analyzing generic structure of narrative text

Golden Eggs

Long time ago a remote village, in central China was inhabited mainly with farmers and hunters. One day, a poor farmer lost his entire livestock to flood. He prayed hard to God for help or his family would die of starvation.


Few days later, an old man with
long grey beard, passed by his house took pity on him. He gave him a goose and said “I don’t have any expensive thing to give you and hope this goose will help you to ease your hardship.” A week later to almost surprise the farmer found an egg in his yard. This was no ordinary egg. It was a golden egg. He was suddenly overcome with joy. Thereafter, his livelihood had rapidly improved but the farmer had forgotten his earlier hardship. He became lazy, arrogant and spendthrift.

Strangely, the goose only laid one golden egg every six months. The greedy farmer lost his patient and slaughtered his goose thinking there were plenty of golden eggs inside its stomach. Though he very much regretted for his foolishness, it’s already too late.

source: www.longlongtimeago.com

Generic structure:
1.    Orientation: Long time ago a remote village, in central China was inhabited mainly with farmers and hunters. One day, a poor farmer lost his entire livestock to flood. He prayed hard to God for help or his family would die of starvation.
2.    Complication: Few days later, an old man with long grey beard, passed by his house took pity on him…………………………….had forgotten his earlier hardship. He became lazy, arrogant and spendthrift.
3.    Resolution: Strangely, the goose only laid one golden egg every six months. The greedy farmer lost his patient and slaughtered his goose thinking there were plenty of golden eggs inside its stomach. Though he very much regretted for his foolishness, it’s already too late.