We were asked to interpret the movie El Arbole Seco meaning The Dry/Withered Tree, to help us understand narrative analysis.

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Narrative Analysis Practical

Narratives

A narrative is concerned with the human means of making sense of an ever-changing world. It is trough narrative that we can bring a sense of an ever changing world. It is through a narrative that we can bring sense of order to the seeming disorder in our world, and it is through narrative that we can begin to define ourselves as having some sense of temporal continuity and as being distinct from others.

It is basically an organized interpretation of a sequence of events, which involves;

  • Attributing agency to the characters in the events.
  • Inferring causal links between the events.

 Three basic components of present in narrative are a beginning, middle and end. Narratives are not always a conscious process, because we may use established social narratives to explain an event or to complete a story.

Functions of Narratives

Some of the basic functions of narratives are;

  1. A narrative offers an integrated account of the event.
  2. It has a finished structure that is the person is aware about the end even before he starts narrating.
  3. restoring a sense of order – it restores order in the everyday disruptions like personal problems, family problems etc.,
  4. Heider and Simmel’s experiment (1944) reveals that, when people are exposed to pictograms they explain those pictograms in the form of stories that have definite beginning, middle and end.
  5. Humans as agencies – humans strive within bonds to create their own world; they provide narrative account of their experiences that imply their role or lack of role in shaping these events. When we are denied the opportunity to express our agency, we experience suffering. Also social oppression can deny the opportunity of true agency.
  6. Employment - the central process of bringing order or organizing a sequence of events is the central function of a narrative.
  7. A narrative is like a recollection – the common theme gives the events a narrative shape, there is an interconnected sequence that leads from start to finish. We are aware of the ending before we start the story.

Methodology

We were asked to interpret the movie “El Arbole Seco” meaning The Dry/Withered Tree, to help us understand narrative analysis. For this purpose the class was divided into groups of three, four or five. There were four people in my group-

  1. Mridul Kataria
  2. Poorti Srivastav
  3. Prakriti Gupta
  4. Shweta Sharma

Procedure

After the team was formed every member was asked to watch the movie individually. After that we all saw the movie individually and came up with relevant themes and the predominant emotions from it. Themes and emotions that we thought were most prominently depicted in the movie were selected to form the Common Themes and those that were seen individually by group members and were not agreed upon were made the Unique Themes. These themes and emotions were then interpreted through the process of narrative analysis.

Narrative Analysis of – EL ARBOL SECO

Narrative Analysis of Movie

Step 1

SCRIPT

A 5 year old boy lives in a shanty settlement with his parents.  The family is going   to leave the area soon because a large block of flats will be built there .This  family will be the last to leave the area because its last neighbours have already gone .  Once gone, the mother of the child discovers a forgotten watering can in the transfer of   former neighbours. She takes the same can and waters a dry plant at home. Through the same spray of water the boy sees, several yards from his shack, in a large, barren wasteland, an old   dry apple tree which retains only a branch in bloom.  The boy decides to get the tree to life. He makes many attempts for the same and some or the other way those get foiled. But the  child keeps on trying, no matter what happens. One day, he decides to stop at   the road and then a car passing at high speed destroys his shower. When he comes to his hut, with the few remaining pieces of his shower, he sees his   parents waiting outside the house  and collecting the few belongings they have, they are at the threshold of their imminent eviction, the child thinks exclusively of the tree. When the heavy machines to destroy the shacks arrive, accidentally the only settlement's water line is broken, the jet of water that emerges leaves the apple tree dripping and suddenly there blooms a fruit-the apple.

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Step 2

The major themes and emotions were identified as the common themes and the themes that were not agreed upon were identified as the unique themes.

The common Themes are as follows-

  1. Poverty
  2. Patriarchy
  3. Nurturing Behaviour of Mother
  4. Indifference of Father
  5. Observational Learning
  6. Dejection and Upset
  7. Happiness
  8. Bond with the Tree
  9. Surprise
  10. Hope and Persistence

The unique Themes are as follows-

  1. Power Play
  2. Stress between family members
  3. Struggle to Fix
  4. Comedy
  5. Race Against time
  6. Differing Degrees of Attachment
  7. Unsocial Parents

Step - 3

The next step after identification and consolidation ...

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