You narrative elements are forms that help in the succession of events and actions (plot), in the presentation and identification of the agents involved in the plot (characters), in the spatial description of where the events occur (space) and in the recognition of the context of the story (time). All these elements are presented and evidenced by a narrator based on his point of view (narrative focus).
Read too: Narrative genre — texts that tell a story and feature specific elements
Summary of narrative elements
The five elements of narrative they seek to establish: what happens (the fact); when it happens (the time); where it takes place (the setting); how it happens (the plot); and who says what happens (the narrator).
The plot is the element responsible for the construction of the story and is structured, in its standard form, in presentation, complication, climax and ending.
The narrator is the one who assigns a narrative focus, that is, a point of view. It can be a first-person or third-person narrator.
Time is the moment when the story takes place. This moment can be chronological or psychological.
Space is where the narrative takes place. Like time, it has a physical and a psychological composition.
Video lesson on narrative elements
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What are the five elements of narrative?
The narrative presents as basic elements of its composition: the fact (what will be narrated); time (which may be chronological or psychological); the setting (the place where the event took place); the plot (the sequence of events); and narrative focus (the narrator's perspective, the narrator's point of view). Together these elements seek to answer the following questions within the narrative:
What happened? (fact)
When happened? (time)
Where did it happen? (scenery)
How did it happen? (plot)
Who says (and how does it say) what happened? (storyteller)
Next, we will analyze each of the elements of the narrative with their respective developments.
Plot
The plot is the element responsible for the construction of the succession of events, that is, of the events and facts within the narrative universe that makes up the story. O plot has a standard structure known as:
Presentation: the introduction of characters, time and space of the narrative occurs. It situates the reader offering the necessary initial information to follow the story.
Complication: consists of a fact or action that changes the course of the narrative, presenting a conflict.
Climax: considered the high point of the story, it is more evident in investigative plots, in which it is reached at the moment of revelation of the criminals, for example. In other situations, the climax may work more subtly, but it is common in stories that have twists and turns.
outcome: can be characterized as the resolution of the conflict. It is also possible, in several cases, for the outcome to present an open interpretation or to bring a tie to a continuity of the plot in the future. This last resource is often used in trilogies or works with several sequels.
Although the plot has the aforementioned standard structure, it is possible to find stories that do not follow the conventional model. There are plots that start at the end and return to the presentation, and there are also those that subtract some of the elements. When the plot does not follow the standard structure, it is called a not linear.
See the following example of the structure of a plot:
Once upon a time there was a needle, which she said to a ball of thread:
"Why are you looking so full of yourself, all wrapped up, to pretend you're worth anything in this world?"
“Leave me, ma'am.
— Let her? Let her leave, why? Why do I tell you you look unbearable? Again, yes, and I will speak whenever I think about it.
— What head, madam? The lady is not a pin, she is a needle. Needle has no head. What does my air matter to you? Each one has the air that God has given him. Take care of your life and leave that of others.
“But you are proud.
— I'm sure I am.
- But why?
- It's good! Because I sew Then our mistress's dresses and ornaments, who sews them but me?
- You? This one is better now. Are you the one who sews them? Do you not know that it is me who sews them, and a lot of me?
— You pierce the cloth, nothing more; I'm the one who sews, I attach one piece to the other, I shape the ruffles...
— Yes, but what is it worth? I'm the one who pierces the cloth, I go ahead, pulling for you, who comes behind, obeying what I do and command...
— The scouts also go ahead of the emperor.
'Are you emperor?'
“I don't say that. But the truth is that you play a subordinate role, moving forward; it just shows the way, it goes on doing the obscure and insignificant work. I'm the one who arrests, connects, puts together...
(...)
In “An Apology” (Machado de Assis), the opening sentence “once upon a time there was a needle, who told a ball of thread” already indicates some plot elements: time (the “was” refers to a distant moment) and the characters (the ball and the needle). The conflict occurs in the discomfort that the needle has in the face of the function and importance attributed to the ball of thread.
Read too: Author and narrator — what are the differences?
Storyteller
In a narrative text, the storyteller It is one of the most important elements of the narrative. It is through it that the reader has contact with the events, becomes familiar with the setting and creates bonds of proximity or distance with the characters. the narrator is responsible for establishing the narrative focus, that is, the point of view or angle from which the reader will have access to the story.
So the narrator can be in first or third person. The first-person narrator can be either the main character or the witness character. The first is at the center of the events of the plot. The second is a supporting character and narrates the deeds and events of another (protagonist).
The third-person narrator can be observer, omniscient neutral, and omniscient intruder. The so-called observant narrator is outside, but has some inside information about the story. On the other hand, omniscient narrators (neutral and intruder) are able to expose the characters' feelings and thoughts. The difference between them is that the first, the neutral omniscient, does not interfere with opinions and value judgments, while this practice is recurrent in the second, the intruder omniscient.
For some time I hesitated whether to open these memories at the beginning or at the end, that is, whether to put my birth or my death first. Supposed common usage is to begin at birth, two considerations led me to adopt a different method: The first is that I am not exactly a deceased author, but a deceased author, for whom the grave was another cradle; the second is that the writing would thus be more gallant and newer. Moses, who also told of his death, did not put it in the introduction, but in the cape; radical difference between this book and the Pentateuch. That said, I expired at two o'clock on a Friday afternoon in August 1869, at my beautiful farm in Catumbi. He was about sixty-four years old, strong and prosperous, he was single, he had about three hundred contos and I was accompanied to the cemetery by eleven friends.
The excerpt shown belongs to the work The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas, in which we have a story being told by a first-person narrator and character. In the text it is possible to find the marks of use of the first person in the verbs. In addition, the narrator gives indications that the narrative will begin with his death. The ordering and organization, as well as the views on the other characters, take place from a perspective: the view of a narrator, a deceased character. To deepen your studies on narrator types, read: types of narrator.
Time
time is the moment when the story happens. Therefore, it can occur in two ways: chronological or psychological. Regarding the first, it may be the century in which the narrative takes place (17th century), the year (1990), the day (April 6) or even the hours or minutes (at 5 pm). Psychological time, on the other hand, can pass in the character's head when, for example, she makes reference to or remembers an event in her life.
He looked at the domino at that moment. Without thinking, she bought it. Ten reais. It wasn't expensive. On the way home, she tried to understand the reason for this acquisition. He doesn't play dominoes, he doesn't even know how it works. However, at that same moment, when crossing the street, he saw himself as a child, he and his father, playing dominoes in a square. Coincidentally, he visualized a square in front of him. There was no one playing dominoes. Just teenagers skateboarding.
In the snippet, we have two different timings. The first, chronological, is marked by a now in which the character buys a domino and crosses the street. Then, a memory transforms the character's now into a psychological time, referring to her childhood and to when she used to interact with her progenitor in domino games.
Characters
The characters are the individuals inserted in the narrative and responsible for following up on events, being directly affected by them. Thus, they can be divided into primary or secondary.
The main characters actively participate in the narrative. They can be subdivided into protagonists or antagonists. The protagonist is the one whose events that surround her correspond to the focus of the narrative. The antagonist rivals the protagonist. They usually have different and conflicting worldviews and are placed in constant conflict in the narrative.
The secondary characters have an importance, but they participate little or do not participate directly in the conflict. They can be important in the course of the narrative or just act in the composition of the scenario.
Hercules went down with his guide to the coast. The man, without saying a word, just pointed to the darkened, mist-filled sea that the demigod could barely see. A boat came from afar, it was Charon. There was only one mission left, to defeat Cerberus, the guardian of Hades. The son of Zeus got into the boat. Everything took place in silence. Charon said nothing and the guide had already returned to his path.
In the excerpt above, Hercules is the main character. O protagonist directs the sequence of events in the plot which deals with the 12 labors of Hercules. The last of them is to defeat Cerberus, the three-headed dog that inhabits Hades. To reach the underworld, he needs a guide to take him to Charon's boat, which will eventually take him to Hades. Charon and the guide are secondary characters, but they assume an importance because, without them, Hercules does not reach his destination.
Space
The space corresponds to the “where” of the narrative. It can be physical, that is, a country, a city, a house, a room, etc., or even psychological. About the latter, it takes place in the character's head, therefore, it is not materializable. Modern authors like Clarice Lispector and William Faulkner made recurrent use of psychological space.
She was home alone. Lying on the sofa. The cat leaning over the table played with the shadow of the swinging chandelier. And she's still there, in her house. The eyes closed and sleep came. The cat kept moving thanks to the chandelier that was swinging, perhaps because of the strong wind coming from the window. She, for a moment, thought she had opened her eyes. Take mistake. He could see exactly where he was. In a small house, in the countryside. A country house probably. People, possibly family members, were talking while lying in the hammock and children running around the house. It was the house she wanted to be in. Her eyes open and the cat was no longer playing with the chandelier…
In the scene, we have an example of a physical and psychological spatial composition. The physical space is the house where the character is lying down, but there is another space, the psychological, which refers to the other house, which she visualizes in her head, probably referring to a certain nostalgia.
By Rafael Camargo de Oliveira
Writing teacher
