Objectives

• Understand and identify story elements found in a narrative.

• Identify and illustrate understanding of narrative structure via Freytag’s Pyramid

What is narrative?Simply put, narrative is a story.

It can be any kind of story found in any medium:

a novel, play, short story, myth, poem, song, movie, an episode, oral story, a

photograph, sculpture, painting, tapestry, digital image, or any other

creative form. A narrative can be told on a microchip if

you so desired.

How do you understand a narrative?

There are many different ways and opinions.

Mostly, we will take the approach ofFreytag’s Pyramid*

*actually Freytag’s Pyramid with some alterations by Mr.

Whitehead

Freytag’s Pyramid

• Exposition: The exposition is like the set-up of the story. The background information that is needed to understand the story is provided, such as the main character, the setting, and so forth.

Exposition- Smokey and Craig narrate the setting and characters in their neighborhood.

• Inciting Incident: The inciting incident sets the rest of the story in motion. Something unexpected occurs causing the conflict to begin in the story.

Inciting Incident- the tesseract turns on by itself and Loki is transported to Earth from

Asgard.

• Rising Action: Rising action is a series of events and actions that move to story to a climax. During rising action, the basic conflict is complicated by secondary conflicts, such as obstacles and challenges that frustrate the main character’s attempt to reach their goal.

Rising Action- Peter Parker, after being bitten, creates a disguise and uses his new-found strengths to hunt down his uncle’s killer.

Rising Action- Meanwhile, Dr. Curt Connors experiments with limb regeneration via lizard

DNA, transforming him into the Lizard.

• Climax (turning point): The climax is the peak of the action and the turning point in the story. After the climax everything changes. Things will have gone badly for the main character up to this point; now, things will begin to go well for him or her. However, if the story is a tragedy, the opposite will happen after the climax; things that have been going good for the main character begin to go bad.

Climax- David, though a boy, has a moment of realization that he can defeat the giant Goliath.

Climax- After Bane breaks his back and imprisons him in “the pit,” Bruce Wayne

recovers and climbs out to return to Gotham.

• Falling Action: During the falling action, the conflict unravels with the main character either working toward solving the conflict or the problem getting worse.

Falling Action- After hitting an iceberg, all of the passengers scramble to escape the sinking ship.

Falling Action- Meanwhile, Jack and Rose, while trying to survive, attempt to escape Rose’s jilted

fiancée, Cal.

• Final Event: The battle, the face-off, the moment where the conflict is ended and it’s decided whether or not the main character wins.

Final Event- Jake, in his avatar, faces Colonel Quaritch in the AMP suit in a fight to the death.

• Denouement/Resolution: The story ends with the denouement, in which the main character is better off than at the beginning of the story. However, the tragedy ends with death and sadness, in which the protagonist is worse off than at the beginning of the story.

Denouement/Resolution- Dorothy awakes to find that Oz was a dream filled with her friends and family, making her realize that everything

she needed all along was there in Kansas.

The Hero’s Journey a.k.a. Monomyth

A narrative paradigm Created by Joseph Campbell• There are many interpretations of The Hero’s Journey, but here are the classic

steps according to Campbell: 9. Atonement with the Father 1. The Call to Adventure 10. Apotheosis (Death)2. Refusal of the Call 11. The Ultimate Boon (The Grail)3. Supernatural Aid 12. Refusal of the Return4. The First Threshold 13. The Magic Flight5. Belly of The Whale 14. Rescue from Without6. The Road of Trials 15. The Return Threshold7. Meeting With the Goddess 16. Master of Two Worlds8. Woman as Temptress 17. Freedom to Live

NowEach group will receive an assigned

step on Freytag’s Pyramid.

Your group must identify what event from the novel fits in that

step and then explain your justification.

Then each group must add their findings to the Freytag chart.

1. Exposition: 2. Inciting Incident:

3. Rising Action:

4. Climax:

5. Falling Action:

6. Final Event: 7. Resolution: