English Language Arts

Analysing
NARRATIVE
TEXTS
Reading Standards for Literature
 Learning
OBJECTIVES
This presentation, along with the accompanying resources, should equip
students with the necessary skills required to achieve the following:

Consider how elements

Analyse the impact of the
develop in a story and/or

01 author's choices in narrative

conventions on the reader’s
response to a text.
02 relate to one another in
order to achieve a particular
purpose.
 Introduction

Purpose

Effects

Themes & Ideas Focus of

Readings ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
When we use the term 'narrative conventions', we are referring to the tools and/or
building blocks a writer uses when creating a story. These are carefully selected and
shaped so that it can be understood, visualised, and enjoyed by the reader. There are a
range of written text types that include elements of narrative such as short stories, novels
and drama scripts but we can also consider how visual texts such as short films and
feature films employ them.

When examining any text, there are a number of aspects you can be asked to discuss. Our
focus for this unit is on analysing narrative texts by considering how the author's choices
impact the story and how various narrative elements interact with one another to achieve
an overall purpose or effect. So before we recap some of these story elements, let's
consider the following...
PURPOSE
The study of literature is a philosophical pursuit, and so
it has changed over time.

In an early era of textual analysis, the meaning of a text

was thought to lie solely in the writer’s mind, so that
understanding a text required you to know a lot about
the author. Other critics began to argue that the
meaning of a text lies, instead, solely in the reader.

Today, the preferred method of literary analysis is a

combination of the two: it's good to consider the
author's context and intention but the meaning we
make from texts can also depend on our own personal
context and interpretation.
PURPOSE
For what purpose was the text created?

When discussing the overall purpose of a text, we might consider

how it does one or more of the following:

• Explore a theme - A topic or subject explored in a text which is

important in the real world, usually about human experience.

• Convey ideas - One or more comments made about a theme.

• To challenge or endorse particular values, attitudes & beliefs

• Position reader response – how the author deliberately positions

us to think or feel about the subjects they examine.
EFFECT
All texts aim to provoke a response in its audience,
whether that be an emotional response or an
intellectual one.

After reading a text for the first time, you should

always ask yourself what your response to the text is.

Closely examining the vocabulary used as well as the

author's deliberate choices and construction of
narrative elements will reveal how you have been
positioned by the writer to respond in that particular
way.

Sometimes your response will also be influnced by

factors outside the text.
EFFECT
How does the text impact the reader?

When discussing the overall effect of a text, we might

consider how it invites one or more of the following:

• Emotional Response - How a reader is positioned to feel

about the characters and/or events.

• Intellectual Response - What a reader is positioned to

think, believe or understand now because of the
story.

• Personal Response - Whether a reader agrees or

disagrees with the ideas communicated by the story
and how their unique identity, circumstances,
opinions, values and/or beliefs affect the way that
they respond to the story
READINGS
How do you interpret the text?

It's important to remember that we may not always be

looking for what the author intended, but can look at
different ways of reading a text that produce different
interpretations.

There will always be a dominant or invited meaning of a text

and it will usually be the one that you immediately arrive at
after your first reading. But other meanings may also be
available: a resistant reading is one where you reject the
values and/or assumptions that underpin a story to produce
a contradictory meaning than the one originally intended,
and an alternate reading is one where you interrogate the
values and assumptions made by a text, often to consider the
story from a different point of view.
 THEMES & IDEAS
A theme is the main subject explored by a text
and it often conveys a message or moral.
That message will be about life, society or
human nature. Themes often explore
timeless and universal topics and are almost
always implied rather than stated explicitly.
Along with plot, character, setting and style,
theme is considered one of the fundamental
components of fiction.
When discussing themes of a text, you say
that a theme is explored or developed by the
text.
Ideas, on the other hand, are always
comments about topics or issues: the idea
that the human spirit can survive terrible
deprivations; that humans can be selfish;
that people will one day be able to live in
space; that parents can try to fulfil their own
ambitions through their children. You might
start with a general theme but you should
always try to state it as a series of explicit
ideas.
When discussing ideas evident in a text you
say that an idea is presented, raised,
proposed, interrogated, promoted or
criticised in a text.
 Character

Setting

Point of View

Plot Structure Narrative

Style & Language ELEMENTS
ANALYSIS
We're going to recap some of the main elements of
narrative that you might interrogate when
determining how a text is constructed to fulfil a
particular purpose or when considering how you've
reached a particular interpretation.

It's important not to look at each of these elements in

isolation, but to consider how they develop over the
course of a narrative as well as how they interact with
one another to form a complete story and work
towards communicating particular themes and ideas.
CHARACTER
Consider how writers construct, present and reveal characters in
order to position our response to them.

When analysing characters, we can look at:

• Their role in the text e.g. protagonist, antagonist,

supporting, minor
• Direct and indirect speech
• Physical appearance - body type, facial features,
clothing
• Thoughts and personality
• Behaviour and actions
• Sybolic objects
• Relationships and interactions with other characters
CHARACTER
When analysing characters remember:

• They often represent things about human beings that the author
has observed. Look out for what the author might be exploring
about human behaviour.

• They are not real. Discuss how they have been constructed,
rather than write about them as though they are real people.

• The protagonist isn't going to be perfect or likeable. They should

represent the flaws and weaknesses of everyday people.

• As the protagonist develops, the reader learns about conflict

resolution.
SETTING
Consider the writer's choice in the time, place, social conditions and
atmosphere created in the narrative

When analysing setting, we can look at:

• Time - The time of day, year, season, historical era
• Place - The room, building, town, state or country.
Consider the associations of particular places e.g.
indoor, outdoor, rural, urban, beaches, school,
mountains etc.
• Mood or atmosphere - The feelings associated with the
setting

Setting relies heavily on descriptive language, precise

word choice and connotation (the ideas and feelings
associated with particular words).
SETTING
When analysing setting remember:

• Settings are described to help engage the reader's

five senses.

• Look at how the weather contributes to the mood of

the setting or the emotions of the characters e.g. rain
for sadness or sunshine for joy.

• Look for big places (like towns) and small places (like
rooms).

• We don't always need to know when the story is set,

particularly when the author intends the story to be
read at any time so that it has universal meaning.
POINT OF VIEW
Consider how the distance between the reader and the characters
and the perspective through which we view the events of the story
influence our response.

When analysing point of view, think about the effect of:

• First Person - represents the events from the
perspective of one character and privileges their
viewpoint over others
• Second Person - addresses the reader directly and the
reader becomes a character in the story
• Third Person Omniscient - The narrator knows all and
sees all. Lots of information provided about all
characters’ feelings, desires and motivations.
• Third Person Limited - More distanced than first person
but narrator focuses on the thoughts and feelings of
one character.
POINT OF VIEW
When analysing point of view remember:

• The narrator is not the author. A writer can adopt a

certain voice or persona when telling the story.

• Second person P.O.V is rarely used apart from 'choose

your own adventure' stories.

• Some stories have more than one narrator for creative

effect.

• Some first person narrators tell their own story in a way

we call 'unreliable', which means they may say things that
are untrue or biased because they do not know the whole
truth. This can make a story engaging.
PLOT
Consider the sequence of events and the organisation of these
elements so that they generate interest, suspense and surprise for
the reader.

When analysing plot, think about the effect of:

• Exposition/Orientation - reader learns background
information needed to understand the story
• Rising Action - protagonist faces a series of challenges
or complications that create suspense
• Climax - the highest point of tension where the reader
realises who or what is going to succeed in winning
the conflict
• Resolution - the final outcome of the conflict, whether
it is resolved or unresolved
• Reorientation (Optional) - Usually indicates the end of
the story usually a happy ending or sad ending.
PLOT
When analysing plot structure remember:

• Other common structural features in stories including

foreshadowing, flashbacks, flash forwards, withholding and surprise
revelations.

• Readers learn about life through characters' struggles and

experiences.

• Readers enjoy the tension and suspense of stories, as well as the

sense of relief when the tension is broken.

• The exposition is usually about one quarter of the story and the
climax usually takes place about three quarters into the story.

• It's usually through the conflict and resolution that we identify the
theme or message of the story.
STYLE
Consider how the selection of vocabulary, sentence
structures, imagery and tone combine to give the writing a
certain feel or style.

When analysing style, think about the effect of:

• Diction - specific choice of words including word
class and connotation
• Syntax - the structure length and arrangements
of sentences through repetition and patterning
• Language features e.g.descriptive language and
sensory imagery, figurative language etc.
• Punctuation - and its effect on meaning
• Tone and mood conveyed
• Other structural features not mentioned under plot
STYLE
When analysing style remember:

• The writer's choices are intentional, and they desire to have a

specific effect on the reader.

• Specific style choices are used to trigger an emotional response

from the reader.

• Keep an eye out for patterns that make the writer's work distinctive
from others.

• When analysing style be sure to identify the correct technique

being used and consider both its general effect and specific effect
within the text.
 YOUR TURN
To recap, there are a number of things you might be required to discuss as part of your analysis
of narratives. Each story is unique and different authors will have different approaches to
structuring and styling their work depending on their purpose. These will influence the way you
read and respond to the text.

We're now going to apply this knowledge by reading and analysing a range of narrative texts,
considering how the author's deliberate construction of the text shapes our interpretation.

Good luck!