, but I hate her already.’

Just check the strength of the argument of Belinda Luscombe about

purchasing things. The beauty of her writing is that she has made her readers
think by asking rhetorical questions and answering them.

Descriptive Paragraph
1. Describe: I am going to DESCRIBE a sunset!
Sunset is the time of day when our sky meets the outer space solar winds. There are
blue, pink, and purple swirls, spinning and twisting, like clouds of balloons caught in a
whirlwind. The sun moves slowly to hide behind the line of horizon, while the moon
races to take its place in prominence atop the night sky. People slow to a crawl,
entranced, fully forgetting the deeds that must still be done. There is a coolness, a
calmness, when the sun does set.