NARRATIVE ACCRUAL AND THE LIFE-COURSE

In this article, first the idea of seeing the life course as narrative ly constructed is developed, and then that approach is used to explore how elders construct meaning about the life course in their later yea rs. One area of meaning that persons tell narratives about is the rela tionship between the cosmos and the will. The narrative self is a stan dpoint through which aging adults develop a story line. Narrative accr ual of the events of life and the stories about them led to five types of life story lines about fate: the American dream of success, life a s a struggle, the life as shared story line, God determines, and life is simple. Referentiality of the stories in narrative accrual was then considered. Beyond the ''reporting of facts'' as a basis for referenc e, gender and the characteristics of the oppositions of social life pr ovided the authors with ''reality.'' Clearly women and men authored th e fate-problem in different ways. The oppositions of social life provi ded the ''plights'' of individual stories as well as enabled narrative accrual. There is a notion of ''final interpretation'' or ''final com prehension'' so that life's existence makes some kind of sense, at lea st for the time being.