Oral Narratives

Our focus was on oral narratives this week. There are four types of oral narratives. These include myths, folktales, legends, and personal narratives.

Although myths are often thought of as being fictitious, they are actually more of creation stories. They are usually of a religious descendant and explain questions that could not otherwise be answered by mere empiricism.



Legends are stories that had once greatly impacted the given culture, so much so that the oral word had been passed down generations. There is usually something that can be learned from a legend. The validity of legends often come into question.

Folktales are known as stories that are false, but are more of cautionary tales. They are passed down from generation to generation to ensure that knowledge from the ancestors is passed down to the newer generations. One that is commonly known in the United States is, The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf.



Finally, a personal narrative is a first-person account about what happened to the person telling the story. It is a representation of what happened to first-hand and is retold to strike a chord with the audience.

All of these oral narratives are meant to educate the audience and it seems as if it is a human's constant desire to progress their culture through knowledge of the past.