Write an essay that revolves around a central idea or main point.

Write an essay that revolves around a central idea or main point. Most people tend to think that a narrative essay is somewhat of a memoir or biography. However, a narrative essay focuses on only one moment in a person’s life rather than their entire life.
For example, a narrative essay could be about the time you learned how to ride a bike, but fell after riding into a pothole.
A narrative essay has a similar feel to it as the five paragraph essay in regards to format. The only difference is that the incidents, characters and dialogue revolve around one central idea. Many narrative essays can and will overlap with other forms of writing such as non-fiction or fiction.
Sometimes a narrative essay can be confused with a short story because there are characters and dialogue. Again though, those characters and dialogue revolve around one main point. Also, in a short essay, the reader is usually left with wanting more or not feeling satisfied by the end of the reading. The narrative essay on the other hand, offers readers a fulfilled feeling by the end of the reading.
A narrative essay requires three elements:
Character(s)
Theme
Dialogue
Character – even if the essay is autobiographical in nature, it still will require the interaction of the character (or possibly narrator) with other characters using dialogue.
Theme – the narrative essay is centralized around a theme (or motif) or main idea/incident. It is typically presented in the introductory paragraph and then further proven and/or elaborated using three main points in three following paragraphs.
Dialogue – without this element, characters lose their sense of liveliness and their worth. They also lose their contribution to the essay. Dialogue is used to capture conversation about incidents between characters.
The function of the narrative essay is to relay an event or incident using conversation and people to convey. The typical function is to teach readers a lesson. The aim is to use the essay as a way to tell a story about an experience in which a lesson is learned from that particular experience.
A great visual example of a narrative essay is the movie Vantage Point. It shows the same event from different perspectives and different conversations with multiple characters.

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