THE LEGEND OF LAKE TOBA

THE STORY OF LAKE TOBA

Once upon a time, there was a man who was living in north Sumatra. He lived in a simple hut in a farming field. He did some gardening and fishing for his daily life.

One day, while the man was doing fishing, he caught a big golden fish in his trap. It was the biggest catch which he ever had in his life. Surprisingly, this fish turned into a beautiful princess. He felt in love with her and proposed her to be his wife. She said; “Yes, but you have to promise not to tell anyone about the secret that I was once a fish, otherwise there will be a huge disaster”. The man made the deal and they got married, lived happily and had a son.

Few years later, this son would help bringing lunch to his father out in the fields. One day, his son was so hungry and he ate his father’s lunch. Unfortunately, the father found out and got furious, and shouted; “You damned son of a fish”. The son ran home and asked his mother. The mother started crying, felt sad that her husband had broken his promise.

Then she told her son to run up the hills because a huge disaster would come. When her son left, she prayed. Soon, there was a big earthquake followed by non-stop heavy rain. The whole area got flooded and became a lake. She turned into a fish again and the man became the island of Samosir. People believed that this lake was from the water flood because of the woman fish prayed, so peple called it “Lake Toba” and the island of Samosir was from the son’s fish “Samosir/ someone who had been sent by his father away”

Note on Generic Structures of The Legend of  Toba Lake

Although narrative texts are written in several kinds such as legend, myth, folk tail, love story and other stories, basically they have the same thing in common. That is about how the different forms of narrative are arranged into the whole of story.

They way the writer or story-teller arranged his paragraphs into interesting and meaningful story is what we call generic structures. So these elements are very important which determine whether it is a narrative or not. Just to make it clear, let’s see the generic structures of the above story in the legend of Toba Lake.

Generic Structure	Contents
Orientation	What we call “orientation” is actually an introduction of the story. It inform the readers who, when and where the story happened. It tells readers the specific participants in the specific place and time. In the legend of Toba lake, the first paragraph is clearly seen as an orientation. It introduces the participants involved in the story. In short, they are a man with his wife (formerly a fish), and his daughter. They live in North Sumatra once time. Once upon a time, there was a man who was living in north Sumatra. He lived in a simple hut in a farming field. He did some gardening and fishing for his daily life.
Complication	Complication can be build based on three kinds of conflict. 1.      They are natural or physical conflict, 2.      Social conflict, and 3.      Inner or psychological conflict. A text of narrative can be organized through this one or more kinds of conflict. Without the existence of those conflicts, the text is NOT a narrative any more. The complication in the legend of Toba Lake is seen when the man failed to keep his promise to his wife which he would NEVER AND NEVER talk to any body that she (his wife) had been a fish. Due to his failure of keeping the promise, the complication rises into the climax. His wife is very angry to him
Resolution	As many traditional stories, every crisis should find its way to go down. The turning points will lead into the solution, and that is what we call “resolution”. Remember that a resolution can be a happy ending or the sad one. In this way, the legend of Toba Lake ends his story plot with the sad ending. The participants, the man with his wife and his daughter broke his very happy family into pieces of object. The wife turned into his original life, fish. The worst thing happened to the man, he became a small island. Poor them but happy for the people behind them. Adopted from: http://freeenglishcourse.info/story-of-narrative-text/ Edited by Author Benny