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Chapter 5: Reading Narrative Essays

Garrison Keillor tells a story from Lake Wobegan, the town where “all the women are

strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”(Click Here for a Garrison Keillor story)

http://www.amazon.com/Lake-Wobegon-Loyalty-Garrison-Keillor/dp/B000002SNB

Narrative writing traces its roots back to the oldest form of communication, storytelling. When reading a novel or a biography or stories about events in history, you are reading narrative writing. If given a choice about what to read, most people choose narrative writing because storytelling is usually more fun to read.

Even though narrative writing is often designed to entertain, it still uses the same organization as all other kinds of writing. Narrative writing has both a Topic (the person whose story is being told or events that are being recounted), and a Main Idea (what the author is proving about the main character or events through the story). The Support that proves the Main Idea in narrative writing is the story itself.

Here’s a narrative paragraph that illustrates this important concept:

James Earl JonesBy Wallace Terry

1At age fourteen, a gawky and

shy 2James Earl Jones was

transformed. 1Transplanted

from rural Mississippi, he felt

1The Introduction or background answers the questions:Who: “a gawky and shy James Earl Jones”When: “At age fourteen”Where: “Mississippi and Brethren, Michigan”

2The Topic of the essay (“James Earl Jones,”) plus the Main Idea (was transformed) equals

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out of place at Dickson High

School in Brethren, Michigan. 3His stutter was so pronounced

that he never spoke out in class.

Understandably, he often felt

alone. Jones found refuge in

writing poetry. 4One day in

class, 5he wrote a poem and

submitted it to his English

teacher. The teacher surprised

at how good it was, wondered

whether Jones had copied it,

and challenged Jones, “The best

way for you to prove that you

wrote this poem yourself, is to

recite it by heart to the class.”

Jones then walked to the front

of the room, thinking it would

be better to be laughed at for

stuttering than to be disgraced.

He was scared, but he opened

his mouth and began to speak.

To the astonishment of

everyone in the class, the words

flowed smoothly. The stutter

disappeared. 6He had stumbled

the Topic Sentence: (James Earl Jones was transformed).

3General Support: Notice how the sentences about Jones’s “stutter,” “not speaking out in class,” and “writing poetry” take place over extended periods of time and are not the moment-by-moment telling of the story.

4Transition phrase, One day in class, signals a move from General to Specific Support

5The Specific Support is the actual moment-by-moment storytelling. Notice that it includes only those details that support the Thesis Statement that “James Earl Jones was transformed.” Like all narrative writing, the story has a purpose: to support the Main Idea.

6Explanation for James Earl Jones’s transformation, necessary for technical or scientific support but not necessary otherwise.

7Transition Phrase He went on to become signals a transition from the moment-to-moment storytelling to the Conclusion.

8 The General Support backs the reader away from the moment-by-moment story to a brief overview of James Earl Jones’ future at “the University of Michigan” and in movies, completing the evidence for the Topic Sentence that James Earl Jones was

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upon what speech therapists

would one day discover: that

the written page can be a

stutterer’s salvation. 7He went

on to become 8a high school

public-speaking champion and

won a scholarship to the

University of Michigan. 9(Today, 9fifty years later), the voice of

James Earl Jones “including the

voice of Darth Vadar in the

movie Star Wars” is among the

most familiar in the world.

Wallace, Terry, “When His Sound Was Silenced,”Parade Magazine , December 1994

transformed.

9Transition Phrases Today and fifty years later, signal a transition from the past to the present at the end of the narrative.

Notice that the paragraph about James Earl Jones has an Introduction that sets the background for the story; a Topic Sentence that has the Topic (person who the story is about: James Earl Jones) and Main Idea (what the story will prove: that James Earl Jones was transformed); General Support (which takes place over an extended period of time); Specific Support (the moment-by-moment story itself); and the Conclusion (restates the Topic Sentence in different words and takes the reader a step further).

Pay special attention to two points this essay illustrates about narrative writing:

1. There is more to this story than a Topic. The paragraph is not only a story about James Earl Jones, but more importantly, also proves something about James Earl Jones – that he was transformed.

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2. Notice the difference between General and Specific Support in the narrative essay. The General Support takes place over a longer period of time and sets the stage for the moment-by-moment story that follows: “His stutter was so pronounced that he never spoke out in class. Understandably, he often felt alone. Jones found refuge in writing poetry.” These events are not a moment-by-moment story, but a summary of Jones’s experience over a two year period. Moreover, the information given is not a randomly selected set of experiences from Jones’s time in high school; rather the author selects only those experiences that prove the Main Idea: James Earl Jones was transformed.

The actual moment-by-moment story is the Specific Support. Readers witness James Earl Jones being confronted by his teacher and forced to read his poem in front of the class.

Look at the difference in General and Specific Support:

General Support Specific SupportHis stutter was so pronounced that he never spoke out in class. Understandably, he often felt alone. Jones found refuge in writing poetry.

(One day in class), he wrote a poem and submitted it to his English teacher. The teacher surprised at how good it was, wondered whether Jones had copied it, and challenged Jones, “The best way for you to prove that you wrote this poem yourself, is to recite it by heart to the class.” Jones then walked to the front of the room, thinking it would be better to be laughed at for stuttering than to be disgraced. He was scared, but he opened his mouth and began to speak. To the astonishment of everyone in the class, the words

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flowed smoothly. The stutter disappeared.

The General Support takes place over an extended period of narrative time, while the Specific Support is taking place in real time (moment-to-moment). With Specific Support, it’s as if the story is actually happening while we watch. Though both General and Specific Support in narrative writing, it’s the Specific Support that makes for the heart and soul of storytelling.

We see the same organization in a longer narrative essay. Consider an excerpt from Merle’s Door by Ted Kerasote, an excellent book about a very unusual dog. We’ve brought out the organization Kerasote uses with the following code:

The introduction that sets the context in the essay is in Italics. The Topic of the Thesis Statement is underlined and the Main

Idea is in Bold Type or double underline the Main Idea. The General Support Sentences that focus the story before the

moment-to-moment detail appear in Blue Type. The Specific Support Sentences that offer the moment-to-

moment detail of the story appear in Red Type. The transition words are in (Parentheses). The Conclusion that restates the Thesis appears in Green Type.

The excerpt takes place when Ted, while rafting on the San Juan River in southeastern Utah, first adopts an abandoned dog that he names Merle.

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Merle near the Grand Tetonshttp://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/imageviewer.asp?ean=9781616797287

Merle Makes His Choice

1We paddled down the San Juan River, 2the morning breeze cool, the sun sprin-kling the wavelets with glister with vertical cliffs of layered sandstone rising 500 feet on either side3. 1Pam Weiss and Bennett Austin, who had driven from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, were in one boat. Kim Reynolds, an Outward Bound instructor from Ridgway, Colorado, and I were in the other. 2As the canyon widened, opening upon a grassy shoreline, the dog sat up smartly on the cooler. A dozen cows grazed along the left bank, raising their heads to watch us pass. They were Navajo cattle,3the entire left bank of the San Juan River being the northern boundary of the Navajo Nation, which covers a sizeable portion of Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. 4I did not know it, but the dog we had found abandoned

1Introduction that provides background and context for the story—answers the newspaper reporter’s questions: who, where, and when.

2General Support Sentences that set the stage for the moment-by-moment story that follows.

3Notice how in this essay the Introduction and General Support are woven together.

4Thesis Statement with the Topic: the dog

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along the river was about to make a life changing decision.

5The dog gave the cattle a sharp, excited look, and leapt off the cooler. Flying through the air with his front and back legs extended, he hit the water in a mushroom of spray. He surfaced and began to paddle rapidly to the shore. Scrambling up the rocky bank, he shook himself once, and, as the cows watched in disbelief, he sprinted directly at them. They wheeled and galloped downriver.

Nose and tail extended, he chased after them, his wet coat flashing reddish-gold in the sunlight. Through willow and cactus he sprinted, closing the distance with remarkable speed and cutting out the smallest call with an expert flanking movement. Coming abreast of the calf's hindquarter, he forced it away from the herd and toward the cliffs. It was clear he intended to corner it against the rocks and kill it.

Stunned, we watched in silence. Besides, what could we do? Yell, "Hey, dog, stop!"? Yet something about his behavior told me that he hadn't totally lost himself to that hardwired state into which dogs disappear when they lock onto fleeing prey. Focused solely on the animal fleeing before them, they can run for miles, losing track of where they or their humans might be.

and the Main Idea: a life changing decision.

5The moment-by-moment story that proves the Thesis (Merle made a life changing decision).Notice how the story seems to happen in real time.

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This dog wasn't doing that. As he coursed alongside the terrified calf, he kept glancing toward the raft and the kayaks, heading downriver to a bend that would take us out of sight. And I could see that he was calculating two mutually exclusive outcomes: the juicy calf and the approaching cliffs where he'd corner it, or the fast-retreating boats and the family he had found.

I saw him glance again at the bend of the river where we'd vanish—and right there I realized that dogs could think abstractly. The calf was as real as real could be, a potential meal right now. The boat people, their Purina Dog Chow, and the affection they shared with him were no more than memories of the past and ideas about the future, or however these English words translate in the mind of a dog.

Instant gratification ... future benefits. The choices seemed clear. And mind you, we weren't calling or waving to him. Without a word, we floated silently down the river.

He chose the future. He broke off his chase in midstride, cut right, streaking past the group of startled cows who had gathered in a protective huddle. Reaching the bank, he raced along its rocky apron, trying to gain as much ground on us as he could before having to swim. Faced by willow, he leapt—again legs stretched fore and aft, ears flapping like wings—before belly

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crashing into the water. Paddling with determination, he set a course downriver that would intercept our float.

After a long haul—mouth open, breathing hard, eyes riveted upon us—He swam to the raft, allowing Benj to haul him in. Standing on the cooler, he shook himself vigorously, then reclined in his sphinx position to let the sun dry his fur. 6Merle had chosen.

6A short but effective Conclusion that backs the reader out of the narrative and restates the Main Idea.

Kerasote, Ted. Merle’s Door, Orlando, Harcourt, 2008

Merle and Ted on the San Juan Riverhttp://www.kerasote.com/MerleLifePictures.html

San Juan River – “The Goosenecks”http://parkerlab.bio.uci.edu/pictures/photography

%20pictures/bigthumbs/screenGoosnecks%20of%20San%20Juan%20river.jpg

Notice that the longer essay about Merle the dog, has the same organization as the shorter essay about James Earl Jones. If you compare the two essays carefully, you’ll see that the Introduction, the Topic Sentence/Thesis Statement, the General Support, and the

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Conclusion are similar. What is different is the Specific Support—the moment-by-moment story, which is more detailed in the longer essay.

An important difference in Narrative writing when compared to other kinds of essays is once the Specific Support (the moment-by-moment story) begins, the writer continues with the details of the story until completion. With other kinds of essays, the writer moves from the General (what the writer is proving about the Topic) to the Specific (examples, quotes, data) that provide the detailed evidence. However, the other kinds of essays then move to the second General Support followed by the specific. Next, other kinds of essays move to the third General Support followed by the Specific. This alternation between general and specific support continues until the writer believes she has proved her Main Idea about the Topic. Here’s an example from a paragraph in Chapter 3.

[TOPIC SENTENCE]: The thing I noticed about the great white shark was its immense size and power. [GENERAL SUPPORT 1]: I suppose I had known, intellectually, anyway, that a white shark might be as long as a whaler, but I didn’t expect it to be as wide as the boat too. [SPECIFIC SUPPORT 1]: Here, for context, are some measurements: a twenty-foot white shark is eight feet wide and six feet deep. That’s wider than a Suburban, as wide as a Mack truck. That’s wider than Yao Ming is tall. [GENERAL SUPPORT 2]: “Stumpy”, a female white known for her hunting skills, has amazing size and power. [SPECIFIC SUPPORT 2]: She was nineteen feet long and weighed five thousand pounds. Using rows of three inch long, razor sharp teeth and a mouth that could extend a full five feet high, she could polish off a five-hundred pound elephant seal in three minutes flat. [GENERAL SUPPORT 3]: In a BBC documentary, a camera caught Stumpy attacking a surf board. [SPECIFIC SUPPORT 3]: During the first furious hit, the board snapped in two and shot 20 feet into the air, and as the camera recorded the wreckage, Stumpy resurfaced and gave the bobbling pieces a fierce backhand with her tail, before swimming off grumpily in search of real food.

Casey, Susan, The Devil’s Teeth: A True Story of Obsession and Survival Among America’s Great White Sharks, Henry Holt and Company, 2005

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Comparing the Merle’s Door narrative essay with the Great White Shark illustration paragraph, you can see the difference in how the writer uses support sentences to prove his/her Main Idea.

Here are steps you can use to identify the organization of the narrative essays, articles, and books you read in college:

Engage

Question

Focus

Investigate

Understand

1. Engage: Read the paragraph once through carefully. Listen to what the paragraph has to say.

2. Question: Underline the unknowns (people, places, events, vocabulary) that you have questions about. Use the book, dictionary, computer, or ask for help to find the answers.

3. Focus: Identify the topic. What is the reading about?

4. Investigate: Identify the support sentences (the detailed narrative or story in the essay)

5. Understand: Answer the following questions:

In your own words what is the writer’s opinion about the topic? Support your position with words, sentences, and ideas from in the essay.

How does the support reveal the writer’s opinion about the topic?

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What sentence in the essay reflects the topic and the writer’s opinion about the topic.

By asking and answering questions, you interact with the reading, making it possible to understand, remember, and apply what you’ve read.

Use each the above steps in the following practice exercises

Practice 1. In the narrative essay below, also an excerpt from the book Merle’s Door, by Ted Kerasote, complete the following.

Part 1: Define or explain the following terms:

Nemesis:

The coyote's obvious contempt:

Wild paroxysms of glee:

Counted coup:

Dominance:

He pulsed with elation:

Mastery of his environment:

Part 2. In the following essay, identify the organizational structure

according to the following code:

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Put the Introduction designed to give background or get the reader’s interest in Italics.Underline and put in bold print the Thesis Statement for the essay.Put the Topic Sentence in Blue Type. Put the Support Sentences in Red Type.Put (parentheses) around the Transition Words and Phrases that signal the Topic Sentence of Support Paragraphs.Put [brackets] around the Transition Words and Phrases that signal specific support or examples.Put the Conclusion that restates the Main Idea in different words and takes the reader a step further in Green Type.

Part 3. As you read, notice your thoughts, especially the three kinds of thoughts covered in Chapter1:

1. Random Thoughts that just pop into your mind. “I wish I had some coffee like the girl has at the table across the aisle. It sure looks good!” “I wonder if it’s going to rain because I need to walk to the bus after class.” “I’ve got to remember to call my mother this afternoon to see if I can borrow the car,” and on and on.

2. Judgments about people, events in your life, or the essay. “This essay [or just one idea in the essay] is good or bad, interesting or boring, worthwhile, or worthless,” and so on.

3. Negative self-thoughts. “I’m not understanding any of this stuff because I’ve never been any good at reading and never will be! It’s better to give up now and cut my losses.”

Choose one instance as you read the passage when you had one of above types of thoughts and record it here:

Practice letting go of the thought and bringing your attention back to the reading.

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Use the following scale to rate how difficult it was for you to let go of the thought and return your attention to the reading.

_____ Easy       _____ Somewhat Easy

_____ Somewhat Hard      _____ Hard

Merle Takes a Coyote

Merle’s mastery of his environment extended beyond other dogs and

children to his old nemesis, Coyotes. We were walking down the

river road—I thinking about some intractable paragraphs of an

article I was writing for an outdoors magazine, Merle loping ahead,

deep in his world of odors. To our right was an irrigation ditch,

overgrown with tall summer grass, and beyond it stretched a mowed

field of alfalfa, used to feed the horses and longhorns on the

neighboring Teton Valley Ranch.

Suddenly, Merle's nose whipped right. In the same motion, he leapt

into the ditch. Out popped a coyote, Merle in hot pursuit. The coyote

glanced over its shoulder and adopted the disdainful lope that

coyotes have when being chased by dogs: "You catch me? Right."

Perhaps it was the coyote's obvious contempt for him, or the

memory of the coyote pack beating him up, that sent Merle into a

startling burst of speed. The coyote must have heard him coming. It

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looked back and its eyes bugged out—Merle was a stride away. The

coyote began to run in panic; Merle kept apace; and I watched in

silence. This was a score to be settled without any interference from

me.

A moment later Merle surged upon the coyote, striking it on the its left

side with his right shoulder and knocking it off its feet. That’s all he did.

As the coyote regained its footing and fled with its tail between its legs,

Merle turned and sprinted back to me, cleared the irrigation ditch in a

bound, landed on the road where I stood in amazement, and began to

turn circles in the air, barking in wild paroxysms of glee. This was a

special occasion. He had finally counted coup of the coyotes, and in one

of the most elemental ways that dogs can show their dominance—by

pushing another dog with a blow of the shoulder or hip.

I knelt by him and stroked my hands over his head while he stared into

the field where the coyote had disappeared. Eyes aglow, he pulsed with

elation.

“You are a big dog now!” I exclaimed.

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Merle with author Ted Kerasotehttp://www.facebook.com/TedKerasote?sk=wall&filter=2#!/media/set/?set=a.147821891920908.23724.147821068587657

Practice 2. In the narrative essay below, an excerpt from the book, Merle’s Door, by Ted Kerasote, complete the following.

Part 1: Define or explain the following terms:

magisterial airs:

those dogs who tried to fawn over him:

a tow-headed boy:

serenely:

epitome of canine sobriety:

façade:

finesse:

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Merle drifted back to his studied pose, the guardian watching

over his children:

Part 2. In the following essay, identify the organizational structure

according to the following code:

Underline and put in bold print the Thesis Statement, which includes the Topic (who or what event your story is about), and the Main Idea (what the author will prove about the Topic through telling the story).Put the General Support that sets the stage for the moment-by-moment story in Blue Type.Put the Supporting Detail of the moment-by-moment story in Red Type. Put the Conclusion that restates the Topic Sentence in different words in Green Type.

Merle and the Ice Cream Cone

Merle was full grown now and confident of his ability. He had always

been friendly to the other dogs in Kelly [Wyoming], but I now noticed

that he took on magisterial airs with those dogs who tried to fawn

over him. With children, Merle became more bold, more willing to take

advantage of opportunity. I had never seen him try to steal food from

anyone, especially children, but this now changed. He was sitting next

to one of my good friends’ daughter and one of her friends, a tow-

headed four-year-old boy named Petey, who, along with Tessa and

some other children, was watching the rodeo in Jackson. The

children's eyes were fixed on the barrel racing while Merle gazed

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serenely into the distance, the epitome of canine sobriety, a being for

whom the rodeo, even with its horses and manure smells, presented

no attraction. This was a facade, and it wouldn't be his last. The

moment Petey absentmindedly let his ice-cream cone dangle from his

hand, Merle leaned toward him without moving a paw, and, with a

quiet roll of his tongue, whisked the scoop of vanilla ice cream from

the cone with such finesse that Petey never knew it was gone.

Swallowing his treat, Merle drifted back to his studied pose, the

guardian watching over his children. A moment later, Petey raised his

ice-cream cone to his mouth and found nothing. "Waaaa!" He burst

into tears, and Merle glanced this way and that with a startled look on

his face: "What?! What happened? Is everything all right? What can I

do?" Merle knew that when it came to children, he was the top dog.

***************

Writing Journal: What experiences with animals are you reminded of in reading the episodes from Merle’s Door?

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Chapter Review Questions

1. The chapter on the Narrative essay states: “There is more to this story (James Earl Jones) than a Topic.” The Topic must be part of a Topic Sentence. Which statement best fits what the topic must be paired with to develop a Topic Sentence? (multiple choice)(Click Here to review James_Earl_Jones Essay)

a. The essay must have not only a Topic but the topic must be included with the Introduction: Background statements including where James Earl Jones was born.

b. The essay must have not only a Topic but the topic must be included with the Support Sentences like “James Earl Jones took refuge in writing poetry.”

c. The essay must have not only a Topic but the topic must be included with the concluding sentence: “The voice of James Earl Jones “including the voice of Darth Vadar in the movie Star Wars” is among the most familiar in the world.”

d. The essay must have not only a Topic but the topic must be included with the Main Idea: “James Earl Jones was transformed.”

2. In the James Earl Jones essay, what phrase signals a transition to Specific Support (the story with details)? (multiple choice)

a. (One day in class)b. (Transplanted from rural Mississippi)c. (Today, fifty years later)d. (James Earl Jones was transformed.)

3. What is a major difference in the Support in a Narrative Essay compared with other kinds of writing? (multiple choice)

(Click Here for Chapter Review on differences in Narrative and other writing)a. Once the specific support begins in Narrative writing, it continues

until the story is completed.

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b. The Specific Support comes before the General Support in Narrative writing.

c. The Thesis Statement in Narrative writing always has the Main Idea before the Topic.

d. Narrative writing does not have General Support sentences.

4. Put in your own words (paraphrase) what each of the following steps suggest you do to read an essay effectively: (fill-in-the-blank)

(Click Here for Chapter Review: Steps_in_Reading_a_Narrative_Essay)

a. Engage

b. Question

c. Focus

d. Investigate

e. Understand

5. What are the three kinds of thoughts that cause students to lose focus in reading. (fill-in-the-blank)

(Click Here for Review)

Barrier thought 1.

Barrier thought 2.

Barrier thought 3.