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5

Narrative

robably every fall when you return to school, you’ve been asked to write about
P “what you did over the summer.” There’s a reason why your teachers ask you to
do this. Reading the story helps them understand you better: your hobbies, interests,
pets, background, family, and other details about who you are. But perhaps more
importantly, telling your story allows you to reflect on your life, to find what’s important
and share it. Writing a narrative is one way we come to understand ourselves, by telling
the story of our lives.
Narratives by celebrities, politicians, and sometimes just everyday people top the
best-seller list every year, because there is something powerful in reading a first person
account of a person’s experiences, struggles, and triumphs. There is also something
incredibly powerful in telling your own story about your life, too, free from other
people’s perspectives and judgments.
In this chapter, you will have the opportunity to read narratives by people who
have led many different lives. You’ll hear from a documentary filmmaker, a rock star,
a soldier, a store owner, and others. At the end of this chapter, you will also have the
chance to write your own narrative as a way to better understand the form — how it
communicates a personal experience and, ultimately, who you are.
Contents
skill workshop Essential Elements of Narrative central text Julia Alvarez La Gringuita
section 1 conversation / What is the relationship between
Santha Rama Rau By Any Other Name language and power?
Mindy Kaling Is Everyone Hanging Out without Me? section 3
David Attenborough A Life on Our Planet
Lauren Kay Johnson Inheritance of War
section 2 Carrie Brownstein Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl
Erika L. Sánchez Learning to Love My Brown Skin George Takei They Called Us Enemy
David Sedaris Us and Them writing workshop Writing a Narrative
Burnell Cotlon Wearing a Mask Won’t Protect Us
from Our History Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample. 131
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
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