Narrative theory

My story has a closed narrative with the reasoning that the story does reach a conclusion, Mr. Vinegar realizes his mistakes after being mocked by a pigeon who’s watched his every move, Mr. vinegar ends up with nothing in the end is the main conclusion, due to greed he could have had a cow which was is what he first intended, but the temptation to get more and more led to him being left with nothing. Closed narratives are common within films and children’s books. An example of an open narrative would be with TV shows e.g. Breaking bad, Game Of Thrones. Story’s which don’t reach a conclusion they continue from episode to episode.

My story is single strand, there’s only one story line throughout the full book. The story focuses on the travels and adventure with Mr. Vinegar mainly. Often stories are Multi-strand which means there is a number of storylines going on at once. Usually one main storyline with some some background storylines going on as well. Multi-strand can be found in most genres of film and TV.

My story is linear as the storylines goes in a straight line, following a sequenced story. Where as the non-linear structure is often used when stories don’t follow a sequence. This is used in films like pulp fiction. It works well and engages the audience.

My story is also Anti-realist; most of the events taking place are unlikely to happen in real life. For instance a talking pigeon takes place in my book, and Mr. and Mrs. vinegar both live in a vinegar bottle. These two elements of the story enforce the anti-realist approach. Realist narratives reflect ‘real life’ day-to-day reality. An example of realist narrative would be with soaps, like East Enders, Emmer dale etc. Which are in place to specifically reflect day-to-day life.

My story’s opening is a typical ‘Once upon a time’ to show the children book style. An example of a classic opening to a film is in the star wars films. The conflict in my story is driven by the fact that Mr. vinegar continues to make stupid decisions throughout the story until he’s left with nothing. The resolution of my story is that Mr. vinegar is left with nothing, and regrets his earlier decisions. Which perhaps gives the audience a message to not be greedy with your possessions. He constantly wants more than he has. My story doesn’t

contain much of an enigma, apart from suspense on the outcome of what might happen to Mr. Vinegar. The climax of the story is where the story has a turning point for better or worse. My climax point is where Mr. and Mrs. vinegar stumble get a large amount of money, which they acquire from two robbers. Which then leads to the main story of Mr. vinegar venturing into the market to spend his money. My book doesn’t contain any manipulation of time and space. My story sticks to a consistent timeline throughout the story. An example of manipulation of time and space would be Like in the final destination movies. Where one individual has a flash-forward of what’s going to happen in the future. If I was to use manipulation of time and space in my work then it would also be non-linear because the story isn’t in order.