Narrative Elements

To continue my description of the rhetorical elements found in the short story I have selected, I would like to elaborate on the use of the flashback. In the beginning of the story, there is an instructor teaching small children about a people from the past called the nomads. It's important for the author of the story to include this flashback of the past because the people called the nomads is what the story focuses on. It gives the audience an idea of the topic of the story and helps fill in the blanks and helps focus in on the purpose of the story. As the teacher in the story begins to finish his explanation of the nomads, the author transitions from the past to the present, which is the next topic I'd like to elaborate more on: transitions.
The author used fair transitions, but what was most impressive about the first transition is that it not only moves the story forward and helps the switch from the past to the present, but it also introduces two of the main characters of the story. The teacher of the story is ending his presentation of the nomads, and to bring the story to the present, the author introduces a young girl named Lucy, who then asks a question about the present day and how she can apply what the teacher is saying to her. At the end of her question, she states the instructors name: Mister Arnold. So using the flash back and transition correctly, the author was able to introduce two important characters into the story, while getting his message across about the people of the nomads and how they were not efficient in using the land.
The nomads were a people that didn't know how to use a land, and would leave it barren after its use, but the teacher points out the genius of farming and how people today aren't like the nomads because they know how to use the land. Mister Arnold continues his story until Lucy asks the question, "and if that was so important, and improved everything so much, why are we nomads all over again, Mister Arnold?" The author uses another rhetorical flashback in which Lucy explains how she saw people, the people of today, using the land incorrectly. To get the final theme, or lesson learned, across to the audience, later in the story, all the students wear a shirt that says, "I am not a nomad". The lesson the audience is suppose to learn is to use the land correctly and try to be more sustainable in the way they live. I feel the author did a fair job of getting that point to the audience with the rhetorical tools he used.
The various structural elements found in narratives are things like keeping the story in chronological order so the story follows a comprehensible line of sense. Types of transitions are also a structural element, and to elaborate on that, it's important to always switch paragraphs when changing tenses. It's crucial to know when you are changing tenses, so you know when to change paragraphs. The thesis is typically the conclusion of the story, but it is also the lesson you should learn from the story, so the thesis needs to be clear and the audience should be able to identify it fairly easily.
Other structural elements of narratives include the setting, the characters, the plot, the problem/resolution, the chronology of the story; all of these things contribute to the structural elements of a narrative.