ABSTRACT
Many people study literature because they are swept away by stories. Doing English means engaging with and understanding narrative. Narratives are everywhere and are very powerful. People tell stories in order to make sense of the world and themselves. Because narrative is so important and so all-pervasive in people's lives and in the texts they read, study, watch and create, critics have been trying to define and understand it for a long time. Some critics have tried to develop a 'science' of narrative, which has helped refine discussions of how stories work. There are different sorts of narrators. Some narrators are 'inside' the story while others are 'outside', but both sorts of narration shape the meaning of the text. Closure is people's 'sense of an ending' and is part of all narrative. Some critics suggest that people seek closure to impose order on their lives or to come to terms with their own deaths.
