The Sixth Sense Narrative Analysis

“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact” (McKee, 1997). This is the exact meaning of narrative. Narrative otherwise known as a story is a report of linked events, fiction or nonfiction which engages an audience especially if it solves a relevant problem. A narrative can be found in almost all forms of human creativity. The narrative told through storytelling is one of the few human traits that are truly universal (Hsu, 2008). This universal trait is seen historically across all cultures to fascinate and engage us even if we know they are untrue (Boyd, 2009). In this essay, I will discuss how themes, events, plot and diegesis are the fundamental elements that make up a narrative.

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These sequences of events shape the narrative and give it a purpose. Plots vary from having simple structures to complex intertwined structures that have plot twists connecting the beginning and the end together (King, 2011). A plot twist is a sudden change in the events of the narrative which can often be ironic. The plot of the film The Sixth Sense shows how a male children’s psychologist returns to his work by helping a young boy named Cole who sees dead people (The Sixth Sense, 1999). What makes the film even more interesting in terms of the plot is that there is a plot twist, where the child psychologist is actually dead. A plot also plays a huge role in the development of the narrative’s characters which causes them to take certain actions affecting the story and the characters themselves (King, 2011). “Story is about originality, not duplication” (McKee, 1997). A problem often presented for creating a new plot is if it is original or