Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Sample Narrative Paragraph

Students, the paragraph below is an example of what is discussed here.  It addresses the prompt "Write a narrative paragraph illustrating some moment in your life, either experienced or observed."

I was standing on the open-air platform, waiting for my train in the cold.  It was pulling in, and I noticed that in the front car, there was a long bench that seemed to have no people on it, although there were many people standing in the car.  I had lived in New York City long enough by then to know that there was something wrong with the seat, and so I made not attempt to find my way to it.  Instead, I made for the second car, which was not so crowded.  But it seemed that the problem had decided to make itself mine, for  right behind me staggered into the car a reeking, filthy figure of a man.  He careened towards a seat that was already filled--fortunately not by me--and screamed obscenities at the tiny, elderly woman who was sitting there.  She started, yelping almost as a dog that has been kicked in the night by a sleep-fogged bathroom-seeker.  The man barked out a laugh and whipped around to scream again in the face of another, repeating the process again and again until a space had opened up around him and he could plop himself flaccidly onto the pale plastic bench, snickering at the aghast faces surrounding him.  There he remained until the next stop, when, smiling, he left the car to work his will again.

No comments:

Post a Comment