Education Scotland

Transcription

Education Scotland

French
Vivre, c’est lire
Guide pédagogique
[HIGHER;
ADVANCED HIGHER]
B C Swift
Université de Stirling
© Learning and Teaching Scotland
abc
Acknowledgements
Learning and Teaching Scotland gratefully acknowledge this contribution to the National
Qualifications support programme for Modern Languages: French.
First published 2005
© Learning and Teaching Scotland 2005.
This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part for educational purposes by
educational establishments in Scotland provided that no profit accrues at any stage.
ISBN 1 84399 071 7
CONTENTS
Introduction
v
Texte 1 –
Texte 2 –
Texte 3 –
1
4
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
4–
5–
6–
7–
8–
9–
10 –
11 –
12 –
13 –
14 –
15 –
16 –
17 –
18 –
19 –
20 –
21 –
Texte 22 –
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Texte 32 –
La Vie en rose, Dominique Glocheux
Le Petit Prince de Belleville, Calixthe Beyala
La Marseillaise, Rouget de Lisle; et
Freude, Friedrich Schiller
Le Dormeur du val, Arthur Rimbaud
Demain, dès l’aube, Victor Hugo
Apprendre une langue étrangère?, Anne Bragance
Les Secrets du bonheur, Janine Boissard
Pierrette, Honoré de Balzac
Les Années buissonnières, Roger Bichelberger
Elise ou la vraie vie, Claire Etcherelli
Un malentendu, Yves Frontenac
Le chômeur, Michel Houellebecq
Dans l’hypermarché, Michel Houellebecq
Le journaliste et l’ouvrière en grève, Dorothée Letessier
Jeux d’enfants, Joseph Joffo
Le Pont Mirabeau, Guillaume Apollinaire
Une expérience singulière, Albert Camus
Le chemin de l’atelier, Albert Camus
Une jeune fille et ses parents, Simone de Beauvoir
Adolphe, Benjamin Constant
Un haut point du colonialisme français,
Didier Daeninckx
Un entretien avec le principal d’un collège,
Alphonse Daudet
Quel âge avez-vous?, Driss Chraïbi
Une visite au théâtre, Gustave Flaubert
Deux amies, François Mauriac
La Belle Saison, Jacques Prévert
L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Jacques Prévert
Chasse à l’enfant, Jacques Prévert
Une enfant du siècle, Christiane Rochefort
Alors arrivèrent les vacances . . ., Christiane Rochefort
Un homme d’affaires extraordinaire,
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Une perspective française sur l’Ecosse, Jules Verne
VIVRE, C’EST LIRE: GUIDE PÉDAGOGIQUE (H, AH FRENCH)
10
15
21
25
30
37
41
53
60
65
70
76
81
86
94
103
110
119
127
134
140
148
157
163
168
172
180
188
195
200
iii
CONTENTS
Texte
Texte
Texte
Texte
iv
33
34
35
36
–
–
–
–
Lire, c’est sentir, Dorothée Letessier
Liberté!, Victor Hugo
Une vie pour deux, Marie Cardinal
À quoi servent les punitions?, Marie Cardinal
204
209
215
225
INTRODUCTION
This volume is intended as a staff handbook for the anthology of French
literary texts originally published under the title Vivre, c’est lire: Un
recueil pour étudiants (2002). For the aims and objectives of Vivre, c’est
lire, users of this Guide pédagogique are referred to the Introduction to
the anthology, which stresses in particular the importance of a flexible
and adaptable approach to the various texts and questions. Indeed,
when Vivre, c’est lire was first conceived it had not been intended to
provide a ‘key’ to the exercises, the reader’s judgements and opinions,
above all in matters of literary appreciation, being of paramount
importance. However, during the preparation of the anthology, it was
suggested that guidance to the proposed questions could be of practical
value to teachers. Of course, in those questions that are designed
primarily to guide students through the texts, as also in many of the
language practice exercises, little or no pedagogical support is called
for. On the other hand, it is not unreasonable to explain the thinking
behind questions which deal with more evaluative or perhaps
contentious areas of literary response and appreciation, the lines
between comprehension and appreciation, where such a distinction may
be drawn, being often indistinct. For many of the proposed questions,
there are no right or wrong answers: they seek to encourage the
development of students’ critical judgements and habits of systematic
analysis and careful presentation of evidence, on the basis of texts which
on the whole deal with immediate ‘real-life’ issues going well beyond
the conventional ‘survival situations’ of more elementary language
learning. It has not been thought appropriate to suggest scales of
‘marks’ for the various questions, though teachers may sometimes
choose to produce such scales for purposes of grading. Some questions
could no doubt have been framed differently, and teachers are of course
free to select and adapt the questions as they judge best, according to
the level of knowledge and the maturity of their own students.
The selection of texts in the Vivre, c’est lire anthology has been made as
an aid to learning at the relatively early stage of the upper secondary
school, and as an introduction and stimulus to French literary
appreciation. Teachers who, at university, had some exposure to the
rigorous and often rather impersonal method of the French ‘explication
de texte’ will recognise, from that, the central importance of the close
examination of the meanings, language and structure or style of literary
passages. Unlike the traditional ‘explication’, the exercises proposed in
the anthology presuppose no knowledge of literary or, for example,
v
INTRODUCTION
historical contexts. Apart from their brief introductions, the texts are
meant to be reasonably self-sufficient and, by the provision of the
glossaries, accessible. The main focus of the anthology is on
comprehension and the beginnings of interpretation, and it will have
been seen that many of the questions in the exercises, which avoid the
jargon of literary criticism and are conducted for the most part in
English, are designed to invite personal responses. Wider contexts are
also referred to occasionally in the Guide pédagogique – including
references to the Second World War, for example, or to literary
‘movements’ such as Romanticism. Such references are intended to be
exploited judiciously: they may be a source of stimulation for some
students, but they are meant to be subordinate to the main purposes of
the collection, which encourages above all the development of first-hand
knowledge of primary texts.
The Index of themes and topics included on pages ix – xi of Vivre, c’est
lire summarises the subject-matter of the texts in terms of the ‘Language
content’ headings of the modern languages curriculum, with an
indication, also, of the levels of difficulty. The texts may therefore be
called on conveniently during language work related to these topics.
Teachers’ decisions on pathways through the material in the anthology
will of course depend on their own arrangements and preferences. Text
1 may serve as a general and relatively simple springboard for some of
the themes taken up in other passages. For example, following the
broad theme of ‘Lifestyles’, with reference to family relationships, the
sequence of Texts 1, 11, 19, 7 and 30 could perhaps be recommended,
amongst others; or for differences between generations Texts 11, 19, 30
and 20. A number of passages draw directly on questions relating to
childhood and adolescence, including Texts 15, 19, 7, 9, 25, 28, 29 and
2; for passages relating to experience of school and education, Texts 36,
9, 7 and 22. For intercultural issues Texts 10, 21, 23, 17, 2 could be
chosen; and so on. On one of the underlying themes of the anthology,
the pleasures and challenges of language learning and reading, Texts 9,
6 and 33 provide variety of tone and context. Though sequences based
on similarity of themes may sometimes be thought to be desirable,
variety of subject-matter or tone may on occasion be preferable to
uniformity.
This Guide provides notes on most of the proposed questions, the
exception being some of the language practice items. ‘Language
practice’ sections are included in the questions on most of the texts in
the collection, apart from a few poems of particular literary resonance.
These sections offer suggestions for practical exercises arising out of
linguistic features of the chosen passages, including for example verbs
vi
INTRODUCTION
and tenses, adjectives, adverbs, genders of nouns, negation, numbers,
clauses and some exercises in French pronunciation. While such
exercises are supplementary to the main objectives of the anthology,
they represent additional opportunities for language learning and
consolidation, including practice in writing in French on subjects
relevant to the ‘Language content’ programme, which helped to
determine the selection of texts. These sections may therefore be useful
for teachers who are under pressure of time. While some of the
language practice questions do not call for entries in the Guide
pédagogique, answers are suggested in some cases which, if self-evident,
are included for convenience and designed essentially to save teachers
time in preparation.
Typographically, readers of this Guide will see that questions from the
anthology are printed in italics; suggested answers are printed in Roman
type.
BCS, Stirling, December 2004
vii
viii
LA VIE EN ROSE
TEXTE 1
La Vie en rose
Dominique Glocheux
1.
How many of the writer’s suggestions would you agree with?
This is intended initially as a comprehension question, but the
main function is to invite students to exercise some degree of
critical judgement. ‘Etes-vous/seriez-vous d’accord avec cette idée?’
Some of the suggestions may be used as debating points, and
students could be encouraged to explain their agreement or
disagreement (or indifference) in French, going beyond a simple
‘oui’/‘non’/‘peut-être’/‘d’accord’. For example, ‘Prenez un bébé
dans vos bras. C’est si bon’ (no. 9) could elicit a ‘Jamais de la vie!’/
‘Non, par exemple!’ and an explanation. ‘Apprenez à repasser une
chemise’ (no. 23) could lead into discussion of domestic life and
gender roles. No. 25, ‘Parmi vos amis...’, could lead into
consideration of relationships with friends and family. No. 21
introduces the idea of enthusiasm for reading, which is one of the
recurrent themes of the Anthology, and the particular reference to
Le Petit Prince is also taken up in texts 2 and 31. Many of the items
are very personal, but some also relate to social attitudes, and the
themes of leisure and healthy living are implicit in several of the
suggestions.
2.
The expression ‘la vie en rose’ refers normally to seeing life
through rose-coloured spectacles. Do any of the author’s
suggestions appear rather sentimental or escapist? Do any of them
seem to you, on the contrary, to be realistic or down-to-earth?
Opinions are likely to differ here. Whereas sentimental items could
include numbers 4, 9, 10, 12, 13, 24, 26, a more down-to-earth
attitude may be seen in numbers 3, 6, 14, 17, 22, 23. At first sight,
no. 15 may looks sentimental/escapist, but it includes a down-toearth comment, as does no. 28. In a few, there is a touch of
idealism: numbers 1, 2, 7 (‘timbres de collection’ = special issue
postage stamps), 10, 11, 14, 18, 20, 26. No. 27 may be ‘realist’, but
may also be variously interpreted: students who drive or are
learning to drive may have views on this.
1
LA VIE EN ROSE
3.
With one exception, the author’s advice to himself is always
positive. He writes that these were only his own ideas. People, he
says, are likely to have different ideas about how to improve their
own lives.
Using models from the extract, make up, in French, three pieces of
advice of your own. Be positive, advising how to live a more
fulfilled life. With each piece of advice, add a brief comment,
similar to the remarks in, for example, items 9, 11, 15. Compose
one negative rule.
The exception is No. 22, though one could argue that this, too,
contains ‘positive’ advice; grammatically, however, the imperative
itself is expressed negatively. This question is meant to illustrate an
underlying theme of the Anthology, that reading can be a
stimulation to understanding and is part of living. The question is
also designed as a link between the evaluation of the ideas in the
passage, in questions 1 and 2, and the language-practice exercises
which follow. Students should practise formulating imperatives,
including a negative imperative: this exercise may then be
consolidated more systematically by means of the following
language practice.
4.
Language practice
Teachers may wish to vary the suggested questions according to
the experience of their students.
4.1
How is the imperative mood formed? Revise the forms of the
imperative in regular and the following irregular verbs:
avoir, croire, dire, être, faire, lire, prendre, suivre.
4.2
Note the word-order of the imperative with reflexive verbs:
items 2, 16 and 24. Now form the imperative with: se taire,
s’habiller, se laver, se coucher.
4.3
Use the following verbs in the second person plural of the
imperative mood:
(Entrer) par ici, messieurs-dames.
(Finir) vos devoirs avant de partir.
(Mettre) les livres sur cette table, s’il vous plaît.
(Se coucher) à neuf heures et demie ce soir.
(S’asseoir) sur ces bancs-là.
2
LA VIE EN ROSE
4.4
Replace the words in italics by pronouns:
Montrez le cahier à cette jeune fille, si vous voulez bien.
Parlons à nos nouveaux voisins le plus tôt possible.
Passez la cassette à Jeanne.
Lisez-nous ce court chapitre.
Ne donnons pas ces vidéos à ton frère.
3
LE PETIT PRINCE DE BELLEVILLE
TEXTE 2
Le Petit Prince de Belleville
Calixthe Beyala
This advanced passage, which may be cross-referenced directly to Texts
1 and 31, is related to the theme of reading as well as raising questions
about immigration in a social and educational context.
1.
Identify some of the ways in which Loukoum contrasts his life in
school with life at home.
Whereas school represents officialdom, home is intimate and
protective. The contrast is made sharply at the beginning of the
passage: at home the narrator is called Loukoum, but at school his
official name, ‘Mamadou’, is used; so far as the school is concerned,
his age is seven, but his real age is ten. School is a place of false
appearances; home is a place of protection and directness.
(Loukoum is also taller than the other pupils in his class, but he
passes this off, protectively, by using the cliché that blacks are in
any case stronger than whites – une idée reçue or a piece of
stereotyping, presented here satirically.) A little later in the
passage, it is revealed that Loukoum had not realised that the
French children had only one mother each: to him, the norm is
that men may take two wives, though he has been told not to talk
about this at school – ‘vu qu’il fallait pas en parler’. A related
‘cultural’ matter is introduced by the phrase ‘à cause que les
femmes vont bosser pour moi’, marking the subservient position of
women in his home society. It should be emphasised that all these
issues, central to the meaning of the passage, are presented
humorously, through the child’s relatively naive point of view. If
students have difficulty recognising the humour of tone, it may be
demonstrated very clearly from the anecdote relating to
Loukoum’s reading, by reference to the Koran and Le Petit Prince
(see Text 31). In this gently ironical novel, it is Loukoum who is,
unknowingly, the little prince. Towards the end of the passage, the
dispute between his mother and the teacher and headteacher also
shows the contrast between the closely protective family and the
critical school authorities.
4
2.
What clues does the text give about the conditions in which
Loukoum lives?
The clues are given mainly at the end of the first paragraph, but the
author does not labour the point. It is introduced almost
incidentally. Loukoum’s family lives on the fifth floor of an
apartment block in which there is no lift. This implies inferior
accommodation. In addition, they live in very crowded conditions,
which Loukoum treats lightly, saying that if you know the place
you know that it is always filled with African tribes living on top of
one another: again, Loukoum passes this off, saying that because
they are crowded together the immigrants can look after one
another: they ‘vivent en tas sans négliger personne’. (The
comment, ‘Solidarité oblige’, meaning roughly ‘we must stick
together’, seems to be a rather adult, joking reflection.) Besides
having two wives, the families have many children (paragraph 3): it
is relevant to note that they have been accused of having lots of
children so that they can be paid the family allowances. (On this
aspect of urban life, see also Text 29, ‘Une enfant du siècle’.) The
domestic culture is religious and patriarchal: this is shown not only
by the reference to the two mothers but to Loukoum’s father as a
‘conseiller auprès d’Allah’.
3.
Why is the teacher, Mademoiselle Garnier, so shocked that
Loukoum cannot read French? Why does she not believe that he can
read and write Arabic?
What appears to shock Mademoiselle Garnier is that Loukoum had
said very emphatically that he could read, but then has great
difficulty reading from Le Petit Prince, so that she thinks Loukoum
had lied in saying he could read in the first place. The background
is that the teachers had evidently felt sorry for Loukoum, ‘le pauvre
gosse’. They must feel that Loukoum is being deprived by being
taught that the Koran contains all the knowledge that is worth
knowing and that in any case Loukoum thinks he does not need to
learn how to read because in his culture the women can do the
work for him. In this context, Mademoiselle Garnier had asked
Loukoum if he could read and write, and when he said ‘Et
comment, que je sais lire’, she had given him Le Petit Prince to
read from. It does not seem to have occurred to her that she
herself meant: can he read French? She had taken that for granted.
Here Loukoum offers a garbled version of the beginning of the
story, and had evidently stumbled through a reading, for which he
makes the lame excuse that the words were very long. Above all it
5
is his innocence which is stressed. His poor reading confirmed
Mlle Garnier’s suspicion that he could not read French, a language
which he admits to finding ‘bizarre’.
When he said he could read, he evidently meant that he could read
in the Koran, but when he says he can read Arabic Mademoiselle
Garnier still does not believe him. He then demonstrates that he
can write and read some words in Arabic, but the teacher thinks he
is making fun of her. He had been quite insolent towards her,
answering back, being insulting about the author of Le Petit Prince,
and bursting a bubble of chewing gum. Up to a point, her reaction
and her shock may perhaps be understandable. It is also implied
that, because she cannot read Arabic herself, she does not want to
believe that Loukoum can read the Koran. However, when she
goes on to say that it is a disgrace and contrary to the French way
of life to be unable to read anything but the Koran, she illustrates a
hostility and narrow prejudice which no doubt swing the reader’s
sympathy back towards Loukoum. In this respect, one might note
that Loukoum is actually rather taken with the text from Le Petit
Prince, ‘un livre épatant’, and at the end of the extract he shows
that he wants to understand more of it.
4.
Identify some of the humorous techniques used in the passage. Do
you think the author always wants us to laugh with Loukoum?
Does she sometimes invite us to laugh at him?
Although the themes of the extract (including child–parent and
pupil–school relationships, and questions of immigration, on
which see also question 5) could be regarded as weighty, the tone
is generally light and humorous. In its humour, the reader is
certainly invited to laugh with Loukoum, especially in connivance
at the attitudes of his teachers, but there is also humour at
Loukoum’s expense. The main techniques are to create humour
through the situations, through the language used, and by means
of satire and irony. For example:
Situations: in narrative presentation and situations, e.g. with
reference to Loukoum’s name and age;
immigrants’ overcrowded conditions, presented as showing
their solidarity;
conflicting situations: two ‘mothers’ (meaning the men may
have two wives), contrary to French manners;
in the clash between pupil and teacher and parent and teacher;
6
Ironies: Loukoum’s garbled version of Le Petit Prince: here the
reader may possibly be tempted to laugh at him, though there is
also a gentle irony in Loukoum’s saying, in poor French, that SaintExupéry’s French is odd;
there is also irony in, for example, Loukoum’s thinking the
pupils and the teacher are intolerant, when he shows that he too
can be intolerant;
the theme about understanding the Koran culminates here in
his mother’s joke or ignorance, which is finally made at Loukoum’s
expense:
‘– Tu as entendu parler de Saint-Exupéry?
– Ouais, elle m’a répondu. Il est dans le Coran verset 18.’
Linguistic humour: e.g. the satirical element in ‘solidarité oblige’;
echoing clichés on each side of the cultural divide (blacks are
stronger / being able to read only the Koran is against the French
way of life);
Loukoum’s general tone, in an easy-going form of low-register
French, contrasts humorously with the formality of the teacher’s
language. This is well illustrated, for example, by the exchange:
‘[...] Tes parents ne t’ont-ils jamais dit qu’un petit garçon ne doit
pas mentir?
– D’abord, je suis pas un petit garçon. Ensuite, je sais lire,
M’amzelle. Seulement ce truc-là, c’est écrit si bizarre!
– Oserais-tu insinuer que Saint-Exupéry ne maîtrisait pas les
règles élémentaires de la grammaire française?
– Connais pas qui c’est ce type [...]’;
in Loukoum’s direct, confiding address to the reader (‘si vous
connaissez le coin...’, ‘si vous savez quelque chose, écrivez-moi...’),
the light humour is mainly directed against himself;
small linguistic touches, such as Loukoum’s exaggerated
description of Saint-Exupéry’s ‘long’ words as ‘des mots
kilométriques’, or the pupils’ chant ‘Il sait pas lire-eu’,
pronouncing the e caduc of ‘lire’, in the public style of singers
(e.g. ‘je ne regrette-eu rien...’) which makes them seem like a
chorus.
5.
What main points is the author making about African immigrants
in French society?
The main points are that the African immigrants have great
difficulty in adapting to the expectations of French society. They
misunderstand French culture and set themselves apart, but, above
all perhaps, they are misunderstood and patronised. They are
7
expected to respect and acquiesce in French culture, but may find
themselves being looked down on and insulted by the French.
6.
Language practice
These exercises concern primarily matters of linguistic register
which are prominent in this text. They should be omitted if they
are thought inappropriate for particular groups of students.
6.1
The story is told as though Loukoum is speaking directly to
the reader. As is often the case in spoken French, Loukoum
sometimes takes grammatical ‘short cuts’. He also makes a
number of grammatical mistakes. Rewrite the following in
better French:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
(e)
8
C’est passé dans les journaux
C’était à cause que je savais pas lire
J’ai pas besoin d’apprendre à cause que les femmes vont
bosser pour moi
C’est pas qu’il y avait des mots difficiles
Connais pas qui c’est ce type
(a)
Cela est passé/a été rapporté dans les journaux. The original
is not incorrect: ‘c’est passé’ is quite colloquial – it got into
the papers; ‘cela’, or ‘cette histoire’ would be more formally
‘correct’ French.
(b)
C’était parce que je ne savais pas lire. ‘A cause que’ is now
regarded as an archaism; the omission of the ‘ne’ is quite
common in contemporary usage, but is regarded as formally
incorrect. The next two examples provide further practice in
restoring the ‘ne’.
(c)
Je n’ai pas besoin d’apprendre parce que les femmes vont
travailler pour moi. Restore the ‘ne’. Also replace ‘à cause
que’ and substitute a non-slang word for ‘bosser’.
(d)
Ce n’est pas qu’il y avait/ait eu des mots difficiles. Restore the
‘ne’. A more subtle point may be raised for some advanced
students: the subjunctive is possible but optional in this
context. If the words were not in fact difficult, the subjunctive
would be appropriate, but if they were actually difficult the
indicative could be correct. (Similarly, in ‘le fait que’ +
clause, the verb in the clause may be in the indicative or the
subjunctive.) The vocabulary of Le Petit Prince is not
particularly difficult – see also Text 31.
(e)
Je ne sais pas qui est ce type / monsieur. ‘Connais pas’ is a
colloquial expression which omits both the subject and the
‘ne’, for ‘je ne connais pas’. Loukoum’s sentence combines
two ideas: ‘je ne le connais pas’ and the indirect question, ‘je
ne sais pas qui il est’. The formula ‘qui c’est ce type’ is not
incorrect: it is a standard duplication of the subject, as noun
and pronoun.
6.2
A lot of idiomatic expressions are used in the text. Identify
some of these and use them in your own sentences, showing
that you have understood their meaning.
The following expressions could be used as a basis for this
exercise:
zut alors! – for goodness’ sake!
toujours est-il que – neverthless, anyhow, anyway, at any rate,
still
Et comment que je sais (+ infinitive) – you bet I know how
to...
à l’adresse ci-dessus indiquée – at the above address
pour en revenir à – to get back to
je m’en doutais – I thought so. I thought as much
(aller) comme sur des roulettes – like clockwork, like a
dream, very smoothly
pour de bon – (here) really: i.e. I really could read. ‘Pour de
bon’ can also mean definitively, for good
en toutes lettres – (it was written out) in full
6.3
Loukoum’s teacher must write a brief report to the school
head explaining what happened in class. Write a short piece
in French (about 80 words) imagining the teacher’s version of
the story.
This is an advanced exercise, requiring clear understanding of
the original text and inviting an imaginative transposition.
9
LA MARSEILLAISE/FREUDE
TEXTE 3
La Marseillaise/Freude
Rouget de Lisle/Schiller
Bien évidemment, la discussion de ces textes pourra se faire en français
ou en anglais. Pour ceux qui étudient aussi l’allemand, la possibilité se
présente de traiter en allemand les deux textes, et surtout le poème de
Schiller.
A
La Marseillaise
1.
Dans la première strophe, quels mots évoquent la guerre?
Dans la première strophe, ce sont surtout les mots ‘étendard
sanglant’ qui évoquent la guerre. Le mot ‘étendard’ – ‘drapeau’ –
garde ses connotations militaires et son symbolisme patriotique:
c’est l’enseigne de guerre qui peut suggérer aussi un ennemi
belliqueux. Est-ce que la guerre est également évoquée par le mot
‘tyrannie’? Dans ce contexte, peut-être; de même, pour certains
étudiants, il est possible que les mots ‘patrie’ et ‘gloire’, étant
donné leur caractère souvent militaire, suggéreront eux aussi la
guerre.
2.
Dans la deuxième strophe, comment est décrit l’ennemi?
L’ennemi y est décrit comme étant ‘féroce’ – ferocious, savage –
ce qui suggère des soldats brutaux qui se comportent comme des
animaux, des bêtes fauves qui mugissent en venant, non pas
seulement tuer, mais ‘égorger’ les femmes et les enfants. Si ces
soldats sont guerriers, ils paraissent surtout insolents et arrogants,
car ils osent s’approcher tout près, ‘jusque dans non bras’. Le mot
‘mugir’ évoque des bruits de guerre sauvages qui terrifieront des
femmes et des enfants supposés innocents. L’ennemi est donc
lâche, le mot ‘égorger’ – tuer quelqu’un en lui tranchant la gorge –
ayant en effet, aussi, le sens de sacrifier, d’immoler une victime
innocente.
Le poète juxtapose donc l’innocence des victimes et la lâcheté et la
cruauté barbare de l’ennemi.
Noter, en passant, la différence entre ‘campagnes’ et ‘compagnes’.
Bien que, pour une armée, le mot ‘campagne’ puisse signifier l’état
10
de guerre et les combats eux-mêmes, dans ces vers il s’emploie
dans le sens premier de ‘paysage rural’, ‘terres cultivées’ –
‘country’, ‘countryside’ – d’où aussi les ‘sillons’ de la troisième
strophe (ligne 13).
3.
Dans la troisième strophe, qu’est-ce que le chanteur ordonne aux
citoyens?
Ayant suscité l’indignation et la colère des citoyens, le chanteur
leur ordonne de s’armer, de se mettre dans les rangs et de
marcher vers cet ennemi terrible et menaçant.
4.
Complétez le texte suivant en utilisant les mots ci-dessous:
et de
. Il nous
La Marseillaise est un chant de
pour la
. Il est très différent de
encourage à nous
et de
l’hymne européen qui exprime un idéal d’
pour la
des peuples.
optimisme
battre
patrie
joie
colère
guerre
paix
La Marseillaise est un chant de guerre et de colère. Il nous
encourage à nous battre pour la patrie. Il est très différent de
l’hymne européen qui exprime un idéal d’optimisme et de paix
pour la joie des peuples.
B
1.
Freude
Quel sentiment est exprimé dans le titre?
Cette question encourage une tentative de définition du mot ‘joie’.
Par exemple, on pourra dire que le titre exprime une profonde
émotion exaltante et fort agréable. La joie s’associe aussi aux
causes mêmes de la joie: ici, cette joie va se révéler dans le
sentiment de fraternité.
2.
Quels vers en particulier illustrent le désir d’unité, de fraternité?
Les vers 5 et 7 illustrent ce désir le plus particulièrement:
Deine Zauber binden wieder...
Alle Menschen werden Brüder...
Your magic binds together...
All men will be brothers...
11
3.
Pourquoi, à votre avis, est-ce que ce poème a été adopté par la
Communauté européenne?
Les étudiants sont invités à exprimer leurs avis personnels. Le
poème aurait été adopté afin de souligner l’importance de l’idée
de l’unité européenne – unité politique, sociale et autre – surtout
après la cruauté des grandes guerres du 20e siècle. La joie dans les
sentiments d’unité et de fraternité européennes serait présentée
comme la récompense des efforts de réconciliation nationale des
états jusqu’ici ennemis et un gage de leur sécurité à l’avenir.
4.
Parmi les mots ci-dessous, choisissez ceux qui conviennent au
texte du poème de Schiller:
la
la
le
la
joie
colère
pessimisme
paix
la joie
C
l’espoir
l’espoir
l’optimisme
la peine
la guerre
l’optimisme
la paix
L’Europe
Les deux sujets proposés invitent une réflexion sur le développement
de l’Europe actuelle, surtout en tant qu’entité politique, en
encourageant des réponses personnelles des étudiants. Il serait peutêtre pertinent de commencer par faire une esquisse rapide du
développement historique de l’Europe, à partir de la Seconde Guerre
mondiale, en passant par le Marché commun jusqu’au traité de
Maastricht et à l’inauguration de l’Union européenne en tant que telle.
1.
Donnez des exemples des efforts concrets faits par l’Union
européenne pour encourager le rapprochement des pays.
Parmi les efforts concrets, on notera sans doute les divers traités,
des aspects économiques et sociaux du mouvement européen, la
cour de justice européenne et le système juridique, les élections et
la création du parlement européen, l’importance de la politique
des régions et le financement de projets régionaux, la mobilité des
peuples, la monnaie unique, la création du passeport européen, le
développement du principe des droits de l’homme et de l’idée
d’une citoyenneté européenne, la proposition d’une
«constitution» européenne. Il serait peut-être convenable de
12
demander aux étudiants leurs opinions sur les activités des
membres du parlement européen à Strasbourg: combien y a-t-il de
députés et qui est «leur» propre député régional? Qui peut se
porter candidat et qui a le droit de vote?
2.
Quels sont, à votre avis, les plus grands obstacles au
développement de bons rapports entre les pays européens?
En traitant des obstacles éventuels, l’on remarquera justement des
problèmes de citoyenneté, une opposition nationale politique et
des traditions d’indépendance nationale. Au sein des peuples, on
note souvent la persistance d’une grande méfiance nationale à
l’égard des pays voisins. S’y ajoutent des considérations
budgétaires, des difficultés de financement, des questions de
sécurité nationale et de la police des frontières, sans parler des
problèmes que poserait le nombre croissant des pays membres et
peut-être même la définition de ce que représente l’«Europe».
Pourrait-il y avoir une seule politique étrangère européenne? Une
armée européenne est-elle concevable? Parmi les obstacles les plus
difficiles à surmonter devra-t-on compter les écarts culturels et
linguistiques entre les nations?
Pour terminer, le contraste frappant entre les sentiments exprimés
par l’hymne national français et l’hymne européen pourra suggérer
une autre question. L’hymne national britannique, se
rapprocherait-il de l’hymne européen plutôt que de celui de la
France?
Voici une version du National Anthem du Royaume Uni:
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!
O Lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies
And make them fall;
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Thee our hopes we fix,
Oh, save us all!
13
Thy choicest gifts in store
On her be pleased to pour;
Long may she reign;
May she defend our laws,
And ever give us cause
To sing with heart and voice,
God save the Queen!
Not in this land alone,
But be God’s mercies known,
From shore to shore!
Lord make the nations see,
That men should brothers be,
And form one family,
The wide world o’er.
From every latent foe,
From the assassin’s blow,
God save the Queen!
O’er her thine arm extend,
For Britain’s sake defend,
Our mother, prince, and friend,
God save the Queen!
Qu’en pensez-vous?
14
LE DORMEUR DU VAL
TEXTE 4
Le Dormeur du val
Arthur Rimbaud
1.
How would you describe the scene that is evoked in the first stanza
(lines 1–4)? Which elements of the natural setting are referred to
here? The words ‘chante’ and ‘follement’ suggest joy and vitality.
How, in addition, is a sense of movement imparted? Which
features make the scene appear attractive?
The scene is idyllic, with its references to the greenery, the river,
the sunlight and the mountain. The sense of joy and vitality is
associated with the movement of the water, flashing silver as the
river flows by. The words ‘accrochant’ and ‘mousse’ suggest
animated movement in the scene, as the light itself appears to be
moving with the ripples. The scene is particularly attractive
because it is pervaded with light. The river is personified by the
use of the adverb ‘follement’, just as the mountain is personified by
the word ‘fière’: these personifications, gently humorous,
contribute to a lightheartedness of the tone. The combination of
pleasant sound and sight is uplifting in this intimate place –
intimate because it is a ‘petit val’, a simple ‘trou de verdure’, where
a river is babbling along.
2.
In the second stanza, the focus moves in to the soldier. What are
his main characteristics? Do the references to colours and light
(lines 5–8) contribute anything to the scene? What do you think is
the dominant impression conveyed by this stanza?
The soldier is described as young, open-mouthed, bareheaded,
pale, sleeping. The blue and green, natural colours, suggest
relaxation. The soldier is closely associated with these colours, his
neck in the blue cress, his paleness set against the green ‘bed’ on
which he is lying. In this way, the soldier is made to appear to
belong to nature, to be at one with this idyllic scene. The soldier –
‘la nuque baignant...’ – is associated with water and with the light
which is pouring down on him: just as, in English, one may speak
of light being fluid, ‘streaming in’, so here, Rimbaud uses the
slightly bolder image of ‘la lumière pleut’ (line 8), which picks up
the idea contained in ‘mousse de rayons’ from line 4. Each of the
first two stanzas ends with the emphasis on an image of light
15
LE DORMEUR DU VAL
moving like water. The dominant impression seems to be one of
peaceful, comfortable rest in an idyllic setting.
3.
The third stanza describes the soldier more closely. In line 8, he
was said to be ‘pâle’: how is this reference extended in stanza 3? In
line 11, what does the poet contribute to the mood by addressing
nature directly? How does the contrast drawn between warmth
and cold contribute to the development of the poem?
The term ‘pâle’, which was somewhat stressed by being placed at
the beginning of the last line of the second stanza, is echoed by the
word ‘malade’ in the simile in lines 9–10. This describes a faint
smile in the pallor of the young soldier’s face. The ideas in the
adjectives ‘jeune’ and ‘pâle’ (lines 5 and 8) are brought together in
the simile ‘ comme... un enfant malade’. The smile suggests
peaceful sleep, in a harmonious natural setting among the flowers.
In line 11, the setting briefly becomes the main focus again, in the
poet’s apostrophe of nature. This direct address – another implied
personification – adopts the informal second person singular and
resembles a quiet, intimate prayer: it enhances the meditative
mood. Nature is represented as maternal, the soldier as her
vulnerable, sleeping child. The intimacy of this is stressed by the
childlike expression ‘il fait un somme’. There has already been a
suggestion of warmth in the sunlit scene, in which the soldier
appears to be sleeping peacefully in the open air; this suggestion is
now made explicit by the gentle invocation ‘Nature, berce-le
chaudement’, but the idea of warmth is immediately qualified by its
sharp juxtaposition with ‘froid’ in the same hemistich. In this
carefully constructed poem, this reflection prepares for the change
developed in the final tercet.
4.
In lines 9–14, is the soldier aware of the warm, exuberant scene
around him? The last stanza suggests both peacefulness and
stillness: how is absence of movement emphasised? At the
beginning of line 14, the word ‘tranquille’, standing alone,
qualifies ‘poitrine’. What does it mean? – quiet, calm, still?
The wording of these questions avoids the use of the technical
terms of French prosody, which can be distracting or disconcerting
for some students.
The questions are intended to draw students’ attention to the
development brought about in lines 9–14. Although the soldier has
been closely identified with the setting, as if he is at one with
16
LE DORMEUR DU VAL
nature, the movement and exuberance of nature now contrast with
the stillness of his body. He seems to be asleep, and in that sense
could be said to be unaware of his surroundings, although the
expression ‘il a froid’ implies physical sensation and conscious life.
However, in lines 12–14, his peacefulness is construed as stillness,
and his lack of movement is evoked and emphasised by the very
specific reference to his nostril (line 12): he cannot smell the
scents of nature, and there is a lack of responsiveness in his body.
However, the metaphor of sleeping is maintained –‘il dort dans le
soleil’ – and the phrase ‘la main sur sa poitrine tranquille’ is
ambiguous, implying as it does both consciousness and stillness.
While ‘tranquille’ may mean ‘calm’, ‘at ease’, suggesting some
degree of awareness, the adjective also means both ‘quiet’ and
‘still’. It is given considerable emphasis by being placed as the rejet
of an enjambement, tightly associated with its noun ‘poitrine’, but
separated onto the new line of verse. Metaphorically, the soldier is
quiet and at ease; literally, his chest is still, motionless. Combined
with line 12, this reference to stillness anticipates the image
produced by the rest of line 14.
5.
The last sentence gives the poem its meaning. It is a simple
sentence, composed of short words, written almost entirely in
monosyllables. What does this simplicity of expression add to the
poem? Is there any particular force in the adjective ‘rouge’ in this
context? The word ‘trou’ appears in the first and last lines: is this
significant in any way? Do you feel that this closing sentence
contrasts in any way with the rest of the poem?
In line 14, the meaning of the scene becomes clear, though even
here the idea is expressed slightly indirectly. The soldier has been
shot: the poet is contemplating the body of a young man in
uniform, no more than a child in appearance, who has been killed
in war. The simplicity of expression adds pathos which gives the
poem its peculiar power. (It is often cited by educated French
people as a moving and memorable poem.) The poet engages in
no posturing or ‘loud’ rhetoric; instead, the simple expression,
here and generally throughout the poem, matches the youth,
innocence and implied simplicity of the soldier. This simplicity
itself therefore emphasises the pity of this death. The adjective of
colour, ‘rouges’, indicating blood, contrasts with the clear light,
the green and blue colours of the scene, and the paleness or
implied sickliness of the soldier’s face. The affective statement in
line 11, ‘il a froid’, now takes on a literal meaning: in effect, ‘il est
froid’. In context, line 14 marks an ironical contrast with the
17
LE DORMEUR DU VAL
surrounding idyll. The same irony is seen in the placing of the
word ‘trou’ in lines 1 and 14, marking the difference between the
idyll of the ‘trou de verdure’ and the ‘trous rouges’ in the soldier’s
chest. His chest is ‘tranquille’ because the heart is no longer
beating. The meaning of the last sentence therefore appears to
contrast sharply with the vibrancy of the early part of the poem; it
represents an understated response to the inferred violence or
cruelty of war, set against the peaceful setting in nature. At the
same time, the tone of the last sentence maintains the earlier
simplicity and directness.
6.
The poem is a sonnet. What are the attributes of the sonnet form?
Trace the general development of the themes of the poem. Examine
the versification: its rhyme and metre. Note the use of isolated
words at the beginning of certain lines, to complete a sentence or
phrase. This device is called, in French, a ‘rejet’ (in English, an
‘enjambement’). Does it give special emphasis to these words? Does
it help to reinforce any of the themes?
Beyond consideration of the definition of the sonnet form, its
attributes and the general structure of the poem, this question may
perhaps be omitted unless particular groups of students are
thought likely to benefit from more detailed consideration of
aspects of the French prosody.
The themes are developed systematically, as is conventional in the
sonnet. The quatrains set out the premises of the poem, the
tercets develop these and lead to a conclusion. Stanza 1 expresses
delight in exuberant nature, with some emphasis on movement
and effects of light; stanza 2 introduces the human element,
describing the ‘sleeping’ soldier, the dominant theme being that of
a peaceful harmony between the man and the place. The first
tercet combines man and nature (line 9), then introduces a value
judgement in a simile, to conclude with an expression of the
poet’s wish: the dominant themes here are those of human
innocence, vulnerability and fragility, and the comfort to be
derived from harmony with nature. The expressions of warmth and
cold may be regarded as themes. The second tercet takes these
ideas further by suggesting a loss of responsiveness to nature,
physical stillness, contrasting with movement, and death in the
midst of an attractive living nature. A unifying theme is sleep itself:
Rimbaud uses the conventional association of sleep and death in
18
LE DORMEUR DU VAL
order to create a touching image, emphasised by the title of the
poem and the repetition of ‘dort’, ‘il dort’, il dort’ (lines 7, 9, 13).
The sonnet is rhymed abab cdcd eef ggf, and respects the
alternation of masculine and feminine rhymes. The rhymes are
strong, either riches or suffisantes. The poem is written in
alexandrines, but is especially notable for its use of enjambements,
mainly in lines 2–3 and 13–14, but also, less obviously, in lines 3–4
(‘le soleil... Luit’), 5–7 (‘Un soldat jeune... Dort’). In each of these
cases, the words of the rejet (isolated words at the beginning of
lines) are strongly emphasised. This is a function of the rejet.
Similarly, Rimbaud also runs across the caesura in some places: line
5 (‘bouche ouverte’), line 10 (‘enfant malade’), line 14 (‘trous
rouges’), each being concerned directly with the image of the
soldier and the last two instances stressing key ideas in the
development of the poem. The composition is versatile, adopting
accepted rules governing rhyme and the underlying rhythm of the
classical alexandrine, but also varying some of the main features.
One may also note a discreet use of alliteration, notably in l – a
‘liquid’ vowel – in lines 3–4, 8 and 13–14.
7.
The sonnet was inspired by the poet’s experience of the FrancoPrussian war and the invasion of France in 1870–71. This was the
first of three invasions of France, in 1870, 1914 and 1940. These
experiences are at the origin of later twentieth-century movements
towards European cooperation. However, the poem does not focus
on institutions, or even on national or cultural differences. War is
not mentioned. Do you think that the poet could have had any
political or social intention?
The date of the poem, October 1870, situates it historically. This
question invites some treatment of the historical context, and
teachers could also, if they wish, introduce biographical
considerations. However, the main intention in the Anthology is to
invite a reading of the poem on its own terms: its restrained
simplicity allows it a universal application. Students may wish to
infer some social or even political implication from the pathos of
the evocation, but the poet avoids any explicit moralising.
19
LE DORMEUR DU VAL
8.
Nevertheless, the poem does evoke, indirectly, the human
experience of war. Could it have any implications concerning the
role of the individual in society?
When considering this question, can you suggest why the poet chose
to include childish vocabulary (‘il fait un somme’)? Do the special
‘poetic’ words (‘val’, ‘nue’) contribute anything specific to the
meaning of the poem? Are they merely a ‘pretty-pretty’ touch, or do
they add to the force of the evocation?
Here too, a personal response to the reading is encouraged. There
is no right or wrong answer to the first question. The pathos of the
situation could be interpreted as implying the humanity and value
of the individual, as well as the injustice of war and the loss
incurred by society. The pathos of the poem is underlined by the
affectionate tone of the deliberately childish vocabulary in ‘il fait un
somme’. This is not condescending: it implies the protectiveness of
a mother, here represented as ‘mother nature’, and could be taken
to imply a need to protect the young and vulnerable, rather than
to sacrifice them in war. The ‘poetic’ words contribute to the
development of an idyllic, rather romantic vision of the scene.
However, they are not some kind of vapid, ‘pretty-pretty’ addition:
on the contrary, they are used both to help to idealise the
evocation and to increase the sense of irony when the situation is
revealed in the last line. The device of creating a deceptively
idealistic or idyllic image in order to undermine it is found in the
work of other writers.
20
DEMAIN, DÈS L’AUBE
TEXTE 5
Demain, dès l’aube
Victor Hugo
This very famous poem could be considered also in comparison with
Hugo’s longer and more philosophical or argumentative poem, ‘A
Villequier’ (not included in the Anthology). Thematically, ‘Demain, dès
l’aube’ may be studied in the context of relationships between parents
and children. As an expression of the themes of death and nature, it also
invites comparison with Text 4.
The first question is designed mainly to encourage linguistic comprehension, but some elements of appreciation are also touched on. This
task of evaluation is then developed in subsequent questions.
1.
In the first stanza, what does the poet say he is going to do?
The poet says that he intends to set off at dawn and to travel by
forest and mountain, because he cannot bear to be separated any
longer from the person (‘toi’) he wishes to join.
‘Je partirai’: what is the effect created by the position of this verb,
which ends the first sentence?
These words are the main clause of the first sentence, which has
been held in suspense until the second line. The effect is to place
great emphasis on the idea of imminent departure. This is then
reinforced by the repetition in ‘J’irai... j’irai’.
The first stanza could almost be the beginning of a love poem.
However, do we know who is being addressed?
The person to whom the poet is directing these thoughts has not
been identified, but a familiar form of address is adopted and
repeated in the words ‘Vois-tu’, ‘tu m’attends’, ‘loin de toi’. This
familiarity and the associated sentiments do indeed suggest the
opening of a love poem. Although the reader does not know who
is being addressed, there is a suggestion of reciprocated love (‘je
sais que tu m’attends’), the poet being unable to stay apart from a
loved one any longer.
21
2.
In lines 5 and 6, what do we learn about the mood of the poet?
Which words emphasise negation and a sense of loss?
The poet’s mood is introspective. In line 5, he proposes a picture
of himself as he will be while he is walking along, turned in upon
his own thoughts. The idea of loss or absence is conveyed by the
repetition of ‘sans’, and the negative associations of this term are
developed by the words ‘rien’ and ‘aucun’. The two lines are very
harmonious. Line 5, with three groups of four syllables – it is a
‘Romantic alexandrine’ –, has elements of internal rhyme: ‘Je
marcherai les yeux fixés sur mes pensées’, which could suggest the
idea of the poet’s steady, heavy plodding. Line 6 balances the two
hemistiches: ‘Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit’,
dwelling insistently on the meditative mood, to the exclusion of all
external sights and sounds. The two lines show the poet totally
preoccupied with his thoughts.
What impression is created by (a) the placing of the words ‘seul’
and ‘triste’ (lines 7 and 8), and (b) the use of contrast in line 8?
22
(a)
Placed at the beginning of their lines and followed by the
trace of a pause (rather as the words ‘Je partirai’ were in line
2), ‘seul’ and ‘triste’ qualify the subject of the sentence, which
is the ‘Je’ of line 5. In this way, the meaning of these
adjectives is emphasised, ‘seul’ asserting the poet’s solitude,
which seems to follow naturally from the established
emphasis on the self (how often did the word ‘je’ appear in
the first stanza?), and ‘triste’ introducing explicitly, for the
first time, the theme of sadness associated with loss or
absence. Line 7 is another Romantic alexandrine, which also
picks up the internal rhyme of line 5: ‘Seul, inconnu, le dos
courbé, les mains croisées’.
(b)
It now becomes clear that the mood in the second stanza is
dominated by feelings of sadness, the reference to ‘jour’ and
‘nuit’ serving in line 8 to intensify this emotion. The contrast
between day and night is abolished. The words themselves
may represent a contrast, but the sentiment expressed in
these lines suggests that this anticipated journey will be one
in which mourning predominates. The wording in the first
stanza, which had seemed to imply that this may be a love
poem, has now given way to a meditation on the experience
of loss and grief. This development is confirmed by the third
stanza.
3.
How do lines 9 and 10 link back to the end of the previous stanza?
Lines 9 and 10 develop the general statement made at the
beginning of the second stanza, but with more specific reference.
After the generality of ‘Je marcherai les yeux fixés sur mes
pensées,/Sans rien voir au dehors’, the poet now evokes the
journey’s end with particular reference to the evening sky and the
port of Harfleur on the Normandy coast, by affirming that he will
not see these things. Poignantly, he will close his eyes to the sails
out at sea. This reference also situates the poem both
topographically and emotionally. Once again, the emphasis is on
negatives (‘Je ne regarderai ni... ni...’): he will not have eyes for the
beauty of the scene (‘l’or du soir qui tombe... les voiles...’), the
dark thoughts (‘le jour... comme la nuit’) blotting out the golden
sunset. In this way, these two lines are closely united with the
sentiments expressed in the previous stanza.
The last two lines of the third stanza are crucial to the meaning of
the whole poem. Explain why.
These closing lines make explicit what has been implied from the
second stanza onwards, explaining the poet’s sense of loss. The
meaning of the poem becomes clear from the revelation that the
poet’s anticipated journey is towards a loved one’s grave, on which
he will place holly and heather. Hugo does not state that it is his
daughter’s grave: he allows the sentiment of mourning to remain
at a certain level of generality, the focus being on his grief itself
and on the loving tenderness with which it is expressed. In this
way, the meaning of the journey, as such, is clarified: it is pictured
as if it were a pilgrimage-journey requiring a complete day. He will
set off at dawn, and arrive when the sky is darkening. There is a
special resonance in this, semantically, a ‘journey’ being symbolic
of the distance that could be travelled in a day, in a ‘journée’; here,
it is also a journey from a white countryside of early dawn to the
darkening onset of night. The poet’s state of mind is echoed in
these settings.
4.
The poem is simple and understated. It repeatedly associates
nature with what the poet says he is going to do in the future. How
effectively do you feel that these features express the poet’s grief?
Does any line strike you as being particularly telling?
These questions invite students to develop their personal
responses to the poem, to elaborate their own value judgements
23
and at the same time to try to focus closely on the text, rather than
dwelling too much on their personal associations. The poem’s
simplicity and directness help to account for its appeal: Hugo
avoids sententiousness and the maudlin, here, and draws no
conclusions. The vocabulary is simple and largely unadorned:
although a descriptive poem, it deploys few adjectives. Line 5 may
perhaps be thought to be particularly striking. Nature is a repeated
point of reference, marking the stages of the poet’s journey, from
the countryside at dawn, through references to forest and
mountain, vaguely evoked, to the evening sky and, by implication,
the sea. Hugo’s particular tribute to his dead daughter is also
expressed in natural terms, with the references to holly and
heather, the evergreen and the heather blossom representing the
persistence of life and symbolising a father’s love.
24
APPRENDRE UNE LANGUE ÉTRANGÈRE?
TEXTE 6
La Correspondante anglaise
Anne Bragance
1.
Do you think Joseph’s way of preparing for his trip to England is
sensible?
Joseph’s preparation is linguistic. This question, inviting students’
personal views, is intended to provide an opportunity for
discussion of methods of foreign-language learning which students
have themselves experienced. Joseph’s approach may not seem
ideal: he studies alone for two hours a day with a book and a few
audio tapes. Students are likely to have different opinions about
various aspects of this method, but one might argue that Joseph is,
at least, highly motivated. The method he is using is to cover the
familiar ‘survival’ situations of practical language training –
journeys, arriving, in the hotel, having toothache, going to a
dance, boating, swimming, eating out (see question 3) – by
learning phrases, with the help of phonetic approximations.
2.
What do you judge to be Joseph’s attitude towards his friend Sam?
Sam is introduced as Joseph’s pal, his mate, the term ‘copain’ itself
suggesting unaffected friendship and familiarity. Similarly, the term
‘le Sam’ is mainly affectionate, though the use of the article before
a person’s name may also imply, sometimes, an element of
denigration. Joseph wants to impress Sam by showing off his
command of English. This may imply an attitude of friendly
superiority. One could add that, in context, Joseph seems to be
rather presumptuous in wanting to show off to Sam. He is aware
that he may be presuming, just as he indulges in wishful thinking
in imagining that he could eventually write to the Queen in
English. He is pleased with himself and thinks he has made a great
deal of progress, though this sits uneasily with, for example, the
elementary mistake he makes in the use of ‘in England’. So the
context suggests that he is wanting to be generous with his friend,
by taking him to England, but also that there is an element of
rivalry between them.
25
3.
Are the ‘phonetic’ transcriptions likely to be helpful or not? What
do you think of Joseph’s method of teaching himself English as a
foreign language? How does his method compare with your own
experience of language learning?
Developing from question 1, this question focuses on the
‘phonetic’ transcriptions used in the passage. In the French
context, the English transcriptions appear comical, as Joseph
himself says (‘... un charabia un rien cocasse’): ‘un rien...’ is rather
an understatement. The transcriptions contribute to the humour
of the passage. Their pedagogical value is limited, though students
may judge that such transcriptions, which are rough
approximations, could be helpful. Advanced students could be
asked to produce equivalent transcriptions of French
pronunciation, as an experiment, mainly to illustrate the
limitations of the method and the importance of the use of the
spoken language in language learning. How, for example, would
students describe the English ‘th’ sound, for French speakers? Or
the French ‘u’ and ‘r’ sounds for English speakers? Joseph’s book
uses z for ‘th’ in ‘iz ze poul hitid?’ Here, the letter i would be
pronounced ‘ee’ in French, thus producing mispronunciations for
‘is’ and ‘heated’. What, on the other hand, would be the value of
formal phonetic script? For students who have had some
introduction to phonetic script, the phrases in the passage are rich
in examples of phonemes which are differently pronounced in the
two languages. Joseph writes admiringly of this aid to the foreign
learner, noting that he depends on the transcriptions ‘lorsque je
néglige de brancher mon appareil à cassettes’, a comically
inattentive approach which could in itself lead students to be
unconvinced of the value of his method.
4.
The voices of those speaking a foreign language are sometimes
thought to be ‘funny’. Why should this be?
Continuing from question 3, students may wish to imitate the
‘French accent’ indicated in the phrases:
iz ze poul hitid?
Iz zêre e goudd rèstoran?
Ouatt iz ze dich of ze deï?
Kould aï hav seum pépeu?
Kènn aï hav ze bil, pliz?
26
These phrases would appear quite comic also to French eyes. The
purpose of question 4, apart from offering students some light
relief, is to point out the importance of the good pronunciation of
French phonemes. The reason why ‘foreign accents’ may appear
‘funny’, is no doubt because phonemes are differently pronounced
in different languages, and the systems of intonation and syllablestress also vary. Here, for example, the words ‘rèstoran’ and
‘pépeu’ are shown with an accent on the first syllable, to indicate
that the ‘e’ is pronounced in English as a relatively open vowel,
unlike the neutral ‘e’ as found in the French ‘le’. The accent may
also show the place of the emphasis in the English pronunciation
of these words; in French, the normal stress, here, would have
been on the last syllable. At the same time, ‘rèstoran’ is faultily
transcribed, lacking the English ‘t’, and ‘kould’ indicates a serious
mispronunciation. It may be relevant to comment on the regular
placing of the emphasis on the final syllable of French words and
phrases: students could practise pronouncing homonyms from the
passage, such as ‘capable’, ‘posture’, ‘satisfaction’, or ‘cousin’, in
both English and French. Similarly, ‘idiom’/‘idiome’, ‘method’/
‘méthode’, ‘circumstances’/‘circonstances’, ‘lesson’/‘leçon’, ‘royal’/
‘royal(e)’.
Would you say that the French attitude to foreign-language
learning, as described here, is similar to that of English speakers?
This question refers primarily to the opening sentences of the
passage: ‘Les Français sont anti-polyglottes, ils se terrent dans leur
idiome comme des lapins au fond de leur terrier. Est-ce une
posture, un snobisme ou, pis, une tare? Je ne saurais le dire. Si j’en
parle à l’aise, c’est parce que je ne fais pas exception.’ Students will
probably tend to judge that English-speakers, too, are content to
know only their own language. This could be used as a basis for
discussion of the value of learning foreign languages. Taking a lead
from the comments made here, the following questions could be
asked: do English speakers take refuge in / hide behind their
language? If they do so, are they merely pretending to be satisfied
with their own language? Is it an act of snobbery? A defect of
character? Note that if Joseph is being critical of his fellowcountrymen, he is not ‘judgmental’, accepting that he shares or
has shared their prejudice: ‘je ne fais pas exception’.
27
5.
The passage is light hearted. What do you think are the sources of
its humour?
The humour arises from the elaboration of the character of Joseph
and the tone he adopts, combining self-criticism with pride in what
he thinks are his achievements. The English transcriptions are
comic, and his innocent acceptance of their merit is evoked with
gentle irony. His ambition to learn English is expressed rather
naively, as is his enterprise of writing to the Queen every two
months, and his thought that she may feel honoured and touched
if he writes to her in her own language. He is not made to appear
ridiculous, however, as he is well aware that he must appear to be
a ‘doux dingue’. This self-criticism, including his admitting that he
sometimes omits to plug in his cassette player, adds to the appeal
of his personality. His chatty tone underpins the lightheartedness
of the piece.
6.
Language practice
6.1
In the passage, certain sample questions are asked relating to
eating in a restaurant. Compose in French some questions or
comments of your own about different aspects of a meal.
For example, ask to see the menu and enquire about the price
of the available meals. You could query the quality of the
wine. Request a clean napkin and some more cheese. Tell the
waiter you would like the lamb chop, but with salad instead
of chips.
Item 6.1 provides oral or written practice using the vocabulary of
eating out, including role playing. Some students may have access
to French phrase books which offer sample phrases: these could be
exploited to extend students’ active vocabulary, including the
vocabulary of cooking. Such phrase books may contain examples of
phonetic approximations of dubious merit, similar to those used in
the Bragance passage for French learners. Role-playing exercises
could be used, and the value of gesture, intonation and facial
expression could be emphasised.
28
6.2
Imagine yourself writing to an important French personage.
To whom would you choose to write? What would you write
about? Write your letter, in French, and make it about 120
words in length.
This exercise offers practice in letter writing, including the French
formulas for introducing and signing off correspondence. Primarily,
however, it invites students to reflect on their knowledge of France
and prominent French people (in politics, for example, or cinema,
music, the arts, literature, sport...), and to imagine attitudes and
subjects or situations which could be a basis for genuine
correspondence.
6.3
Translate the last paragraph of the passage into English.
Check the vocabulary and idiom as necessary, for example:
en quelques semaines – in a few weeks, i.e. within a few weeks, as
opposed to ‘dans quelques semaines’, in a few weeks’ time
en mesure de – able to, capable of, (to be) in a position to (do
something)
emmener – to take (someone somewhere): not ‘prendre’
épater – amaze, stagger, impress
un jour prochain – distinguish from ‘le prochain jour’
réaliser – achieve, carry off
prouesse – amazing feat, miracle
obstination – obstinacy
Items of grammar to note include:
de notables progrès – partitive ‘de’ with adjective preceding the
noun
il se peut que + subjunctive
parvenir à... telle qu’elle me permette – example of subjunctive
expressing wish or purpose, as with ‘je veux que’ / ‘afin que’; a
similar structure occurs in the first paragraph
peut-être bien que... – example of ‘que’ used after ‘peut-être’ as an
alternative to inverting the subject and verb: peut-être bien
qu’alors la queen se sentirait... – it may well be that the queen
would then feel.... Without ‘que’, the sentence would read
‘peut-être... la queen se sentirait-elle alors...’
29
LES SECRETS DU BONHEUR
TEXTE 7
Les Secrets du bonheur
Janine Boissard
It will be appropriate to offer students some background information on
the situation in France following the end of World War II, with particular
reference to the repatriation of prisoners of war. It was a period of
continuing tensions and, for many people, privation: Janine wears her
sister’s hand-me-down clothes and, in her school, for example, there is
no heating. The scene takes place in Spring 1946, nearly a year after the
end of the war. In Les Secrets du bonheur, published in 1999, the writer
is looking back more than fifty years. It is from this fairly distant
perspective that ‘la guerre vient de se terminer’. A dominant theme of
the passage, a girl’s desire for happiness, has particular resonance in this
context.
1.
Consider the first section of the passage (up to ‘lorsque la
directrice fait son entrée’). What were Janine’s main
preoccupations at this time? What small kinds of happiness had
she experienced so far? In what respects does she appear to be
uncomfortable at this time?
Janine was evidently preoccupied mainly by the thought of her
father’s continued absence, and the fact that the family had not
heard from him. They prayed every night for him to come home.
For Janine, at this time, ‘happiness’ is his safe return – the
anticipated happiness of that reunion. He is, of course, her ‘papa’ –
her ‘dad’ – rather than the more formal ‘father’. The only type of
happiness she had experienced before this had been the childish
‘happiness’ of stealing cake, with added vitamins, or winning a
marble from some conceited boy. She is also pictured feeling
physically very uncomfortable: sitting in an unheated classroom,
muffled up in outdoor winter clothing, her toes swollen: she is
tortured by chilblains in her wooden-soled footwear – the
‘galoche’ is a kind of clog, a not uncommon item of footwear at the
period. The fact that she sits at the back of the classroom,
preferring to gaze out at the sky rather than follow the lesson also
shows that she is ill at ease: she feels that she does not belong.
30
2.
What are Janine’s feelings when the head teacher calls her out to
the front of the class? How does she show that she feels out-of-place
and different from the other students? Does she think that she is
liked by them?
When she is called to come to the front of the class, Janine’s first
reaction is to wonder what terrible thing she has done now. The
adverbial markers – ‘encore’ and ‘cette fois’ – show that she is used
to being picked on. She expects to be singled out and told off,
perhaps humiliated. She has already been expelled from her
sisters’ prestigious school for being a too much of a day-dreamer.
Here, her self-consciousness and feeling of isolation are
emphasised, as she walks out to the front of the classroom with her
heart thumping and the wooden soles sounding on the floor
(onomatopoeia: toc – knock, thump; pan – bang). She is trembling
with apprehension, while the other girls in the class snigger about
her. All of this makes her feel out-of-place: she is certain that the
other students look down on her and do not like her. She does
not know why this is, and speculates that it is perhaps because she
is wearing the old second-hand clothes of an elder sister: ‘usés
jusqu’à la corde’ – ‘threadbare’. One might, at this point, ask
students what relationship Janine seems to have with her sisters. In
addition, in a reference to medals and perhaps other souvenirs
brought back from the war by returning relatives, Janine, unlike
the other girls, has no medals or knick-knacks to show off.
3.
Discuss the last part of the extract (from ‘À en perdre haleine’ to
the end). How does the writer convey the impression of Janine’s
rush to get home? What is the relevance of the mention of Alice?
Summarise her reaction on seeing her father again.
The impression of Janine’s rush is conveyed stylistically by a series
of fairly short phrases, which had already begun with the phrase ‘Et
à moi qui ne respire plus...’, in which ‘elle dit’ or ‘elle annonce’ is
understood. Janine has become breathless with emotion: her
excitement is such that her reaction is physical. This idea of
breathlessness continues in the phrases which follow, as she runs
home as fast as she can: ‘A en perdre haleine’, ‘à ployer de douleur
sous un point de côté’, etc., with phrases of roughly equal length,
until the slightly longer drawn-out sequence of her arrival in the
living room: ‘... traverse la porte de l’appartement comme Alice
son miroir’ and the final short phrase: ‘et pique dans le salon’.
‘Piquer’ is used here in the sense of diving: Janine dashes into the
room. The reference to Alice passing through the looking glass,
31
which suggests an ethereal, magical sensation of lightness, the
feeling that she can pass through solid objects, reinforces the sense
of wonder and the elation which Janine is experiencing.
On seeing her father, her feelings do not take a form she had
expected. By contrast with the emotion of the preceding
paragraph, the description of the scene is suddenly deflated and
relatively objective. Does Janine actually recognise her father at
first? He is described as ‘un homme très maigre, au visage gris...’,
almost as if he were a stranger. His appearance should remind
students that he was a prisoner and is returning from a long period
of captivity. Janine’s reflection on seeing this man hugging her
mother and weeping is the rather sober thought that, as it just
happens to be their wedding anniversary, he has turned up just at
the right moment. Janine is looking at the scene, but is not yet part
of it. She is also the last one home: her brother and sisters are
already there, ‘la mine comme-ci comme-ça’, suggesting that they
do not know quite how to react either. An element of the rivalry
with her sisters, implied earlier in the passage, perhaps comes back
into play here: does she feel that she has been in some way left
out? It is only when her father holds out his arms to her and calls
her tenderly by her child’s affectionate name,’ Jeannot’ that she
feels the reality of his presence. She recognises him properly only
by the sound of his voice, and it is only then that she feels that this
really is her father, and indeed that she really is herself, his
‘Jeannot’. In the simple expression: ‘Ce nom tendre, cette voix,
c’est bien lui, c’est bien moi’, the writer conveys her depth of
feeling. In a way, her father’s return has given her a sense of her
own identity. The thought of such an experience appears never to
have crossed her mind: if this is ‘happiness’, it is not what she had
led herself to expect. Her father is back; she has a feeling of
belonging, but the physical discomforts have not changed, and the
chilblains are still itching.
4.
‘Le bonheur ne vient jamais comme on l’a imaginé...’ – In your
opinion, have the happiest experiences been those which occurred
unexpectedly? Have there been times when something you were
looking forward to actually lived up to expectations?
This question is designed to encourage personal involvement in
the main theme of the passage: what is happiness? Students may be
willing to recount personal experiences, and could be encouraged
to do so in French and to reflect on such experiences: expecting
32
the best may be a recipe for disillusionment, but expecting the
worst may also be illusory, a mere form of self-defence.
It should perhaps be emphasised that in the passage Janine does
not say exactly that she was not happy when her father returned.
Students should look at the first and last paragraphs of the passage.
The introductory paragraph states forcefully that if one builds up
one’s dreams too much (‘les rêves trop longtemps caressés,
gonflés de vent et d’illusion...’), they will not work out as
expected: they will blow up in your face. In ‘les rêves... peuvent...
vous exploser à la gueule’, the word ‘gueule’ is such a strong,
familiar form of expression, almost impolite, that the writer
apologises for it. This does not mean that Janine was disappointed
by her father’s return, but that her reactions and her happiness did
not take a form she had expected.
Repeated themes in the passage are expectation and illusion. What
one expects to happen may not or will not happen. (1) Janine
expects trouble when the head teacher calls her out in class: this
expectation is ‘disappointed’, and what happens is not what she
expected. Instead of being critical of her, the head teacher is kind,
almost affectionate: ‘Rentre vite, petite...’. (2) The happiness Janine
thinks she will experience in having her father back does not come
about in a form she had expected. An initial feeling of deflation is
then followed by an intimate sense of truly belonging. (3) Janine
also plays on this kind of experience in order to deceive herself
deliberately. She has told herself that her classmates do not like
her, but when they applaud (for her father) she pretends to herself
that they are clapping for her, thus playing the game of reversing
her expectation. This gives her the feeling that she is liked and the
illusion that she exists. She knows it is an illusion, however. Then,
totally unexpectedly, a true feeling of her own identity is
generated when she hears her father say her name.
5.
The particular incident in this extract relates to exceptional
circumstances. However, the general situation which is described
may appear to be fairly familiar.
5.1
What, in your opinion, are the factors that may make an
individual student feel different from others?
Using illustrations or vocabulary from the passage, as appropriate,
students may consider whether factors such as the following may
give people a sense of their own individuality and an awareness of
33
differences and rivalries with others – character? tastes? physical
characteristics? what people wear and the way they dress? their
social background? their political or religious beliefs? where they
come from?
5.2
The school described in the passage is a single-sex, religious
establishment. What do you think are the advantages and
disadvantages of single-sex schools as against mixed schools?
Similarly, what do you consider to be the advantages or
disadvantages of denominational schools?
Personal opinions and experiences are encouraged. The topic
could be used as a basis for a debate in French.
6.
Language practice
6.1
The passage is written using present tenses, even though it
refers to the past. This is a common feature of French prose
style. Imagine it written using past tenses, making a choice
between the imperfect and the perfect tenses. Remember that
the perfect tense would be used for events of the story (‘what
happened next?’). The imperfect would apply to background
information (‘what was the situation at the time?’).
Identify six verbs for which the imperfect tense would be
used. Find six others which would have to take the perfect
tense. (Students familiar with the simple past/past historic
tense could use this in place of the perfect.)
The passage lends itself well to this exercise. In addition, verbs
already in the perfect tense could be transposed into the
pluperfect, and the verbs in the future could become future-in-thepast / conditional. For example (italic = imperfect; underline =
perfect):
C’est le printemps et pourtant on gèle. La neige est tombée
cette nuit sur les arbres du Bois de Boulogne près duquel j’habite.
Dans mon école non chauffée nous gardons notre harnachement:
anorak, passe-montagne, cache-nez, gants et galoches dans
lesquelles mes doigts de pied, transformés en petits boudins par
les engelures, me mettent au supplice.
Reléguée à mon habitude au fond de la classe, je m’intéresse
davantage aux mouvements du ciel qu’aux opérations que la
maîtresse trace sur le tableau, lorsque la directrice fait son entrée.
34
Nous nous levons toutes – les classes ne sont pas encore mixtes
– comme un seul homme. La directrice monte sur l’estrade, nous
autorise à nous rasseoir. Son regard fait le tour des visages, s’arrête
sur le mien.
«Janine Boissard, venez là!»
Qu’ai-je encore fait d’abominable? (Becomes ‘Qu’avais-je fait…’)
6.2
Working with a partner, study the extract carefully. Then,
without looking at the passage again, reconstruct it in
French. Imagine you are telling a French friend who has not
read the passage what it is about. Use the following notes to
help you:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Situation du père de Janine, attitude du reste de la
famille vis-à-vis de son absence.
Janine et l’école: conditions matérielles; relations avec
ses condisciples.
Arrivée de la directrice et réactions de Janine.
Conclusion: signification de l’épisode. Résumez ce qu’il
nous révèle sur la nature du bonheur. Quelle est votre
opinion personnelle sur cette conclusion?
This exercise could be conducted either as an oral exercise or as a
basis for written work in French, perhaps giving further practice in
the use of the perfect and the imperfect tenses, as in exercise 6.1.
6.3
Imagine that, some years later, Janine’s father is looking
back on his reunion with his daughter. Write a short
paragraph in French as if you were the father, using mainly
the perfect and imperfect tenses. Note the coincidence that he
arrived back home on his wedding anniversary. Describe the
meeting from his point of view, including the emotions he
feels. What went through his mind as he saw his daughter
Janine come into the room?
To express the father’s point of view, an introductory trigger and
some key ideas could be provided, such as:
Quelle coïncidence! Je suis rentré le jour de l’anniversaire de
notre mariage... (quand? où? en quelle saison? à quel moment de la
journée?)
35
Tiens, j’avais complètement oublié que c’était le jour de notre
anniversaire... Je n’y pensais pas, j’étais tellement fatigué... et
ému...
J’ai revue ma Jeannot pour la première fois lorsque... J’ai pensé
qu’elle avait grandi / paraissait essoufflée / semblait déconcertée...
M’avait-elle vraiment reconnu? Mais c’était bien elle – on le voyait à
ses yeux...
As an alternative, students could imagine that they are conducting
an interview with Janine’s father, asking him about his return, the
circumstances, his feelings:
Quand est-ce que vous êtes finalement rentré chez vous,
monsieur?
C’était à quel moment de l’année? / de la journée?
Quel temps faisait-il ce jour-là?
Qui était / étaient à la maison?
Vos enfants étaient-ils là, chez vous, à ce moment-là?
Et Janine? Qu’avez-vous pensé lorsqu’elle est entrée dans le
salon?...
36
PIERRETTE
TEXTE 8
Pierrette
Honoré de Balzac
1.1
Jacques’ feeling on seeing the house was one of ‘plaisir mélangé de
tristesse’. Which features of the house, as it is described in the first
three sentences of the passage, could account for this mixed
feeling?
The house looks new and restored, with signs of luxury that
contrast with other houses in the neighbourhood; but it also looks
as though it belongs to mean people, small shopkeepers who are
very pleased with themselves. The ‘luxe’ is also ‘frais’: it is a newly
restored house, which suggests people who want to show off their
standing. ‘Le parfait contentement du petit commerçant’ expresses
this complacency. The luxury combined with petty-mindedness
could explain his mixed reaction, and it is implied also that he
recognises that Pierrette would not feel at home here. (Note that,
in the text, ‘mélangée’ agrees with ‘expression’.)
1.2. How did Jacques guess which is Pierrette’s room, and what was his
reaction when he identified it?
Jacques has looked carefully at all the windows, evidently trying to
guess which room might be Pierrette’s. The attic is remote, and
only one of the attic windows has a curtain, so he guesses – rightly
– that this must be hers: his reaction is light-hearted
(‘physionomie...gaie’) and he leans cheerfully against a lime tree to
serenade Pierrette with a song.
2.
For Pierrette, Jacques sings a Breton song: when and by whom does
the author say that this song is sung in Brittany? According to the
words of the song, to whom is it mainly addressed? What are the
principal sentiments expressed in the first four verses?
The young people in the Breton villages sing it to married couples
on their wedding day. The song wishes the newlyweds happiness,
but it is mainly addressed to the bride: it states that marriage ties
the woman up for life and removes her freedom. While the other
young people can still play about together and go to dances, the
bride will have to keep house and be faithful to her husband,
37
PIERRETTE
whom she must love as much as she loves herself. For the
traditionally happy wedding day, a time of congratulations, the
song contains a strong element of good-natured banter.
3.1
Comment on the last verse of the song: what is the tone of these
words and what kind of image of a wedding day do they evoke? In
what respect may the bouquet of flowers be seen as a metaphor for
marriage?
The tone here is rather sad, melancholy perhaps, or
‘philosophical’, suggesting resignation to the inevitable, but the
tone of banter continues. The verse offers a picture of gentle
disillusionment, combining the offering of a wedding gift of flowers
with the sentiment that the ceremonies and trappings (‘honneurs’)
of the wedding day are fleeting, ‘vains’ – they will pass. The flowers
which will fade become a metaphor for the beauty and excitement
of marriage which will also disappear.
3.2
On the basis of the paragraph following the song, why might
Pierrette be expected to find this particular song attractive? When
Pierrette eventually appears at her window, what does Jacques do
that echoes the words of the song?
Pierrette might find the song attractive because it should bring
back strong memories of her home province and its good-natured
people, and because of its melancholy, touching realism. The
author describes it as a kind of traditional folk-song, with typical
characteristics: rhythmical, grave, gentle, sad, often bright. When
Pierrette eventually appears at her window, he offers her a piece of
golden-yellow gorse blossom, as an echo of the ‘bouquet’ of the
last verse of the song. The gorse may seem like a suitably symbolic
flower in the context, with its attractive blossom but many prickles.
Jacques is showing affection by honouring Pierrette in this way.
4.
Pierrette opened her window very carefully (‘avec précaution’):
why do you think this is, and why did she say very little, and only
in a low voice? What does this suggest about her life in this place?
How did Jacques try to reassure her?
Pierrette was evidently afraid of being heard opening the window
and speaking to Jacques. It implies that she was ill at ease in this
place, and needed to act secretively, as is confirmed by what
happens next. The fact that she said very little and spoke very
quietly suggests that she felt she could be spied on: she was not at
38
PIERRETTE
home here. Jacques tried to reassure her with a brief, practical
explanation, confirming who he was, and explaining that he was
now living in Paris, but was travelling round France and was
prepared to come and live here close to Pierrette.
5.
What had happened to make Jacques jump ‘comme une grenouille
effrayée’? Do you think that this is a suitable simile in the context?
What did Jacques do next? How does the author create a sense of
tension here?
What had happened was that a latch was heard opening an upstairs
window, beneath Pierrette’s own window – therefore in sight of
Jacques – and Pierrette, obviously familiar with the house and its
occupants, was very fearful and urged him to run away. The simile
of jumping like a frightened frog may seem quite appropriate,
suggesting a natural, innocent exchange which is interrupted
sharply and unexpectedly. It emphasises Jacques’s vulnerability,
but at the same time it is quite humorous. The writer implies that
the reader should not take the situation too seriously: it is
presented in a slightly exaggerated, stagey way, with Jacques
leaping down the street. The tension is created by the suddenness
of the interruption, the air of secrecy, the fear of discovery, the
frog simile, the fact that the sound of his shoes gives him away.
6.
At the end of the extract, how effectively do you think the author
evokes the appearance of the woman whose sudden interruption
made Brigaut stop singing? Does Balzac paint an attractive picture
of this person? Does the appearance of this person have any effect
on the reader’s attitude towards Jacques and Pierrette?
A question about the ‘effectiveness’ of a passage invites a personal
reaction from the reader: students will no doubt react to the last
paragraph in different ways. In general the woman is depicted as a
menacing, disagreeable character, in disarray, without make-up.
There is a contrast between the idea that she is attracted by the
sound of a love song and the woman’s repellent appearance.
Balzac is playing on the stereotype of an ugly old maid, woken
from her sleep and opening the shutters with a gesture like that of
a bat. The author does not merely imply that this person is
horrible; he says so directly, in various ways: ‘vieille fille laide’,
‘spectacles grotesques’, ‘triste’, ‘repoussant’, etc. Some students
may find the tenor of this paragraph politically incorrect. In terms
of the development of the narrative, the appearance (in both
senses) of this person could be thought likely to arouse or to
39
PIERRETTE
increase the reader’s sympathy for Jacques and Pierrette, not least
from the contrast between the introduction of the ‘jeune fille’,
Pierrette, and her ‘main blanche’, as she opens her window quietly,
and the presentation of the ‘vieille fille’ with her hideous
headgear, flinging the shutters aside.
7.
Language practice. Examine the main past tenses of the verbs used
by Balzac in this passage. There is a combination of imperfect and
past historic tenses. On the basis of their use in this passage, what
would you consider to be the principal function of these tenses?
This question is intended to elicit a self-evident grammatical
answer: the imperfect tense is usually used to evoke background
descriptions or continuing states, and the past historic for
individual actions or events. The imperfect is therefore also used
for a continuing action which is interrupted by another. This
contrast is brought out particularly well in the following sentences:
En achevant le premier couplet, l’ouvrier, qui ne cessait de
regarder le rideau de la mansarde, n’y vit aucun mouvement.
Pendant qu’il chantait le second, le calicot s’agita. Quand ces mots
« Recevez ce bouquet » furent dits, apparut la figure d’une jeune
fille. Une main blanche ouvrit avec précaution la croisée, et la
jeune fille salua par un signe de tête le voyageur au moment où il
finissait la pensée mélancolique exprimée par ces deux vers si
simples [...].
40
LES ANNÉES BUISSONNIÈRES
TEXTE 9
Un dictionnaire
Roger Bichelberger
The passage is from Roger Bichelberger’s fictionalised autobiography,
Les Années buissonnières: the title borrows the term ‘buissonnière’, from
the expression ‘faire l’école buissonnière’, to play truant from school.
With its light, self-satirical tone, the passage illustrates an early
experience of a French writer whose mother tongue was the Germanic
dialect of eastern Lorraine, who had then spoken a correct version of
German at school, and only learned French a little later, in effect, as a
foreign language.
This passage brings together such themes as the experience of early
years at school, language-learning and responsiveness to the sounds of
words. Students may be able to respond to some of these themes out of
their own experiences, including that of language learning. The theme
of happiness or the pursuit of happiness, which becomes prominent at
the end of the extract, is touched on also in other passages in this
anthology, including for example Text 7 (Janine Boissard’s Les Secrets du
bonheur), and Text 19 (Simone de Beauvoir’s Les Belles Images).
Some of the suggested questions are intended principally as
comprehension questions, but some call for a degree of interpretation.
The passage lends itself to an extended set of suggestions for language
practice.
1.1
In the first paragraph, what did Roger do during the school
playtime? Why did M. Gaillard invite Roger to come to his house?
During the playtime, Roger looked up the word ‘oculiste’ in M.
Gaillard’s dictionary and then proceeded to look at other words
beginning with ‘o’. The words he mentions are mainly technical or
abstract polysyllables: this emphasises humorously their difficulty
for the young boy. M. Gaillard invited him round to his house –
‘chez lui, à la maison’ – to use a dictionary, because there is no
dictionary at Roger’s house. Strictly speaking, the invitation was to
the house of ‘la Marie B.’, where M. Gaillard was staying (see
questions 2.1 and 2.2).
1.2
Roger’s difficulties are evoked humorously in this first paragraph,
41
by means of a nautical metaphor. Identify the particular words
that are used here metaphorically, and which show that the author
is gently poking fun at himself.
The nautical metaphor is introduced by the reference to
‘navigating’ his way through the list of words: ‘naviguai’. It is then
developed by: ‘achoppant aux récifs’ (stumbling against the reefs),
‘écueils’ (a term for pitfall, which also means reef), ‘brisants’,
‘accoster’. Roger compares himself humorously to a ship in
difficulty, making for home. There are just a few terms which
continue the metaphor; the author does not overdo it; he is
making fun of himself a little indirectly, and quite gently. There is
an element of exaggeration in this, for comic effect; but there is
also some degree of understatement, because the words
mentioned are obviously chosen precisely because they are
especially ‘hard’ (see also question 7.1). The author knows full well
that they would stump most adults, let alone a very young boy who
is only beginning to learn the French language.
2.1
What evidence is given to show that M. Gaillard is looked up to by
the people in the village? Does the respect in which the teacher is
held account completely for Roger’s feelings when he goes round to
M. Gaillard’s house that evening?
As recent arrivals in the village, M. Gaillard and his wife were living
at Marie B.’s house. People in the little village were envious of
Marie B., because having a school teacher lodging with you was
regarded as a great honour. This indicates how much M. Gaillard
was looked up to by the villagers. Roger’s feelings are suggested by
the reference to his heart beating ‘à se rompre’ and his trembling
when he rang at the door: he is filled with emotion, as this was
something he had dared to do. His feelings are not accounted for
solely by the village situation. He had evidently to pluck up his
courage. The teacher was the teacher after all, but Roger was
worked up and excited also at the thought of consulting the
dictionary and because his mother could not pay him much
attention at home. The extract does not dwell on Roger’s home
situation – they were very poor; there was no dictionary in the
house – but reference to his sister’s trip to see a specialist because
of her eyesight helps to explain the background.
42
2.2
What impression does M. Gaillard’s house first make on Roger?
Roger’s first impression was that M. Gaillard was living in a neat
and pretty apartment, which seemed marvellous to Roger, with its
new furniture and a different smell from his own house. The verb
tense in ‘je fus émerveillé’ suggests quite a sudden impression,
implying a touch of agreeable surprise. Following this very first
impression, Roger marvels also at the sight of the books and the
dictionary on the shelf.
3.
How would you describe the atmosphere which is created in this
house by the relationship between M. Gaillard and his wife, and
by the way they are dressed?
The atmosphere could be described as happy and relaxed. The
room was warm and bright and seemed to be full of life. The
couple talked together, joking and laughing: M. Gaillard was
dressed informally, having taken off the grey smock and tie that he
wore at school, and, while he was sitting down marking exercise
books, his young wife moved to and fro in a flowery dress, singing
to herself. Their speaking together in French is part of the charm:
Roger’s own home language is the Lorraine dialect. The term
‘chantonner’ – which can mean variously to hum, to sing to oneself
(of birds: to warble, etc.) – may even have comforting associations
for a child: ‘chantonner une berceuse’ is the French expression for
singing a lullaby to a baby. The whole situation suggests the
contentment of a couple who are at ease together and confident of
each other.
4.
How well do you think the author evokes Roger’s feeling for words,
when he begins to look in this dictionary? Does he immediately
associate the sound of the words ‘pièce’ and ‘piécette’ with their
meaning?
The first question asks for an opinion. Students may judge that
Roger’s feelings for words, notably the sounds of words, are
evoked effectively. It is possible, however, that some students may
not have a keen ear for such sounds, independently of meanings,
in which case one might try them, for example, with
supplementary Text A (p. 170 in the Anthology). Roger was
fascinated by the words themselves, but was put off by the long
explanation of the word ‘pièce’ (students could be asked why
there might have been a long entry, an answer being that the word
has multiple meanings – room, piece, coin). He looked at the word
43
next to it, ‘piécette’ (note the acute accent), and was enthralled by
the sound of the word. He thought of the sound of the word
independently of any meaning, and the next paragraph with its
lists of adjectives conveys the emotion and delight of the boy.
There is a sensual element in Roger’s response: the word ‘piécette’
seems to dance (‘faisait la pirouette’) and sing (‘comme un chant
d’oiseau’); it has feminine associations, including its ‘s comme une
caresse’; its vowel sounds themselves appealed to him. In context,
the word may even be thought to continue the boy’s sense of the
presence of Mme Gaillard: feminine and evidently discreet, she too
was singing. The technicality which Roger does not understand
(‘N.f.’), is also a reference to the feminine; once again, the author
seems to be mocking himself gently.
5.
What elements of the passage lead the author to conclude, at the end
of the last paragraph, that this was a house where happiness lived?
The immediate reason for Roger’s conclusion is that as he left, later
in the evening, the scene was one of comfortable, studious peace,
with exercise books open under the lamp and Mme Gaillard quietly
reading by the light of a standard lamp. A general theme of this
collection of passages is also touched on here: reading, far from
being a passive activity, is one of the forms of stimulating living,
which can also give a sense of community feeling. A broader reason
is evidently the joy that Roger found in the experience, in the
relaxed, happy atmosphere of the place, including also his
experience of the new words, and in the general sense of ease and
gaiety in the evening spent with the teacher and his wife. M.
Gaillard had not made a lesson out of the experience, but had left
Roger to his own devices, independent but cared for. The
impression is conveyed of a truly novel experience, modest in
itself, intellectually rewarding but also, in some measure, sensuous.
To say that happiness itself, personified in the last sentence, was at
home here, is an allegorical way of expressing the strength of
feeling aroused by what might otherwise seem to be an abstract
idea.
NB. Note the misprint on page 32 of the Anthology, in the second
line of the last paragraph: the sentence ‘Peut-être M. Gaillard en
est-il étonné’ should read: ‘Peut-être M. Gaillard s’en est-il étonné’.
44
6.
Style
6.1
Some of the paragraphs consist of just a single phrase or sentence.
Why do you think the author chose this writing technique?
The paragraphs in question are:
(1)
M. Gaillard venait d’arriver au village, accompagné de sa
jeune femme, et il habitait non loin de chez nous, chez la
Marie B. qu’on jalousait pour l’honneur que le maître d’école
lui faisait. (Two main clauses, linked by a co-ordinating
conjunction. The description of the clauses may be developed
in preparation for questions 7.4–7.7.)
(2)
J’avais osé parce qu’il y avait le dictionnaire, parce que le
maître était le maître et parce que, à la maison, Anne-Victoire
n’avait guère le temps de s’occuper encore de moi. (One
main clause, and three subordinate clauses.)
(3)
Je fus émerveillé par l’appartement coquet, les meubles neufs,
l’odeur qui n’était pas celle de chez nous, et puis par les
livres que je voyais sur l’étagère où trônait aussi le
dictionnaire. (One main clause, plus three subordinate
clauses.)
(4)
M. Gaillard avait quitté sa blouse grise et sa cravate, il souriait,
sa femme l’appelait (en français, s’il vous plaît), ils discutaient,
plaisantaient, riaient..., et moi j’écoutais, de toutes mes
oreilles j’écoutais, alors que j’étais censé lire de tous mes
yeux les mille mots du gros dictionnaire qu’on avait ouvert
devant moi, sur une table basse. (In French, this is presented
as a single sentence, although it contains a series of
juxtaposed main clauses, separated only by commas. This
style would be unusual in standard English practice, which
would usually prefer full-stops or semi-colons.)
(5)
Piécette, piécette... (The word is repeated, but presented as a
separate paragraph.)
(6)
Comme un chant d’oiseau. (Verbless phrase.)
(7)
N.f. affirmait le dictionnaire, et je ne savais pas ce qu’il
entendait par là. (Two main, co-ordinated clauses.)
45
Students may be unsure of themselves when dealing with matters
of writing technique, but may be encouraged to think about these
matters in a commonsense way. The separation into such short
paragraphs is conventionally regarded as an aid to reading.
Students could be asked to look, for example, at the paragraphing
techniques used in some newspapers, in which, quite often,
sentences may be presented as separate paragraphs. This
technique is thought to be conducive to quick reading, but also to
the expression of simple ideas, the more easily understood. The
technique adopted here suggests the simplicity of the child’s mind,
as he divides this novel experience into manageable parts. The first
three examples illustrate this. Part of the fourth example, which is
essentially descriptive, resembles telegraphese, with its rapid
sequence of verbs, forming the background to the picture of the
child leaning over the dictionary. While reading, he is listening to
what is going on around him. The use of what are in effect
paragraphs for the last three examples gives added emphasis to
Roger’s sensations. In addition, ‘piécette’ is placed in italics, to
represent the child, entranced by the sound of the word, repeating
the word to himself. The phrase ‘comme un chant d’oiseau’
emhasises the attractive musical effect of the sound itself; this
simile is presented simply, as a separate thought, in a verbless
phrase. The implied enchantment of the sound is then interrupted
by the visual: the next sentence opens with the term ‘N.f. [...]’,
which Roger found strange and baffling, and which marks a
contrast with the repeated sound. It continues the author’s
amused self-deprecation. It is as though the adult’s voice comes
through here, with the verb ‘entendre’ used in the sense of
‘comprendre’.
In summary, the technique adopted in these paragraphs suggests
that the author’s purpose is to represent the naive point of view of
the child, his innocence, the simplicity of his understanding, and
his ability to marvel at simple things.
6.2
The subject of this passage concerns a child’s response to language
learning. This could have been treated as a dry or theoretical
demonstration, but it is in fact treated lightly and quite
humorously. In your opinion, is this style of writing appropriate
for suggesting how a small schoolchild’s mind works?
This question invites a personal response, leading on from
question 6.1. Students could be asked to begin by giving a
theoretical explanation of the boy’s situation. For example: ‘a
46
young child who is learning or has just learnt to read but has not
yet acquired the habit of consulting a dictionary may in certain
circumstances find herself or himself in considerable difficulty
when attempting to look up the meaning of words. The dictionary
may be intimidating; its use of abbreviations or linguistic jargon
may be puzzling, but a skilful teacher, acting subtly to develop the
child’s curiosity, may be able to guide...’ etc. With some students
this part of the exercise could be attempted in French (‘Le jeune
enfant qui vient d’apprendre ou qui apprend à lire, mais qui...’). By
contrast, the dramatised situation which the author has presented
emphasises the ‘human’ interest of the situation by showing –
directly – something of the working of the child’s mind. He
arouses interest also by playing on the comic potential of the
situation. In addition, he produces a rounded picture by drawing
out associated themes, such as the child’s relationship with his
mother and his teacher, and his need for self-respect, security and
reassurance, which are themselves part of the experience of
learning to read. Apprendre à lire, one might say, apprendre à
consulter un dictionnaire, c’est apprendre à vivre.
7.
Language practice – nouns and sentence structure, clauses
7.1
The writer clearly enjoys playing with words. As a boy, he was
fascinated by their sounds, even when he could not understand
their meaning. At school, he looked up the noun ‘oculiste’ in the
teacher’s dictionary, and found some other, mysterious words
close by. Have you ever had this experience when consulting a
dictionary?
Look up a word – say, ‘lampadaire’, which occurs in the last
paragraph – in a French–English dictionary, and note its meaning.
Then see how many other French nouns you can find on the same
page. Then look up the meaning of the other words shown in italics
in the first paragraph of this extract. If any of these words are not in
your dictionary, how would you go about finding their meaning?
This exercise is intended to encourage students to develop the
practice of using dictionaries sensibly. Evidently, the exercise
could be varied in many ways. It may be useful to note the
traditional distinction between the optician, a specialist versed in
optics, and an oculist, who is a physician or surgeon who treats
diseases of the eye.
47
The learned polysyllabic words in the first paragraph are:
ophtalmologie: la branche de la médecine qui traite de l’œil, de la
fonction visuelle, des maladies oculaires et des opérations
pratiquées sur l’œil
odalisque: la femme d’un harem
odontalgie: une douleur d’origine dentaire
œcuménisme: un mouvement favorable à la réunion de toutes les
Eglises chrétiennes en une seule
oedémateux: de la nature de l’œdème. Eudème (oedema):
gonflement indolore et sans rougeur au niveau de la peau,
causé par une infiltration de sérosités (serous fluids)
œdicnème: un oiseau échassier
How would students go about finding the meanings of words
which do not appear in their dictionary? They may recommend
consulting another dictionary – various dictionaries have different
functions and their range varies widely. Perhaps students will
suggest seeking out specialist dictionaries, or consulting the index
of other specialist works, such as medical works of reference,
suitable for ‘odontalgie’ and ‘oedémateux’, for example’. They may
try a dictionary in a foreign language, check in an encyclopaedia,
ask a teacher, or try Google on the Internet.
7.2
Genders of nouns. Note down all the nouns in the last two
paragraphs of the passage and indicate their gender and meaning.
Note that the abstract nouns ending in -ance or -tion are feminine.
In most cases, the gender of the noun is indicated, as shown, by
other words in the context. In a few cases, the gender is not shown
in this way. Most of these nouns are common nouns in daily usage,
so students should know their gender without hesitation. If
students are advised to keep vocabulary lists, they could be
encouraged, for the nouns, not simply to list the word: they
should always show the gender at the same time, by including an
appropriate article or adjective : not ‘stupéfaction’ but ‘la
stupéfaction’; not ‘mot’ but ‘le mot’ or ‘un mot’; not ‘image’, for
example, but ‘une image’ or ‘les belles images’; not ‘pièce’ but ‘la
pièce’.
stupéfaction – f.
une petite pièce – f.
monnaie – f.
mon esprit – m.
48
toutes les piécettes – f.
ma connaissance – f.
du dictionnaire – m.
mon maître – m.
Ce soir – m.
une seule fois – f.
la page – f.
du livre – m.
des mots – m.
M., for Monsieur – m. Note the plural: Messieurs
Gaillard – m. (proper noun)
La lampe – f.
les cahiers ouverts – m.
la table – f.
un fauteuil – m.
un grand lampadaire – m.
Mme, for Madame – f. Plural: Mesdames
silence – m. This is an exception. Nouns ending not just in -ance,
but also in -ence, -anse, -ense are mostly feminine.
le bonheur – m.
7.3
Identify some of the other noun endings that may be associated
with their gender. One such ending, prominent in this passage, is
the diminutive -ette, in piécette: what is the gender of a noun
ending in -ette? Can you think of any other diminutive nouns in
French which end in -ette?
Following on from question 7.2, this suggested exercise is
intended to alert students to some short cuts to gender
recognition. Here are some of the endings which, apart from
exceptions, indicate noun gender (this list is not exhaustive):
Masculine: -age, -ail, -eil, -ueil, -at, -é, -eau, -ède, -er, -ier, -et, -i, -ing,
-isme, -ment, -oir, -ou.
Feminine: -ace, -ade, -aie, -aine, -eine, -aison, -ance, -ée, -euse, -ie,
-ière, -ise, -sion, -tion, -esse, -ette, -té, -tude, -ure.
Students could begin by recognising just a few of these endings,
e.g. -isme, -ment, -ance, -tion. Some familiarity with this material
should help to improve students’ accuracy in using French.
Nouns ending in -ette are feminine: perhaps the most obvious
examples are ‘cigarette’ and ‘bicyclette’, but there are also
49
‘camionnette’, ‘marionnette’, ‘manchette’, ‘midinette’... etc.. The
same suffix is often used in English: launderette, kitchenette...
Questions 7.4 to 7.7 suggest ways of approaching the concept of
analysing clauses on the basis of examples from the extract. These
are optional exercises, introducing the vocabulary of clauses for
students who may not have come across this before, i.e. adjectival
clauses, noun clauses, etc. Such knowledge may increase the
confidence of some students in handling language.
7.4
Discuss with your teacher what is meant by a grammatical clause.
The above passage contains a few sentences comprising one main
clause. The passage opens, for example, with a sentence containing
a single main clause: ‘... je retournai à l’école...’. Can you find
other sentences which contain one main clause and no other
clauses?
One may distinguish a clause, containing a finite verb, from a
phrase with no finite verb. Most of the sentences in the extract
contain more than one clause. Other sentences with one main
clause and no other clauses:
Il lui arrivait de chantonner doucement.
Imaginez mon émotion, et puis mon émerveillement.
7.5
Some of the sentences include what are called co-ordinated
clauses, i.e. separate clauses linked by ‘et’ or ‘mais’. For example,
‘... je tremblais et, pourtant, j’avais osé’. Now identify two other
sentences containing co-ordinated clauses.
A choice from the following is sought:
M. Gaillard me prêta son dictionnaire [...] et, tout au long de la
récréation, je naviguai [...].
M. Gaillard venait d’arriver au village [...] et il habitait non loin de
chez nous [...].
Moi, j’avais le mot pièce sous les yeux, mais la rubrique était si
longue que [...].
Dans mon esprit défilaient toutes les piécettes de ma connaissance
et je les interrogeais [...].
50
7.6
The passage also includes many subordinate clauses – that is,
clauses containing a finite verb and dependent on a main clause.
For example, ‘j’avais osé (main clause) parce qu’il y avait le
dictionnaire (subordinate clause) ...’, or ‘M. Gaillard, qui voyait
bien que je ne parvenais pas à accoster, me proposa...’.
Item 7.6 varies the format of the exercise: it is not a question, but
an invitation to begin reflecting on subordinate clauses.
7.7
There are several different types of subordinate clause in the
passage. Identify as many subordinate clauses as you can, and try
to define their function.
There are many subordinate clauses to choose from; their
functions include relative clauses with adjectival functions, noun
clauses, clauses of time and place and causal clauses. For example:
Comme elle avait fait à Metz avec Alphonsine auprès du spécialiste,
moi aussi j’allais consulter. (Ask students to identify the main
clause, and the subordinate clause.)
Quand ce soir-là j’ai sonné pour la première fois à sa porte... mon
cœur battait à se rompre [...].
[Il] habitait non loin de chez nous, chez la Marie B. qu’on jalousait
pour l’honneur que le maître d’école lui faisait. (Illustrating the
use of a relative clause within a relative clause.)
J’avais osé parce qu’il y avait le dictionnaire, parce que le maître
était le maître et parce que, à la maison, Anne-Victoire n’avait
guère le temps de s’occuper encore de moi. (Three similar
subordinate clauses, elegantly formulated with the longest clause
at the end.)
Je fus émerveillé par l’appartement coquet, les meubles neufs,
l’odeur qui n’était pas celle de chez nous, et puis par les livres que
je voyais sur l’étagère, où trônait aussi le dictionnaire. (Including a
relative clause which itself includes a subordinate clause of place.)
J’étais dans une pièce agréable, chaude, claire, une pièce où vivait
la vie, où riait la vie, où dansait la vie autour de la robe-fleur de
Mme Gaillard. (Again, three similar subordinate clauses: this is a
characteristic of the author’s style in this passage.)
51
Mon maître s’était installé à une table non loin de la mienne où il
corrigeait nos cahiers.
C’était un mot joyeux, qui faisait la pirouette [...].
N.f. affirmait le dictionnaire, et je ne savais pas ce qu’il entendait
par là. (Noun clause, object of ‘savais’.)
Avec stupéfaction, je découvris ensuite qu’il s’agissait d’une petite
pièce de monnaie. (Noun clause, object of ‘découvris’.)
Moi, quand je l’ai quitté, j’étais heureux.
Et il me semblait que, chez eux, le bonheur était chez lui. (In this
sentence, the main clause, introduced by a co-ordinating
conjunction, implies a rather conversational tone. Advice to writers
used to recommend that main clauses should not be introduced by
‘and’ or ‘but’. Present practices, in French as well as in English,
often approach such conventions with some latitude.)
52
ELISE OU LA VRAIE VIE
TEXTE 10
Elise ou la vraie vie
Claire Etcherelli
Problems associated with immigration and the condition of immigrants
in France are dominant in this passage. The situation of an immigrant is
seen here through the eyes of a Frenchwoman. Associated themes are
also present in, for example, Text 2 (Calixthe Beyala) and Text 21
(Didier Daeninckx), which are written from the point of view of the
immigrant. In Text 23, Driss Chraïbi offers a humorous response to
French colonial attitudes.
The questions on the passage encourage comprehension, but some
questions also introduce evaluation and critical interpretation.
1.1
How does the author show that Elise is nervous during the bus
journey and during the walk to the café?
The context for this question is that Elise, the narrator, and Arezki
had at first been crushed up together on the crowded platform of
the bus. At that time, Arezki had not looked at her: it was not the
done thing for an Algerian immigrant to be seen with or gaze at a
Frenchwoman in public. When the crowd evidently thinned, at the
Porte de Vincennes, and they could move up the bus, they agreed,
at Arezki’s suggestion, to get off at the Porte des Lilas. However,
Elise now felt even more awkward – ‘Ma gêne augmentait’ –
because Arezki was still refraining from speaking with her. Her
nervousness is shown by the fact that, to give herself something to
do on the bus, she read through the whole of the bus company’s
regulations on a notice above her head. His silence was making her
feel awkward. She was wondering why he was not talking to her.
So, as they walked to the café, she made forced conversation about
not knowing the area, revealing her continued nervousness.
1.2
When they arrive in the café, how does the author build up tension?
The café, too, was crowded, and some of the men stared at them
when they went in: ‘dévisager quelqu’un’ means to stare hard at
someone. When they sat down together in a corner, the customers
near them gazed at them ‘sans discrétion’: the couple were being
looked at directly and boldly. It seems to be only when Elise
53
turned down the collar of her overcoat, thus revealing her face,
that she properly realised her situation: she was a Frenchwoman
consorting with an Algerian. In the bus, Arezki had obviously been
aware of this already, but it had seemingly not occurred to Elise
that there was anything untoward about their being together. The
tension is increased by this realisation, which was confirmed for
Elise by the expression on the waiter’s face when he took their
order. At this point, her earlier unease or nervousness became a
feeling of panic. The unspoken implication is that being seen in
public in the company of an Algerian could be regarded as
scandalous: this was why they were being looked at so indiscreetly.
At this point, Arezki himself stared hard at her, flouting
convention, and she found herself blushing, thinking that he might
guess that she was feeling awkward at being seen out with him. The
tension is built up gradually, as realisation dawns on Elise.
2.
From their conversation in the café, what do we learn about the
two main characters and their families?
Their conversation is limited largely to the factual, offering mainly
bare bones of information which suggest that this is the beginning
of a relationship. It was Arezki’s birthday – a pretext for this
evening spent together. Elise refers to life with her grandmother
and to Lucien, her younger brother. She herself was twenty-eight
years old, and ‘petite’. Arezki had three brothers and a sister. His
mother, now an old woman, was still alive: the implication of the
expression ‘sa mère vivait toujours’ is that his father was dead.
Students may be invited to comment on what Arezki says about his
mother: the two natural similes (‘jaunie comme la feuille prête à
tomber, meurtrie comme un fruit blet’), combined with the
reference to her eyesight (‘la vue presque éteinte’), make this a
much more expressive description than the other fairly bald
statements about their relatives. It resonated with Elise, who
comments very simply ‘Je pensai à la grand-mère’.
Such information could be elicited from students by question and
answer, such as: ‘Avec qui habite / habitait Elise?’ ‘Quel âge avaitelle?’ ‘La mère d’Arezki, combien avait-elle d’enfants?’
54
3.
When the couple leave the café, the author switches the narrative
briefly to the present tense. Why do you think she does this? The
story then evokes their conversation as Arezki walks with Elise to
her bus. What evidence is there here that his mind may not be
entirely on his outing with Elise? How does Elise try to hold his
attention?
By introducing the present tense at the end of the conversation:
‘[...] nous parlons de Mustapha. – On marche un peu? me
demande-t-il’, Etcherelli prepares for the change in tense that is
used for the scene when the couple leave the café, a brief
evocation of the setting composed in telegraphic style. ‘Nous
sortons. Boulevard Serrurier. La nuit rassurante. Personne ne nous
voit. Les gens pressés et frileux rentrent vite.’ The present tense,
followed by two verbless phrases, then two quite short sentences
also in the present tense, gives a sense of the immediate
experience and the changed atmosphere when the couple, once
outside, are protected from prying eyes. It also marks a transition
between two stages in the conversation of the couple. Outside, in
the cold night air, no-one pays them any attention. The
conversation in the café had, for the most part, been rather
strained; when they were outside again, Elise, unlike Arezki, found
it easier to talk. Here, once the transition has been made, the
narrative returns to past tenses. It was Elise who did most of the
talking, with Arezki, on the whole, just listening, nodding,
agreeing, as though his mind was partly on something else.
Because he agreed with everything she said, it suggests that he was
not really paying much attention to her words. He looked straight
ahead rather than at her, as they walked along, as though he was
with her but not paying her his undivided attention. She tried to
hold his attention by talking about her brother and about political
matters relating to France’s colonial wars, including the Algerian
War, to which one might have expected him to respond. Arezki did
not react particularly to this, his reported comments being
restricted mainly to her welfare. He expressed concern that he
could not see her home, but he seems not so much to be showing
pleasure in her company, as betraying signs of tension about their
being seen together.
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4.1
‘Je rentrai fatiguée, affamée, mécontente,’ concludes Elise. Why do
you think she is ‘mécontente’, and why do you think she writes:
‘Mais j’étais satisfaite que personne ne nous ait vus ensemble ce
soir-là’?
For Elise, it had been an uncomfortable evening, and at the end
she is tired, hungry and displeased with herself. She is no doubt
‘mécontente’ not only because of the general awkwardness she
had experienced during the evening, but because, at the end,
when they were waiting for Elise’s bus to arrive and she had at last
begun to talk with him in an unrestrained way, Arezki had been
unresponsive (Arezki ‘regardait au-delà de moi’). He had not
shown her the signs of friendship for which she had been hoping,
and she felt that she might have disappointed him. She also
appears to be feeling guilty about her own reaction (see question
1.2), but she was nevertheless glad that no-one, more precisely
none of their acquaintances, had seen her and Arezki together. At
the beginning of the extract, although Elise is the narrator, she had
not been aware of what was worrying Arezki; it is possible that,
again at the end of the passage, she is not aware of the reason why
‘il se tenait raide, les mains dans les poches et regardait au-delà de
moi’. Perhaps the Algerian was keeping a look-out, in case of attack
(see the next question), while Elise, more anxious about the
impression she might be making on Arezki, was once again
unaware.
4.2
Racism is a prominent theme in the novel as a whole. By what
means is it introduced in this passage?
References to racism are on the whole introduced indirectly. At
the beginning of the passage, it is presumably Arezki’s fear of
racism which governs his attitude on the bus. Racism is also
implicit in the hard looks directed at the couple by the people in
the café. Attitudes of racism are not expressed directly here, since
the narrative is written from Elise’s point of view, and she is
presented as being unaware at first of the hostility of those who
saw them together. When she had to some extent recovered her
composure, during their last conversation, she was able to refer
directly to the question of anti-Algerian prejudice, asking Arezki if
he is troubled (‘ennuyé’ – not ‘bored’) by the police at night,
checking papers and identities in the métro. The context is that of
alleged police prejudice against immigrants. Arezki’s apparent
tension at the end of the extract – ‘il se tenait raide [...]’ – may well
be caused by fear of attack (see question 4.1).
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5.
How would you describe the style of the passage? Comment in
particular on the use of tenses, the length of sentences, the firstperson narrative and the use of dialogue.
Matters of style may on occasion appear rather remote or illdefined for many students. In such cases, it may be best not to
dwell excessively on the possible formal distinctions between style
and technique, but to consider above all the practical features of
the writer’s means of expression. The technique combines
narration with a certain amount of description, as well as
dramatisation by means of reported conversations. The style is, in
general, direct and economical, some of the sentences being
relatively short, sometimes extremely short, comprising roughly
half a dozen words or less. (See also question 3, on telegraphic
style and use of tenses.) The longer sentences themselves are
rarely more than a couple of lines in length. This makes for a fairly
rapid, unadorned style. The short sentences produce simple,
direct narrative, dispassionate almost, or at least relatively
emotionless in places, as in: ‘Arezki me fit un signe. Nous
descendîmes. Je ne connaissais pas le quartier. Je le dis à Arezki, ça
faisait un sujet de conversation.’ In general, the vocabulary, too, as
here, is fairly simple, with quite short, practical statements or
descriptions. The passage is written in narrative form, and
although it is composed in the first person, it follows in general
the normal modern French usage of the past historic tense for
actions in the past, combining it with various other tenses,
including notably the imperfect for descriptions of background or
continuing states. The following sentences illustrate the standard
usage particularly well:
‘Ma gêne augmentait et le silence de mon compagnon n’était
pas pour me détendre. Je lus en entier le règlement de la
Compagnie affiché au-dessus de ma tête.
Arezki me fit un signe. Nous descendîmes. Je ne connaissais
pas le quartier. Je le dis à Arezki, ça faisait un sujet de
conversation.’
See question 3 on the brief switch to the present tense: rather than
a true present tense, this is an example of the ‘historic present’,
often favoured by historians. The dialogue, besides dramatising the
situation and helping to illustrate traits of character, serves to vary
the tempo of the narrative. Most of the direct speech is presented
as short, rather flat conversation, almost desultory in places.
Students may notice that when Arezki flatters Elise, it is done
almost incidentally:
‘Je lui parlai de notre vie avec la grand-mère, de Lucien.
– Je vous croyais plus jeune que lui.
57
– Parce que je suis petite? Non, j’ai vingt-huit ans.
Il me considéra avec étonnement.
– Vous aimez beaucoup votre frère...’
Any emotion here is carefully controlled. However, when reported
speech is used, as in the free indirect speech section about Arezki’s
mother, there is a sign of greater emotion between them. On the
whole, the style and technique are directed towards emphasising
the restraint between the two characters, the tentativeness of their
relationship.
6.
Language practice: résumé, past historic tense, subjunctive mood
6.1
Écrivez, en français, un résumé du passage (50–80 mots).
6.2
Most of the passage is written in a tense which may not be
familiar to you. It is the past historic (le passé simple), which
is the tense used in formal style and literary texts instead of
the perfect (le passé composé). You may never have to use this
tense yourselves, but you need to be able to recognise it in
your reading.
Find examples in the text of the past historic of:
• regular –er verbs (four examples, at least one of which
should be a reflexive verb)
e.g.
Past Historic
Nous montâmes
Infinitive
monter
Meaning
we got on
Choices may be made from the following:
nous montâmes
nous nous retrouvâmes nous entrâmes
certains nous dévisagèrent
nos voisins nous regardèrent
une panique soudaine me traversa je répétai il me questionna
je lui parlai il me considéra je lui demandai je lui racontai
je lui parlai je brassai nous marchâmes le bus approcha
je rentrai Arezki se comporta
• regular –ir verbs (one example)
Choices from: je rougis
58
il sortit
je ressentis
• regular –re verbs (two examples)
Choices from: nous descendîmes
nous attendîmes
je rabattis
je l’interrompis
• irregular verbs (four examples)
Choices from: nous pûmes dis-je
Arezki s’assit je me vis il sourit
je lus je pris Arezki me fit
il me la décrivit
Students should note that the past historic tense is most
commonly found in the first and third persons, singular or plural.
The second person, singular or plural, is relatively rare.
Consult your grammar books to find out how the past historic
tense is formed and what the endings are for different
families of verbs.
6.3
Pick out the two examples of the subjunctive mood in the
paragraph beginning ‘Arezki me fait un signe...’. Find two
further examples in the last paragraph. Explain why the
subjunctive is necessary in each case.
The first two examples are found in subordinate clauses expressing
respectively purpose or result (‘pour que’) and fear (‘craindre
que’):
Il avait fallu le regard des autres [ ... ] pour que je m’en rendisse
compte.
Une panique me traversa [ ... ] et je rougis, craignant qu’il ne
devinât mon trouble.
The examples in the last paragraph occur in subordinate clauses
expressing emotion:
Je ressentis quelque dépit qu’il ne me marquât pas plus d’amitié.
Mais j’étais satisfaite que personne ne nous ait vus ensemble ce
soir-là.
Note also that the subjunctive mood is found also in certain types
of main clause, e.g. ‘Vive la France!’
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UN MALENTENDU
TEXTE 11
Méprise
Yves Frontenac
The questions on this passage are mainly comprehension-recognition
questions, though in some places elements of interpretation or personal
opinion are called for.
1.
The passage consists of a simple story, told in the first person.
What does the reader learn about the narrator’s character and
situation in the first three sentences? Does he get on well with his
family?
The narrator is a retired man, who lives on the same landing as his
children. There is no mention of a wife: he is perhaps a widower –
the story does not say. His children are evidently grown up, as they
are out at work all day. It is implied that he probably gets on well
with his children, because he likes to help them out, and he has
time to do so. This is why he agreed to be at home for them, if they
were not in when a new mattress was being delivered.
2.1
Why was a new mattress needed?
A new mattress was needed because they had had the old one for
twenty years: ten years under guarantee, plus another ten. Note
that the fact that it was an old mattress is essential to the story.
2.2
Did the delivery man come when he was expected?
The delivery man did not come when he was expected: he turned
up on a different day and at a different time.
3.1
What did the narrator find disconcerting about the delivery man
and his actions when he brought in the new mattress?
The narrator was disconcerted because the delivery man was
laconic; the man looked at him in an irritating, possibly
embarrassing way. He was a young man (the narrator, who is
evidently an old man, refers to him as a ‘garçon’). The narrator was
also disconcerted by the fact that the man did not take the old
mattress away, but tossed the new mattress onto the bed without
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even taking off the old one. The narrator assumed that his children
had not asked for the old mattress to be taken away.
3.2
Did the narrator feel that he understood his own children?
The narrator did not feel that he understood them completely, since
their ideas were often different from those of his own generation.
The contrast between ‘les idées des jeunes’ and ‘les nôtres’ relates
the subject of the passage directly to the idea of misunderstanding
or perhaps poor communication between generations.
4.1
Summarise what happened next and describe the place where the
delivery man took the narrator.
In summary, the delivery man drove the narrator in his lorry to a
deserted place and left him there. In more detail, the man told the
narrator that he had been ordered to take him with him, and
though the narrator tried to object the man just scowled. So the
narrator didn’t insist; instead, he took his macintosh and got into
the delivery lorry with him. The lorry then drove away towards the
capital. (The location is not made explicit; however, the narrator
evidently lives in a town outside the ‘capitale’, Paris.) In the
suburbs it turned off and went along a track in which there were
lots of potholes, ending up at a deserted and very smelly spot.
Here, the man stopped the lorry, opened the door and told the
narrator that he had been ordered to leave him there.
4.2
Do you think there is anything odd about the delivery man or
about the narrator’s own actions? Is there anything in these
circumstances which appears unusual?
A personal view is called for. Students may perhaps find the attitude
of the delivery man unusual – his gruff tone, sullen demeanour and
abruptness. However, these features could be thought to be fairly
normal. What may probably appear more unusual is the acquiescence
or passiveness of the narriator and the circumstances of the
mysterious journey in the lorry. What had begun as a commonplace
domestic story appears to have taken an unusual twist.
5.1
How did the narrator get home again? Was it a long journey?
The narrator walked back along the uneven track to the main road,
took a local bus as far as the town of C., then took a train to get
back home. Since he had to take both a bus and a train, it seems to
have been quite a long journey.
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5.2
What was the reaction of his children when he told them what had
happened?
At first his children were dismayed to hear about what had
happened, but then his son suddenly burst out laughing.
5.3
What was written on the copy of the order for the mattress?
The copy of the order stated that a mattress of such and such
characteristics should be delivered to Monsieur X’s flat, that the
invoice was already settled, and that the buyers and the seller had
agreed that the old one should be taken away and left at the
rubbish dump.
6.
What was the actual explanation for what happened?
The meaning of the story is reserved for the final sentence. It turns
on a pun on the term ‘le vieux’: in context, ‘le vieux’, meaning ‘the
old one’, refers to the old mattress; taken out of context, ‘le vieux’
can also mean ‘the old man’. The delivery man has confused the
contexts.
7.
At first, this story is presented as if it is to be an account of a
simple domestic incident, written in a matter-of-fact way. Does the
character of the narrator help to account for the change from
apparently banal realism to something more fanciful, even
surreal? Does any other feature of the story contribute to the
effectiveness of this change?
This question, too, calls for a personal reaction to the passage. A
good response might draw attention to the consistency in the
character of the narrator: he is an obliging man for his children,
and continues to be obliging – and essentially acquiescent – when
the delivery man treats him sharply and oddly. There is a
passiveness about the narrator, which could perhaps be put down
to the fact that he expects not to understand the manners of
younger people. The day and time of the delivery man’s arrival
were unexpected; the narrator then continues to acquiesce in
unexpected and, a little later, strange events. The transition from
the banal to the strange is also achieved by the ‘matter-of-factness’
of the story-telling itself: this is the narrator’s technique of
concentrating on particular details, as in a scene from daily life,
without looking too closely for explanations, because the narrator
expects to find the younger generation disconcerting.
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8.
To what extent would you say that the underlying theme of the
story is that of conflict between generations?
The question (‘To what extent...?’) encourages students to offer
value judgements, not black-and-white answers. The term ‘conflict
between generations’ is a cliché, which may cover – loosely, as is
the way with clichés – many different situations. The sentence ‘les
jeunes ont des idées qui ne sont pas souvent les nôtres’ may
suggest conflict between generations, but in his story the supposed
‘conflict’ is presented more subtly than that. Here, it is perhaps
more a question of misunderstanding than of conflict. The terms
‘les jeunes’ and ‘les vieux’, used dismissively, may embody
stereotypes which suggest the depersonalisation of the old by the
young, and of the young by the old. As such, they may be a cause –
or a result – of conflict. It may be noted that the supposed
misunderstanding between the old man and his children was not a
misunderstanding at all: they had wanted the old mattress to be
taken away. In this respect there is neither conflict nor
misunderstanding between him and them. Such contrast as there
is, is between the old man and the delivery man.
9.
Language practice: verb tenses
This section suggests a basis for language exercises on verbs,
should teachers wish to use the passage also for this purpose. For
convenience, notes for some of the answers are given below.
9.2
Identify the tense of each finite verb in the second paragraph of the
passage. In which tense is this part of the text composed? What tone
is created by the use of this tense?
The finite verbs in the second paragraph are:
je suis descendu
il est reparti
j’ai effectué
un car m’a pris en charge
j’ai pu
je suis allé
je leur ai raconté
qui les a consternés
mon fils est parti
qu’il m’a mis sous le nez
j’ai lu
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This part of the text adopts the perfect tense (le passé composé),
which produces a tone of conversational discourse.
9.4
What is meant by the term ‘an auxiliary verb’?
This question draws attention to the auxiliaries used in compound
tenses, and may be used also to identify modal auxiliaries (as in ‘j’ai
pu regagner mon domicile’).
9.5
What are the main types of verb which use the verb ‘être’ as the
auxiliary in compound tenses?
This question is intended to invite consideration of pronominal,
reflexive and certain intransitive verbs.
9.6
In addition to those found in the second paragraph of the above
passage, name six other French verbs which are conjugated with
‘être’.
The verbs ‘descendre’, ‘aller’, ‘partir’ and ‘repartir’ appear in this
paragraph. The other verbs in the standard list, mainly verbs of
movement, are: arriver, rester, venir, devenir, monter, sortir,
entrer, rentrer, tomber, retourner, naître, mourir (also: revenir,
remonter, etc.). Any selection of pronominal or reflexive verbs will
suffice: e.g. elle s’est lavée (reflexive), cela s’est fait (pronominal).
For appropriate students, this exercise could in turn lead to
consideration of past participle agreements.
9.7
Invent a short story in French, about 120 words in length, about an
amusing incident which happened last year to you or to one of
your friends. In your story, use the perfect as the main tense for
actions in the past.
The instruction may of course be adapted in various ways. The
reference to ‘last year’ is intended to govern the use of the perfect
tense for action or events, though other tenses may sometimes be
appropriate as well – especially perhaps the pluperfect.
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LE CHÔMEUR
TEXTE 12
Chômage
Michel Houellebecq
1.
How would you characterise the mood established in the first
stanza (lines 1–4)? How significant, in your view, are the urban
setting and the reference to other people?
The mood is set by the first line: it is one of hopelessness and
disillusionment. The urban setting, announced by the words ‘Je
traverse la ville’, is given some immediacy by the reference to the
open-air metro (the poet avoids the cliché of being underground).
This is also used to suggest the monotony of the speaker’s routine
(‘Je le connais par cœur’). His solitude is emphasised by contrast
with the ever-changing people (‘toujours renouvelés’) he passes in
the streets. He is in their midst, but is alone in the crowd, with noone to speak to. He has no expectations; time is passing; he feels
as though he is beyond speech, and the setting emphasises his
solitude.
2.1
In the second stanza (lines 5–8), how effectively does the speaker
express a sense of the futility of his position and a feeling of sullen
resentment? What irony does he see in his situation?
He expresses a sense of futility very effectively, introducing both
the idea of unemployment benefits (the word ‘le chômage’ means
unemployment, being laid off work; ‘s’inscrire au chômage’ means
to sign on the dole; ‘revenant du chômage’ refers to coming back
from the agency) and the problem of paying one’s rent when one
is out of work. The emotion involved is introduced by the
exclamation ‘Oh!’ which opens the stanza. The idea of a sullen
attitude is stated in ‘méditation morose’, and resentment is quite
clearly implied in the view that being on the dole means not living.
The irony is that he feels that even ‘not living’ is pointless, when in
fact, in this monotonous existence, you are getting older all the
time. Line 8, with its repeated negatives (‘rien ne... rien, ni... ni’),
summarises the sense of monotony, emptiness and uselessless.
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LE CHÔMEUR
2.2
What would you say are the main themes of the poem as
established in the first two stanzas?
The main themes which have been established could be said to be
the hopelessness, monotony, solitude, lack of money of the person
who is out of work, combined wth the idea of the pointlessness of
life even though one is growing older. There is also a strong sense
of time dragging.
3.
In what ways does the third stanza develop the main themes of the
poem? What is the effect of the use of repetition in this stanza?
This stanza develops the themes by dwelling on the idea of time
passing and the eventual loss of unemployment benefit, creating an
even more urgent preoccupation with money. When you have no
money, all you can think about is money. This is turn brings the
realisation that one is truly alone in this situation. The repetitions
(‘seule’, ‘on traîne’) emphasise above all the feelings of loneliness
and desperation: the vital importance of money to the jobless
person, and the tedium of this life out of work. The use of
suspension points in line 12 suggests the feeling that there is no
end to this situation.
4.
The final stanza balances the poem by returning to the reference to
other ‘êtres humains’ which had been made in stanza 1 (line 2).
What does the speaker imply by the metaphor ‘leur danse
existentielle’ (line 13), and what contrast does he draw between
his situation and that of ‘the others’? Do you detect any element of
hope in the final stanza?
‘Leur danse existentielle’ uses the metaphor of the dance of other
people’s existence. The word ‘existentielle’ means relating to their
existence, that is to the continuation of their ordinary life, from
which the out-of-work man is cut off; it suggests the reality of
others’ lives, in contrast with the unreality of the speaker’s
‘existence’. ‘Dance’ may imply the light-heartedness, possibly even
frivolity, of other people’s lives, in contrast with the image of the
jobless man dragging his feet through the town. By contrast with
his feelings, their life seems real. The word could also suggest,
indirectly, the idea of the ‘dance of death’, which is rather how the
speaker is experiencing his own life. Line 14 dwells on the feeling
of social exclusion, but presents this not just as a barrier, but also,
slightly ironically, as a protection. Line 16 implies an element of
hope, though it is very guarded: there may be a future for the
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LE CHÔMEUR
speaker, but it is doubtful (‘peut-être’) and non-specific (‘quelque
part’).
5.
In the poem as a whole, how well does the poet create a sense of
passing time? What is the function of the references to changing
seasons?
There are several references to time passing, i.e. ‘Il s’écoule des
jours’ (line 4); ‘ces après-midi’ (line 5); ‘on prend quand même de
l’âge’ (line 7); ‘l’été’ (line 8); ‘Au bout de quelques mois’ (line 9);
‘Et l’automne revient’ (line 10); ‘on traîne’ (line 12 – repeated, this
is a temporal as well as a physical reference); ‘L’hiver est revenu’
(line 15); ‘l’avenir’ (line 16). These keep the focus quite steadily on
the theme of time passing and dragging wearily. The seasons are
used to suggest long periods of time going by, and a progression
from summer to winter suggests an increasing sense of deprivation
and desperation. Autumn and winter, especially, are adopted as
objective correlatives for the speaker’s mood. The simile, in line
10, associates autumn, the season of decline, with gangrene, the
slow dying of parts of the body: this links the passage of time with
the feeling of advancing physical decay. (See also question 7.2.) In
line 15, ‘leur vie’ is placed in sharp contrast with ‘l’hiver’, each
word introducing a short, complete sentence: other people’s lives
seem real, whereas the speaker’s own situation is associated,
loosely, with winter, suggesting lack of life or growth.
6.
Notice that, in referring to himself, the speaker begins by saying
‘je’, then refers to himself by the pronoun ‘on’, and finally speaks
of himself – or to himself – as ‘vous’. What do you think are the
effects of these changes?
The narrative element of the poem is expressed clearly in the first
stanza, with ‘je’ as a first-person ‘speaker’, repeated in the close
focus on his personal predicament: the tone here is direct and
explanatory. The effect is to make a direct appeal to the reader.
The second and third stanzas adopt the pronoun ‘on’, a familiar
but fairly impersonal form of self-expression: this no doubt
establishes sympathy through familiarity, but implying also a more
generalised situation (i.e. all people out of work are likely to feel
like this) and emphasising the sense that the speaker feels
depersonalised by the situation. With the final, formal ‘vous’, he is
addressing himself relatively formally, almost as if he were
somebody else, or as if he were all ‘chômeurs’: he seems almost to
be standing outside himself, and speculating, without conviction,
about a possible, vague future.
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7.1
The poem deals with an important issue, but does so – on the
whole – using simple language. Do you consider that the simplicity
of the approach enhances or weakens the impact of the poem?
Students’ personal views should be encouraged here: on the
whole, the simplicity of the poem is likely to appear conducive to
creating feelings of sympathy and understanding for the speaker.
7.2
Nevertheless, some lines of the poem contain some degree of
heightened language. In addition to line 13 (see question 4,
above), the poet uses images in lines 10 and 14: comment on the
expressiveness, in their context, of the phrases ‘lent comme une
gangrène’ and ‘protégé par un mur transparent’.
‘Lent comme une gangrène’ uses a simile to convey the creeping,
corrupting effects of being out of work, which is compared to a
form of insidious illness and suggest the hideousness of the
situation. (See also question 5.) ‘Protégé par un mur transparent’ is
metaphorical, suggesting the barrier between the jobless and those
in work, and the fact that the difference between them is not
necessarily visible to an observer, and particularly not to those who
do have a job: it therefore expresses an absence of understanding
and lack of communication. One may ask who is protected? The
expression is not entirely self-explanatory. One might expect those
who are in work to feel protected against the misery of someone
without a job; but here the point of view expressed is that of the
jobless person who is ‘protected’ from or against those who do
have jobs – that is, presumably, from their disapproval or perhaps
their pity. This is obviously a ‘protection’ he wishes they did not
have to have. ‘Protégé’ could, of course, also imply ‘insulated’, ‘cut
off’, as well as ‘isolated’.
8.
Exercices de langue: la négation
8.1
Trouvez dans les deux premières strophes cinq expressions
négatives.
The five negative expressions are:
je n’attends plus rien
sans que je puisse parler
on a beau ne pas vivre
rien ne change à rien
ni l’été, ni les choses.
68
LE CHÔMEUR
8.2
Imaginez que, depuis quelque temps, vous êtes au chômage.
Ecrivez en français un court essai (environ 120 mots) sur les
problèmes du chômage, rédigé du point de vue d’une chômeuse ou
d’un chômeur. Vous expliquerez ce qui vous manque, et ce que
vous faites pour trouver un emploi. En prenant comme modèles
quelques-unes des expressions négatives qui paraissent dans le
poème, utilisez dans votre essai au moins six expressions de
négation différentes.
Note the genders available in French: ‘la chômeuse’ as well as ‘le
chômeur’. In addition to practice in the correct use of negative
expressions, the subject offers an opportunity to revise, for
example, (1) the French linguistic usage in trades and professions,
(2) the vocabulary for buying items such as food and clothing, and
perhaps also (3) the vocabulary relating to entertainment or
holidays which out-of-work people may not be able to afford. An
enterprising essay may also touch on problems of self-image or
personal relations.
69
DANS L’HYPERMARCHÉ
TEXTE 13
Au milieu des fours micro-ondes
Michel Houellebecq
The first four questions on this poem invite students to formulate their
personal reactions to the subject matter. There are no right or wrong
answers. With the help of the glossary, they should not find the
vocabulary of the poem too difficult, but interpretations may well be
contentious. At this level, no questions are proposed on prosody which,
rather like the punctuation of the poem, is fairly idiosyncratic.
1.
In lines 1–4, the ‘destiny’ of consumers is said to be established
when they are surrounded by microwave ovens. What could the
poet possibly mean by this? Do you think it is normal for people in
a supermarket to react in such a way?
Students may well judge the reaction expressed in the poem to be
‘abnormal’. The implication of the stanza seems to be that, in a
hypermarket, people become ‘consumers’ and are thus, in some
way, dehumanised. Their ‘destiny’ is to be purchasers of such
objects as microwave ovens. Every second that they spend in the
hypermarket, states the poet, defines them as purchasers: leur
destin s’établit. There is no mistake about it, he writes. Just as a
microwave could perhaps be presented as a perfect purchase,
there is no danger of being mistaken, either, about the nature of
the ‘consumers’: leur destin (celui des consommateurs) s’établit...
sans risque d’erreur. Could the stanza simply mean that the
customer decides to make the purchase? The more she / he looks –
‘à chaque seconde’ – the more certain she / he is to buy? However,
could the poet also be writing this ironically? ‘Il n’y a pas de risque
d’erreur’? – the people shall become customers, but from the
customer’s point of view, the microwave could be a dud; from the
hypermarket’s point of view, the customer may decide not to buy;
as for the poet himself, he could have got this wrong.
2.
The second stanza refers to the writer’s diary, and to washing-up
liquid and bin-bags. Do you feel that these are suitable subjects for
‘poetic’ treatment? What point is the poet emphasising in these lines?
The above interpretation for the first stanza could be justified by
the second stanza. The ‘pourtant’ in line 7 – ‘Je suis pourtant un
être humain’ – suggests explicitly a tension between the poet-
70
observer and the banality of the objects presented for purchase.
This banality itself then seems to define the nature of the
consumer. The references to washing-up liquid and bin-bags may
be thought unpoetic; indeed the ‘poem’ itself could be thought
unpoetic, just a piece of verse. The subject matter, as such, is
perhaps neutral: it would be in the treatment – mainly, but not
exclusively, octosyllables based on an abab cdcd (etc) rhyme – that
the poetry has its source.
In this stanza, time becomes uncertain. The first stanza looks as
though it is written in the present tense: ‘s’établit’ could be
present or simple past, but the affirmation ‘Il n’y a pas de risque
d’erreur’, appears to confirm the present tense as the dominant. In
the second stanza, the poet states that he had written ‘Liquide
vaisselle’ on his diary for ‘demain’; but during today’s visit to the
hypermarket he sees the ‘Promotion sur les sacs-poubelle’. There
could be an implied narrative here, unless these are meant to be
read as random examples of hypermarket purchases. Is the poet
suggesting that he feels belittled to have to consider such
purchases? Or could he simply mean that he had intended to buy
washing-up liquid, but may allow himself to buy bin-bags too –
being only human? The combination of lines 2 and 7 suggests that
he feels that his humanity is in conflict with the hypermarket’s
reduction of people to the status of customers.
However, does a customer’s presence in a hypermarket to make
convenient purchases necessarily invite such an ‘existentialist’
response: ‘Who am I?’/‘What am I doing here?’
3.
How does the third stanza develop the ideas expressed earlier?
What is the state of mind of the poet at this stage? How effectively
does he express the idea of being unable to decide what to choose?
After thinking about buying washing-up liquid and possibly binbags, line 9 could suggest, initially, that this trivial matter seems to
assume a vital importance for him: his life is in the balance. This
exaggeration shows the poet almost mesmerised by the products
in the hypermarket. In another exaggeration, the very name of the
hypermarket – ‘l’hypermarché Continent’ – represents it as though
it is a vast world of its own. The poet states that he is attracted by
the packaging of the products, but then draws back from them.
The difficulty of choosing, expressed by the contrasting verbs ‘je
m’élance’ and ‘ je recule’, depicts the poet as a customer who may
fall for the outward attraction of the way the goods are wrapped
and presented. The verbs are vigorous, suggesting stereotyped,
71
theatrical reactions. In a sense, he is presenting himself as if he
were a kind of model customer, from the hypermarket’s point of
view, seduced by the gimmicks of packaging. The French word
‘conditionnements’ may also suggest the notion of customers’
conditioned reflexes, on which sales partly depend. However,
insofar as the preceding stanzas express tension between the
temptation to buy and reluctance to be reduced to being a mere
purchaser, the third stanza, also, could allow a similar reading: ‘je
m’élance’ could express the attraction of the wrappings, but ‘je
recule’ may represent the poet’s inability to decide or his
unwillingness to be brainwashed in this way.
4.
In the last stanza, the poet writes a brief description of the butcher
at the meat counter. Is this an attractive image? Why do you think
that the poet should say he threw himself at the butcher’s feet?
What impressions are created by the last four lines?
The butcher, whom the poet pictures with a ferocious, literally
carnivorous, smile and a face covered in stains, presents, if
anything, a grotesque image – attractive perhaps for readers who
may find the grotesque appealing, but otherwise deliberately made
repellent. Students may speculate about the implications of this
last scene in the poem, in which the poet threw himself at the
butcher’s feet, giving the impression of being in a posture of
submission, of asking for mercy. Does the poet imply that being in
the hypermarket made him feel that he is going to be slaughtered?
If so, this is likely to be construed as an exaggeration, or at least as
an extremely sensitive response to what could be regarded as an
ordinary scene. It may suggest a neurotic state or affectation in
which the poet feels both enticed and threatened. If the sequence
of the poem suggests that it has a narrative thread, this scene,
following his earlier reactions to the goods on display for the
customers, could at any rate be taken as a dramatisation of a final,
overwhelming feeling of helpless submission.
5.
Examine the poet’s use of tenses in this piece. The poem is written
predominantly in the present tense, but in the final stanza the
perspective has changed. Here, past tenses are used, suggesting that
the experience described is now a memory. Would you judge that
this technique has any particular effect on the meaning of the
poem?
The effect of a tense change in the second stanza has already been
noted: despite this, the first three stanzas of the poem are
predominantly the evocation of a state of mind in the present
72
tense, leading to a sense of disorientation and helplessness, as the
poet imagines himself dashing towards and pulling back from the
packages on display. The change to the imperfect and perfect
tenses in the final stanza suggests that at this stage the poet is
writing from a different moment in time, looking back on the
event: he has separated himself from the visit to the hypermarket,
which has now become a memory. The tenses could also imply
some degree of withdrawal from the high emotion of the earlier
experience, though the poet is remembering himself as having
been submissive before the butcher. This change of tense may
introduce a sense of greater objectivity. Is the exclamation mark at
the end of the last line a reflection of the pitch of emotion which
the poet felt while he was in the supermarket? In view of the tenses
used here, could it – also or alternatively – represent a later
comment on himself, an exclamation ironically directed at himself?
6.
Language practice
6.1
Vocabulary. Make a shopping list to revise the French
vocabulary for common goods that a household might buy at
a supermarket each week.
For the sake of variety, this simple vocabulary exercise could be
conducted as a question-and-answer session, or as a competition in
which students try to identify a given number of items in different
categories: fresh food, deep-frozen items, other types of goods,
etc.
6.2
Describe in French a visit to a supermarket (about 120
words). Mention three special offers that are available on
some of these goods.
Students could be asked, for example, to describe when they went
to the supermarket, how they got there, where it is situated,
whether there were many people there at the time. They should
list a few of the items they wanted to buy, but note the special
offers and write something about them.
Thus: Ce matin, je suis allé(e) en voiture au nouveau supermarché.
Il est assez loin de chez nous. Je suis arrivé(e) vers huit heures. Le
supernarché est très vaste mais à cette heure il y avait peu de
clients. Je voulais faire seulement quelques petits achats: du
beurre, un peu de fromage, des allumettes – pas grand-chose. Aller
dans un supermarché pour si peu paraîtra peut-être bizarre; mais
73
nous n’avons plus d’épicier dans le coin. J’ai remarqué qu’il y avait
des promotions sur l’eau minérale, les verres et sur certains vins
de Bordeaux. J’ai donc acheté aussi du vin qui ne coûtait pas trop
cher. Les bouteilles pesaient assez lourd mais j’en étais tout de
même content(e).
6.3
Practice with numbers. List the prices of some special offers
in euros, together with the amount saved. Calculate in French
the sterling equivalents of the euro figures.
Par exemple:
l’eau minérale: 80 centimes la bouteille; promotion à 2 euros les 3
bouteilles; 40 centimes d’économie sur 3 bouteilles
les verres: 1,30 € pièce; le supermarché offre un verre gratuit avec
trois bouteilles de vin qui valent au moins 6 € la bouteille; en
achetant 3 bouteilles, le client ‘économisera’, en effet, le prix
d’un verre, à savoir 1,30 €
les vins – Sauternes 1999: 7 € la bouteille; 10 € les 2 bouteilles; 4 €
d’économie sur 2 bouteilles
Clairet 2002: 6 € la bouteille; 9,65 € les 2 bouteilles; 2,35 €
d’économie sur les 2 bouteilles
Le calcul en livres sterling dépendra du cours du change de la
livre. Exemple:
1 € / 70 p.
40 centimes / 0.40 € = 28 p.
1,30 € = 91 p. (0.7 fois 1.3)
4 € = £2.80 (4 fois 0.7)
2,35 € = £1.64 (2.35 fois 0.7 = 1.645: mettons £1.64 ou £1.65)
6.4
Adjectives. What are the adjectives that you would most
commonly use to describe the quality of goods bought in a
supermarket? For example, of foodstuffs: frais/fraîche, rassis/
rassise...
bon, nouveau, neuf, propre, excellent, supérieur, extra, de
premier ordre, de toute première qualité, bien conditionné (well
packaged)
for poor quality: mauvais, vieux, aigre, tourné (lait); for ‘stale’,
rassis/rassise (rather than rassie) are the correct forms: du pain
rassis, une miche rassise (a stale loaf)
other common terms or adjectival equivalents, not directly
concerned with the ‘quality’, as such, of goods: fabriqué en série,
74
sous vide, congelé, surgelé, en boîte, en conserve
also adverbial terms: en vrac (= ‘loose’, not pre-packed – of, say,
biscuits, vegetables), au poids (also = ‘loose’, not pre-packed – of
cheese, butter, pâté)
6.5
You meant to buy some washing-up liquid at the supermarket
but, when you were listening to an announcement that the
shop had a special offer on shampoo, you absent-mindedly
picked up a bottle of shampoo (un shampooing) by mistake.
In French, tell a friend about the mistake, and offer to give
him/her the bottle of shampoo.
This is intended as an oral exercise or as a written note. Some
useful vocabulary:
écoute, Gilberte, tu sais ce que j’ai fait...?
j’avais / j’avais eu l’intention de...
j’ai fait une bêtise
en écoutant
j’ai entendu
une annonce
distrait(e) / sans y penser
un flacon de shampooing
je n’en ai pas besoin
une erreur
ça te plairait...?
puis-je t’offrir...?
75
DEUX
LE
JOURNALISTE
AMIES
ET L’OUVRIÈRE EN GRÈVE
TEXTE 14
Le journaliste et l’ouvrière en grève
Dorothée Letessier
The subject relates to employment and the role of the individual in
society, and may be read in conjunction with, for example, Texts 18 (a
strike) and 29 (monotony of life). In contrast, Text 33, also from Le
Voyage à Paimpol, focuses on a different theme: the pleasures of
reading.
1.1
Why does Maryvonne think that she should try to embellish her
conversation?
She thinks she should try to embellish her conversation because
she feels at a loss for words, evidently self-conscious that no-one
will listen to her for more than ten minutes. This reads like a
desire for company, but it shows also that she wishes to be taken
seriously. So she thinks that perhaps she should brighten up her
speech in some way and appear more ‘cultivated’.
1.2
In the second paragraph, Maryvonne imagines a parody of what
‘cultivated’ speech could be like. What do you think of this
imitation? Do the words carry much meaning? Show how, at the
end of her parody, she lets herself be carried along just by the
sounds of the words.
The words in the parody do not carry very much meaning. This is
the inflated language of the political show-off. What Maryvonne
imagines is a set of clichés. She uses exaggeration (‘très cher’),
polysyllabic words to sound impressive (‘conjoncture’,
‘prolétariat’, ‘laborieuses’, ‘désarroi’), tautology (‘conjoncture
actuelle d’aujourd’hui’ – perhaps not unlike the English-language
cliché ‘in this day and age’), padding (‘voyez-vous’, ‘en tant que
tel’, ‘quelque sorte’, quelque part’, ‘somme toute’, ‘en bref’;
‘phase... période’), repetition (‘je veux dire’). The last phrase of
the parody ignores the sense of the words almost completely and
uses associations of sound to link the words, in a kind of game:
impasse – passe; passe – passeport; passeport – pornographe;
pornographe – graffiti; graffiti – tire au flanc. For Maryvonne,
‘cultivated’ language is empty bombast. She contrasts this windy
verbiage with her own familiar register: ‘C’est pas mon truc!’
76
LE JOURNALISTE ET L’OUVRIÈRE EN GRÈVE
2.1
Why did Jean-François come to the union office, and why was
Maryvonne willing to help him?
As a reporter, he came to prepare an article about the strike.
Maryvonne was proud that she was on strike, and willing to talk to
him about it. He seems to have flattered her by saying that
workers’ struggles were his speciality (his ‘dada’).
2.2
What were her first impressions of Jean-François? Were they
entirely favourable?
Maryvonne felt attracted to him. With his curls and his green,
almond-shaped eyes, he was the very image of a left-wing romantic.
She also felt rather intimidated, but he put her at her ease. He did
not rush her, but asked her just to say what came into her head.
She thought he was handsome, but did not say so. This is not
entirely favourable: there is a critical element here – Jean-François
betrayed a touch of conceit: ‘il avait l’air déjà au courant’. She
thinks to herself that he knew he was handsome.
3.
In the fifth paragraph, Maryvonne recalls the interview at which
she talked so easily.
3.1
Discuss Jean-François’s attitude towards Maryvonne during the
interview. What did he do to encourage her to speak about the
strike?
Jean-François was very encouraging to Maryvonne, nodding
agreement as she spoke, making a little speech himself in praise of
workers’ power, asking for more detail, looking at her face. He was
clearly leading her on by his attentiveness: he shows himself to be
‘prodigieusement attentif’, following what she said very closely,
mouthing her words, and sometimes finishing her sentences for
her. This also suggests that, to the reporter, what Maryvonne said
was predictable.
3.2
Why did her explanations about ordinary life in the factory lead
Jean-François to say: ‘C’est passionnant tout ce que tu racontes, si
c’est ça l’usine, je m’y embauche tout de suite’? Comment also on
his use of the ‘tu’ form of address in this sentence. Is it
appropriate?
Maryvonne had picked on amusing features of life in the factory:
the women singing into their screwdrivers as if they were
77
DEUX
LE
JOURNALISTE
AMIES
ET L’OUVRIÈRE EN GRÈVE
microphones, made-up stories being deformed as they are passed
on, romantic meetings behind the stacks of cardboard. This lighter
side made him flatter her further, saying the right things at the
right time, laughing in the right places, and so on, seeing the
factory as an amusing place, where it would be good to work. His
‘tutoiement’, here, contrasts with his formal ‘vous’ at the beginning
of the interview (‘Dites ce qui vous vient à l’esprit’). He had been
leading her on and was now feeling familiar with her. He had got
her confidence. The ‘tu’ is also the proletarian address, which JeanFrançois seems to be affecting. It would be thought appropriate in
the working-class context, but it also suggests that Jean-François
felt comfortably in charge: in this respect he was talking down to
her.
3.3
How did Maryvonne react to Jean-François while she was
describing life in the factory?
Jean-François gave the impression that he was following her words
very carefully and approving of what she said. Her response was to
feel understood and to think he was intelligent as well as
handsome. She was made to feel that she mattered. By touching
her hand in a familiar way and flattering her (‘C’est passsionnant ce
que tu racontes’), he seemed to emphasise his personal
involvement in what she has been saying.
4.1
Examine Maryvonne’s attempt to correct the impression of life in
the factory which she had given Jean-François. What aspects of
factory life did she now emphasise?
When Jean-François suggested that their lives in the factory are
attractive (‘je m’y embauche tout de suite’), Maryvonne realises
that she has said the wrong things. To her, life in the factory is not,
in fact, something ‘beau’. She felt she had given the wrong
impression by making light of things. To correct this she dwelt
instead on accidents at work, illnesses, the women who only
manage by taking sedatives, those whose only pleasure is in being
malicious. She mentioned battered women who wear dark glasses
to hide their tears, the women whose children become problem
children, and those who cannot weep any more. She also spoke
about things that got her down personally.
78
4.2
What change do you detect in Maryvonne’s attitude towards JeanFrançois, in the sixth paragraph?
As Maryvonne explained the problems of life in the factory, she was
on the defensive, afraid that Jean-François, despite his seeming
intelligence, had got the wrong impression. He sympathised with
her again, here, but when he stroked her cheek, becoming even
more familiar with her, her reaction was adverse. She then
resented him: he seemed to have gone too far in playing along
with her. He was not a factory worker, and she sensed that he
could not do anything for her, and that she had been wrong to
unburden herself to him. He had pretended to be on her side, but
their lives were different. After he had written his article about the
factory strike – which, for him, was just one strike among many –
her own life would carry on unchanged.
5.
Why did Maryvonne not speak to Jean-François about her interest
in painting, poetry and music?
She reflected that, to make herself more interesting, she ought to
have spoken to him about more personal things: the pleasure she
took in looking at painting, in Vivaldi (the very popular Four
Seasons), Maiakovski’s poetry (i.e. a ‘socialist’ but independentminded poetry) – also, no doubt in order not to seem too ‘arty’,
apple tarts. However, she had come to the conclusion that he was
not really interested in her. She had by now seen through his
earlier expressions of interest and realised that, to him, she was
only a working woman out on strike.
6.
What were her final feelings about Jean-François? Would you
describe her response to him as simple or complex?
Her final feelings were that he had taken her in and lured her into
talking: for him she had been, essentially, a striker and an
interviewee. She had been struck by his beautiful eyes and his fine
speech, but there was not enough human love in him. The phrase:
‘mais pas d’amour assez’, with its inversion of normal word order,
is a rather poetic and heightened way of expressing this idea,
giving it an additional emphasis. Her disappointment is clear: JeanFrançois is rather ordinary after all. Nevertheless, her response is
complex: she had been attracted to him and had loved him for it,
for the two hours of the interview. This is emphasised by the fact
that she did not want to see him again when he came back to show
her his proposed article. The reason is not stated explicitly, but it
79
is evident that she would have found it disappointing and
upsetting to see him, because she had felt so let down. She has
realised that he had reduced her to ‘l’ouvière en grève [...] qu’on
interviewe’, implying that, to him, she was merely reporter’s copy.
7.
Exercice de langue
Quels sont les arguments pour et contre une carrière dans le
journalisme?
Organisez un débat, en français, sur le thème suivant: ‘Il faut se
méfier des journalistes: ils profiteront des malheurs d’autrui pour
gagner gros et faire carrière.’
Inviter les étudiants à dresser une liste des avantages et des
désavantages de cette carrière.
Par exemple, pour: la variété, les voyages, l’attrait de l’imprévu, les
contacts avec le peuple, mais aussi avec les (grands) événements
du jour, la possibilité d’exprimer ses propres opinions et d’exercer
une certaine influence dans le domaine public, l’importance
sociale et politique de la presse nationale, les connaissances que
l’on acquiert et la considération sociale, devenir célèbre, peut-être
même gagner gros...
Contre: la banalité de la presse provinciale, l’obligation d’écrire
dans des délais très restreints, la nécessité de respecter les
tendances ‘politiques’ ou autres du journal ou de l’éditeur qui
vous emploie, les dangers encourus par les ‘grands reporteurs’, la
mauvaise réputation d’une certaine presse écrite, cynisme ou
caractère ingrat de certains journalistes, le spectacle des
événements tragiques qui risque de vous durcir.
Pour le débat, trouver des exemples de journalistes respectés ou
idéalistes et de journaux qui mentent ou qui exagèrent afin de
dramatiser leurs reportages. Est-ce une carrière qui encourage
l’honnêteté?
80
JEUX D’ENFANTS
TEXTE 15
Jeux d’enfants
Joseph Joffo
1.
In the first part of the extract, the narrator establishes the
background for his anecdote set in wartime Paris.
1.1
What is his opinion of public playparks specifically designed for
children? Does he think these facilities are effective in keeping
children happy?
The author begins by commenting on the children’s playparks,
with which readers will be familiar, in order to move on to the
unfamiliar: life in occupied Paris. He is critical of playparks and
thinks they are not effective. Their fancy designation in architects’
jargon, as ‘réalisations pour enfants’ (creations/projects for
children), strikes him as surprising (‘ça m’étonne toujours’), and
he is ironical about the so-called experts with their professional
qualifications. He exaggerates their degrees (‘trois cent mille
licences’) and in effect ridicules the ‘child psychology’ approach to
these things. He thinks that these play areas do not work, because
children nevertheless get bored, on Sundays and every day of the
week. The author engages in a piece of rhetoric here, including
the listing of features of playparks. Students may or may not wish
to agree with his point of view.
1.2
Were such facilities available to him when he was a boy?
No, he did not have such facilities, but he says that the children
were happy in the streets of Paris.
2.1
What were the characteristics of the area of Paris where he was
brought up?
The area was a vast maze of intersecting streets, high buildings with
little sky visible. It was a grubby, grey place (‘rue sale’) with dustbins littered around, potentially oppressive, but full of bustle and
activity, with the concierges, the florist, horse-drawn carriages, cafe
terraces.
81
JEUX D’ENFANTS
2.2
How did the children amuse themselves in the streets in those
days?
They played in the streets, clambering over dustbins, hiding in
doorways, ringing doorbells (by implication), being chased by the
concierges. It was a place where they could imagine themselves to
be explorers in far-away places: the dirty canal de l’Ourcq, covered
in oil patches and with floats moving along with the water, became
a great river (‘un fleuve’, not just a ‘rivière’). The suggestion is that
they enjoyed such activities so much that they only went home at
or after dark (‘avec la nuit’).
3.
After setting the scene, the narrator begins the story about his
childhood in Paris in 1941, with the question asked by Maurice.
The two boys are evidently wondering where to go, what to do. The
anecdote helps to illustrate why this part of Paris was ‘un coin
rêvé pour des gosses’.
3.1
Describe the appearance of the two men whom the boys caught
sight of, coming down the street towards them.
They saw two tall, gaudily dressed men, wearing black, with belts
and very highly polished jack-boots. In this grubby street, they
stood out, looking so smart, especially with their shining boots.
3.2
Note that the anecdote begins in the present tense, but quickly
switches to the past. Why do you think the author has done this?
What tone has been adopted here?
It is a traditional story-telling technique to use the present tense.
Here, the anecdote begins with the sense of immediacy provided
by the present tense (‘C’est Maurice qui pose les questions. [...] Je
vais répondre [...]’), and then changes to what is obviously a story
about the wartime past, but using, in general, the perfect tense of
conversational French, rather than the past historic of written
narrative. However, one past historic is used, slightly lower down,
in ‘– S.S., murmura-t-il’, adding briefly a certain formality. In this
way, the writer establishes a general tone of relatively informal or
conversational discourse, quite suitable for the tale about a
practical joke, switching between the present, imperfect and
perfect tenses, though with one noticeable past historic.
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4.1
How does the narrator contrive to make the bearing of the men
seem dignified, as they walk along the street?
The S.S. men are made to seem dignified by the evocation of their
military bearing, walking along slowly and stiffly, and by associating
them with a formal military display, ceremoniously, as if on a
barrack square or parade ground, with trumpets and drums being
played.
4.2
In what ways does the boys’ manner contrast with that of the two
S.S. men? What does the simile – ‘comme si nous étions des
siamois’ – add to the description of the situation?
The men’s formal bearing contrasts with the boys’ informality. The
use of the word ‘tifs’ is familiar and quite disparaging in context, and
‘on s’est collés’ also belongs to the familiar register. The simile,
comparing themselves to Siamese twins to suggest just how tightly
they held their bodies together, adds a comic touch to the
anecdote. It prepares the way for their laughter and the explanation
of their practical joke, contrasting the pair of cheeky boys and the
two impressive and otherwise intimidating S.S. officers.
5.1
Explain the practical joke played by the boys. Would you describe
this as a harmless, ‘innocent’ prank?
In order to deceive the S.S. officers, they have stood in front of the
notice announcing that this is a Jewish shop. The force of the joke
obviously depends on the historical context – the German
occupying authorities required shops run by Jews to display such a
notice. If the men had seen the notice they would certainly not
have entered the shop to have their hair cut: they would be
expected to regard it as a place to be despised and avoided. So
the joke is on the German S.S. There is also a spice of danger in
this. It may be a children’s prank, but it is not an innocent one.
That the two boys think of the prank more or less simultaneously
shows that it is based on their common experience and some
awareness of the gravity of the situation. The whole point is that
they knew what they were doing.
5.2
Comment on the irony in the description of the S.S. men as they sit
waiting to have their hair cut. Why, in your opinion, does the
writer repeat the word ‘juif’ so often in the last two sentences?
The irony is that the two S.S. men are presented sitting obediently,
politely, correctly (‘genoux joints’), waiting to be attended to by
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the Jews, in effect seeking a service from the Jews, whom they
considered to be untouchable racial inferiors. They are presented
almost as potential victims, rather than the other way round, with
their necks to be bared to the Jewish barbers. The word ‘juif’
appears three times as an adjective and once as a noun, and the
word is used to close each of the last two sentences, emphasising
by the repetition and the placing just what a fool the boys have
made of the S.S. These men, being very closely associated with the
round-ups and persecution of the Jews, were hated and feared.
The ‘death’s-head’ S.S. were particularly feared, so the joke is all
the more telling. The image of the two little boys, rolling around
outside with laughter, makes a comic contrast with the picture of
the two stiff S.S. men and the intense silence inside the shop.
6.
This story is told simply and lightheartedly, but its tone and
simplicity may be deceptive. What, in your view, may be its
underlying message?
This question calls for a personal response. The tone, as has been
seen, is generally conversational: note the use of the informal ‘ça’,
sentences beginning with ‘Et...’, the repeated use of the familiar
‘on’ in place of ‘nous’. The underlying message may be that the
story has an important racial, intercultural dimension: it illustrates,
for example, a spirit of rebellion against oppression, the urge to
resist authoritarianism and the policies of the S.S. Children’s play is
itself harnessed to a social and political objective – which is to
alleviate the sense of oppression, if only by a practical joke. In a
menacing adult world, children find adventure and relief in
imaginative games.
7.
From your wider knowledge, you may well be aware of the
activities and reputation of the S.S. echelons in the 1930s and
1940s. Without this background knowledge, do you think that the
extract would have the same impact on the reader?
This question, too, requires a personal response. A discussion
could be wide-ranging. Using the passage as a starting point, the
question invites students to look further into the subject. Without
reference to the wider context, the passage is not likely to have
entirely the same impact. Nevertheless, by means of what is in
effect a thumbnail sketch, the passage establishes, through the
mockery, something of the reputation of the S.S.
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8.
Exercices de langue
8.1
Quelques articles. Etudiez la phrase qui suit:
Un Paris gris, avec les lumières des boutiques, les toits hauts
et les bandes du ciel par-dessus, les rubans des trottoirs
encombrés de poubelles à escalader, de porches pour s’y
cacher et de sonnettes, il y avait de tout, des concierges
jaillissantes, des voitures à chevaux, la fleuriste et les
terrasses des cafés en été.
Notez les articles en italique. Pourquoi l’écrivain a-t-il employé
‘les’ devant certains noms et ‘des’ devant certains autres noms?
Quelles sont les fonctions de ces articles?
This sentence allows analysis of the distinction between the
definite and the partitive articles. Question 8.2 provides further
illustration.
8.2
Traduisez en français, en employant les articles qui conviennent:
In the street we could see men, women and children.
Architects are people who very often astonish me.
Among the children there were boys who had begun to laugh.
Dans la rue nous voyions des hommes, des femmes et des enfants.
Les architectes sont des gens qui m’étonnent très souvent.
Parmi les enfants il y avait des garçons qui avaient commencé à rire.
8.3
Les nombres cardinaux. Prenez note du chiffre: ‘trois cent mille
(licences)’. Quel est l’usage français pour l’orthographe des
chiffres? Par exemple, comment écrirait-on, en toutes lettres, les
chiffres suivants?
19, 21, 29, 61, 70, 71, 72, 80, 81, 90, 91, 99, 100, 101, 111, 200, 202,
1 000, 1 001, 1 100, 1 200, 3 000, 4 002, 500 000, 1 000 000
This exercise is intended to encourage students to revise the rules
for spelling cardinal numbers – when to use hyphens and when
and when not to add the letter s to the figures.
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LE PONT MIRABEAU
TEXTE 16
Le Pont Mirabeau
Guillaume Apollinaire
The euphony of this text and the relative simplicity of the vocabulary
make ‘Le Pont Mirabeau’ a particularly suitable poem for reading ‘for
pleasure’, along with the four texts proposed in the appendix (pp 169–
73) at the end of the Anthology. However, analysis or appreciation of
the poem are likely to prove demanding. Detailed questions on the
versification are not proposed, although it is appropriate to draw
students’ attention to certain features of the rhyming.
1.
In the first stanza (lines 1–4), what relationship is implied
between the poet’s love and the flowing river?
Both the river and love pass by, the river, spatially; love temporally.
Memory recalls love, expressed here by the plural: ‘amours’. The
plural term, ‘amours’, means affairs of the heart, amorous
adventures (also the mating of animals). Here the word refers to a
single, continuing but perhaps varied love, associated with both
sadness and joy (line 4); it could, however, also be read to imply a
number of lovers. In either case, the implied relationship is the
same: all are fleeting, like the water in the river. The adjective ‘nos’
has a certain ambiguity: it could be taken to refer to one couple or
to many, since no context is provided, beyond the topographical.
The lack of punctuation itself adds to the ambiguity of the poem:
the second line could at first be understood as an ellipsis, meaning,
for the ear, ‘et nos amours coulent, eux aussi’. However, the noun
in line 2 reads grammatically as a duplicated indirect object with
‘en’ in line 3: ‘faut-il que je me souvienne de nos amours?’ The
absence of a question mark could suggest that line 3 represents a
state of mind, a rhetorical question, rather than a question with an
expected answer.
1.2
Would you say that this stanza is about a linear passage of time?
Or about some kind of cyclical process? Or both?
The question directs students’ attention to the double movement
of the poem. While line 3, appealing to memory, introduces the
passing of time as a theme of the stanza, both linear movement in
time and cyclical repetition are suggested. The water flows away,
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not to return; it is transient, though the river remains. The river
immediately acts as a metaphor for both time and love. The
sequence of ‘la peine’ leading to ‘la joie’ is repetitive (‘venait
toujours’), implying a returning cycle of the mixed emotions of
love, complementary or perhaps conflicting.
2.
How does the first occurrence of the refrain, in lines 5–6,
complement your reading of the first stanza?
The reading suggested for question 1.2 introduces the idea of time
passing. This is then confirmed by line 5 which evokes night falling
and a clock striking: these in turn refer to the inexorable, linear
passage of time, but also to a cyclical, daily repetition. Line 6
suggests a linear passage of time, which leaves the self somehow
with a sense of loss. The sentiment expressed by the line ‘Les jours
s’en vont je demeure’ relates also to the river setting and
complements it – l’eau s’en va, la rivière et le poète demeurent.
3.1
What distinguishes the second stanza (lines 7–10), with the
imperative verb ‘restons’, from almost all of the rest of the poem?
Whom does the poet address here? To what extent may this other
person be said to be absent in the other stanzas?
Stanza 2 is distinguished by this address to another person:
‘restons face à face’. The person addressed appears to be the
poet’s lover. Only one other stanza contains a similar direct
reference: ‘nos’ in stanza 1, line 2. However, whereas in stanza 1,
the word ‘nos’ may also refer more broadly to other loves, human
love, ‘all’ loves, in the second stanza the relationship is
particularised, through a visual image of lovers facing each other,
holding hands, forming a bridge with their arms. In the first stanza,
the other person’s presence is only implied. Again, in stanzas 3 and
4, there is no direct reference to another person; instead, the
poem evokes the loss of love with the passage of time, presenting
these ideas as universal truths. The second stanza is therefore
marked by this more immediately personal element – face to face,
hand in hand – as though the lovers feel that they represent a fixed
point, in time and above the moving river.
3.2
What does this stanza mean? Analyse the syntax of these lines.
Does the image of the lovers’ arms forming a bridge appear
appropriate in its context?
The second stanza, which uses ‘poetic’ inversions, may be
reconstructed syntactically as follows: Restons face à face, les mains
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dans les mains, tandis que l’onde si lasse des éternels regards passe
sous le pont de nos bras. It may be read as a direct address,
unpunctuated, to the lover, or it could represent unspoken
thoughts of the poet. The vocabulary is simple, but the form is
heightened by means of the rhymes and inversions. The arms
forming a bridge seems to be a neat echo of the bridge itself. The
meaning itself is left rather uncertain. Whose are the ‘éternels
regards’? – The lovers’, presumably, as they look at the water
moving below their arms. The word ‘onde’ (a wave of light, of
sound, of water) catches a certain ambiguity, by referring to the
line of the lovers’ gaze and the waves or waters of the river. In one
sense, ‘l’onde passe sous le Pont Mirabeau’, while simultaneously
‘l’onde de leurs regards passe sous le pont de leurs bras’. Their
gaze passes below their arms, as the water passes below the bridge.
At the same time, they experience a feeling of weariness (‘lasse’)
with the sensation of gazing forever (‘éternels’) at the water. The
image of bridges seems highly appropriate. In analysing such
imagery one should not be too literal.
3.3
To which of our senses does the second stanza mainly appeal?
The second stanza appeals mainly to the sense of sight. Following
the implied tactile reference (line 7) of the hands held together,
which of course may also be a visual image, the images are visual.
The poet, with his mind dwelling on such abstractions as memory,
time, love and loss, fixes his concentration on the visual, as if
almost mesmerised and finding an element of consolation in the
movement of the water.
4.1
The third stanza makes the main theme of the poem explicit and
emphasises it by repetition. What is this theme, and what simile is
introduced to reinforce it?
The theme is that love passes with time (repeated in lines 13 and
14). Following earlier ambiguities, this theme is now expressed
directly and very simply, and is reinforced by means of the simile
‘comme cette eau courante’, which makes explicit the comparison
which was implied earlier. ‘Courante’, referring to the flow or
current of the water, may also carry the connotations of the verb
‘courir’, of running water / fleeting time. There is possibly a faint
suggestion of contrast between the rhyming words ‘courante’ and
‘lente’; time, here, appears to be passing slowly.
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4.2
Which two different senses of the word ‘comme’ are used in
stanza 3?
This is primarily a language / comprehension question, on the
different functions of ‘comme’. In line 13, ‘comme’ = ‘like’, for the
comparison. In lines 15 and 16, ‘comme’ = ‘how’, giving emphasis
or as an exclamation. Used three times in this stanza, the word also
has expressive effect. Especially in combination with other
repeated words and sounds in the poem, the repetition suggests a
steady beat.
4.3
How would you explain the choice of the adjective ‘violente’ to
qualify ‘Espérance’ in line 16? What is the ‘violent Hope’
contrasted with? Why, in your opinion, has the word ‘Espérance’
been given a capital letter?
The adjective ‘violente’ expresses a strong sense of resistance to
the idea that love will be lost through the unavoidable action of
time. Hope, personified by the capital letter, is presented as a
dominant characteristic of the poet’s state of mind, an allegorical
figure, contrasting with the sense of the inevitable loss of love.
‘Violente’ is also contrasted directly with ‘lente’, its second
rhyming word, referring to the slow passing of time. Love will be
lost, but despite the inevitability of loss the poet hopes that this will
not be so. The reference to violence suggests a sharp reaction
against the feeling of hopelessness. However, the idea is not
further elaborated, and a sense of resignation appears to dominate.
5.
How does the fourth stanza summarise and contribute to the
development of the poem? Does this stanza strike you as being
possibly bleaker in mood than the preceding stanzas?
The fourth stanza offers a form of summary by repeating the theme
of the inexorable passage of time and by a circular return to the
beginning of the poem: line 22 repeats line 1. By this stage, the
river image has become firmly associated with the idea of time’s
passing. The stanza therefore contributes to the development by
emphasising both the passing of time – in the repetition of
‘passent’ and its echo in ‘passé’ – and the sense of loss, which is
conveyed by the emphasis given to the negatives in lines 20 and
21, each beginning with ‘Ni’. These features could well make the
stanza appear bleaker than those which precede.
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6.
Would you agree that the poem is largely visual, and meditative?
Does the refrain appeal to any other sense perception? Does it have
an elegiac resonance?
Yes, the poem is certainly meditative and does appear to be largely
visual. The refrain and the rhymes also appeal to sound / hearing,
and the reference to a clock sounding the time suggests the
elegiac tolling of a bell. The beat or emphasis on the verbs in
‘Vienne la nuit sonne l’heure’, in ‘Passent les jours et passent les
semaines’ and in the repetition of ‘comme’ also suggests the slow,
steady rhythm of the elegy. The reference, in the introduction to
the text, to Apollinaire’s own steady, measured reading of the
poem is relevant to this question. (See also question 7.3.)
7.1
In what respects may the poem be said to have a song-like quality?
Do you find it appealing, musically?
This question is intended to elicit personal responses to the poem.
Students are likely to be responsive to the musical qualities of the
poem, especially in view of its ambiguities: the rhythm, the refrain
itself, of course, the repeated words (such as: mains / mains, face /
face, l’amour s’en va / l’amour s’en va, comme / comme / comme,
passent / passent, Ni / Ni), and the alliterations and assonances.
There are many examples of repeated sounds, e.g. Des éternels
regards l’onde si lasse, bras / passe, l’amour / courante, l’amour;
also the s sounds, for example, introduced in stanza 1 and
developed in stanzas 2 and 3, and picked up again in stanza 4. The
rhymes, too, contribute to the musical quality (see question 7.2).
Combined with the themes, the sounds of the poem could be said
to make it resemble a soft, perhaps melancholy song. It is lyrical in
the sense that it conveys a highly personal mood in a rhythmic,
harmonious, singing way.
7.2
Examine the rhyme scheme. Is the rhyming important for lyrical
quality alone, or does it also help to underscore the importance of
certain words and ideas?
The rhyme scheme is fairly remarkable in consisting predominantly
of feminine rhymes. The only masculine endings appear in the
short, four-syllable second line of each stanza. This makes the
poem appear quite experimental, although when it was written
such experimentation was not uncommon, following the Symbolist
experiments of the late nineteenth century. It is generally
considered that feminine rhymes offer additional resonance to the
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last syllable of a line of verse. The masculine ‘endings’ in lines 2, 8,
14 and 20 in fact represent the fourth syllable of a split decasyllabic
line, the basic rhythm of the main stanzas being that of the
decasyllable. The rhyme scheme is as follows: abaa cc dedd cc efee
cc agaa cc. It is regular but varied, having something of the effect
of rhyming couplets, with a haunting refrain and a direct echo of
stanza 1 in stanza 4 (-eine, -enne, -aines, -ennent). The rhyming
contributes to the lyrical quality of the poem and lays particular
emphasis on the meaning of the rhyming words, three times in
each stanza, but not least in the refrain: heure / demeure, in which
the repeated emphasis is on the idea of passing time and the
insistent presence of the poet.
7.3
Apollinaire might have read his poem in exceptionally measured
tones simply through unfamiliarity with recording equipment in
those early days. Do you think, however, that the subject-matter
lends itself, in any case, to care and gravity of expression?
Again, this question is intended primarily to draw out students’
personal reactions to the text. The subject-matter may be variously
interpreted: broadly, it is in the idea that love is transient, that it
does not survive the passage of time, that lovers may be sadly
aware of, and may regret, the destructive effects of time, but that
nature itself, in the image of the river, may offer some kind of
solace for this sense of inevitable loss: what they retain is hope – a
violent hope – against the odds of time. It is quite probable that
students will judge that a careful, meditative tone, expressing a
serious reflection on the nature of human relationships, is
appropriate to capture the poet’s ideas and mood.
8.
The poem has no punctuation, apart from the use of capitalisation.
Does this help or hinder understanding? What role is played by the
division into poetic lines? Can you give examples of other poets,
writing in French or English, who dispense with punctuation?
On punctuation, see also question 1.1. The lack of punctuation
(meaning absence of commas, full-stops, etc.) throws into relief
those features which do have elements of punctuation – the first
word of each line, conventionally capitalised, the proper names
(Mirabeau and Seine), which situate the poem quite precisely, but
especially the capitalised emphasis on ‘Espérance’ in line 16, which
gives the word, in effect, an allegorical force. The absence of other
punctuation marks may help the reader to understand that the
poem, expressively, represents a sequence of uninterrupted, even-
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flowing thoughts. These mirror both the theme of time passing
inexorably and the idea of the river endlessly flowing. The lack of
punctuation cannot be said to hinder understanding: visually, the
division into lines of verse is itself, in effect, a substitute for
punctuation; and orally, when one hears the poem read aloud, the
rhymes indicate the existence of the individual lines, with the
possible exception of lines 13–14, which contain an ‘internal’
rhyme on the word ‘va’, but whose sense is in any case immediate
and clear.
For students who may be responsive to more technical features of
French prosody, it may be pointed out that the lack of punctuation
also means that a reader may readily see that the second and third
lines of each main stanza actually constitute a single decasyllable.
The main rhythm of the stanzas is the decasyllable, and the second
and third lines constitute a 4-syllable and a 6-syllable (hemistich)
combination. On the other hand, the refrain is written in ‘vers
impairs’, as sometimes adopted by Verlaine and other late 19thcentury poets; here, they are 7-syllable lines, in which the syllables
of the word groups are divided as 4, 3, 4, 3 – i.e. they contain a
subtle, if inexact, echo of the decasyllable (‘sonne l’heur(e) Les
jours s’en vont je demeure’). The rhythms of the poem contribute
to its unity.
Students’ general knowledge or ingenuity should lead them to
other poets who eschew punctuation. This may lead them to
suggest comparisons between poets and poems. One of the points
of this enquiry is to suggest that, although this poem is memorable
and highly original, Apollinaire’s approach, in this respect, was not
unique. The quality of a technique resides, not in the technique
itself, but in the ways in which writers use it. Technical competence
does not necessarily make for memorable verse, but without
technical competence a writer’s resources are likely to be limited.
9.
In your opinion, do the brevity of the poem and the simplicity of its
vocabulary enhance or detract from the large dimensions of the
questions it raises – about time, personal relationships, hope, loss?
This question is designed to encourage students to reflect on the
form and content of the poem and to consider their own personal
opinions. However, its purpose is also to direct their attention to
the simplicity and brevity of the poem, and to suggest that these
qualities enhance the treatment of such themes. They help to make
the poem accessible and memorable, whereas wordiness or highly
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abstract discourse may make a reader turn away. The poet does not
theorise or draw conclusions, but elaborates a turn of mind, a
mood and ideas in which the reader or listener is invited to share.
Note on the illustration on p. 60, showing the Tour Eiffel beside
the Seine: the Pont Mirabeau, not pictured, is some distance
downstream from the Eiffel Tower. The text is not about tourism,
of course, and the topography is much less important than the
ideas, mood and sonority of the poem. Though the writer has
situated his poem in a specific place and in the city, the image he
creates is a universal: a bridge over moving water supplies the
metaphor. Insofar as the poem may be thought to represent an
image of Paris, it is far removed from the stereotype of a
sentimental image of Paris for lovers.
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UNE EXPÉRIENCE SINGULIÈRE
TEXTE 17
Une expérience singulière
Albert Camus
1.
What was Janine’s state of mind as she waited for Marcel to come
down from their room in the hotel? How did the sight of the men in
the crowded street affect her?
Janine felt uncomfortable and was anxious to move on, wondering
why she had come on this trip. She was out of place in the crowd
of Arab men and felt that she had never seen so many men. With
their thin, tanned faces, they all looked alike to her – a common
enough reaction in people who are in a foreign land. These men
did not look at her directly, though she evidently knew that they
were aware of her presence. There were no other women there,
and she felt awkward and very ill at ease. To her, the Arabs, in their
white robes, appeared to be proud and cunning, passing by silently
and lightly, avoiding her. Their lightness contrasts with the
discomfort, perhaps the heaviness, she felt from her swelling
ankles. She felt hemmed in, needing more and more to get away
from this place.
2.1
When Marcel came out of the hotel, he and Janine went to visit the
town’s fort. Their walk is described, in the second paragraph, from
Janine’s point of view. As they climbed the steps towards the high
terrace of the fort, what effect did the changes in the physical
setting – the place itself and the cold evening air – have on Janine?
As they climbed, she was aware that on their cheeks the cold had
become drier and sharper; the wind had dropped and the sky was
a uniform, cloudless blue; the stairway was long and steep.
Remember that Janine’s ankles were already sore but, although the
walk and climb could have been expected to increase her
discomfort, an opposite effect became evident. The crowd in the
town was left behind: this is emphasised by the reference to the
single Arab stretched against a wall halfway up the stairway,
offering to be their guide, but (rightly) not expecting them to
accept. As they climbed higher, the sounds from the oasis town
could each be heard clearly. The sounds seemed pure. There was
no wind but, as they moved on, the air seemed to be in movement.
As they got higher, the distance they could see increased, and the
94
light, like the space, seemed to be growing steadily vaster. The
light is described in tactile and visual terms (‘froide et sèche’;
‘semblait vibrer’): it was ‘crystal’ clear – the analogy with crystal
suggests the precious stone. It is as though the movement of their
own bodies causes waves in the air. Their physical movement is
then associated with sound, with ‘une onde sonore’, by an analogy
between air waves and sound waves. This all suggests a sharpening
of Janine’s sense perceptions and a feeling of alertness that
contrast with her earlier awkwardness and discomfort.
2.2
At the end of the second paragraph, the author describes briefly the
desert scene before them, when they reached the terrace. What
Janine saw is evoked largely in auditory terms. How effective do
you consider this combination of visual and auditory references?
The scene is of the vastness of the desert and the distant horizon.
The effectiveness depends on the context: from Janine’s point of
view, the claustrophobia she had experienced in the crowded
town street had been replaced by a sense of the vastness of the
space that opened out in front of her, as she looked out over the
tops of the palm trees. What Janine saw is conveyed by reference to
sound: the clear sky seemed to be echoing above her with ‘une
seule note éclatante et brève’. This represents a transposition of
the senses: the visual is suggested by the auditory. Could it also be
taken to imply an effect of the effort of the climb, a ringing in the
ears perhaps? However, this impression in any case gives way
quickly to silence. She did not speak, but her senses were alert.
The second paragraph ends with an emphasis on her silence as,
aware of the vast space above her, she gazed into the seemingly
limitless distance in front of her. In this well-constructed passage,
this short episode serves as the prelude to the next paragraph: it is
a transitional point between the constraint and discomfort Janine
had experienced in the town, and from which she has now been
freed, and the stimulating experience which is to follow.
3.
The third paragraph is structured systematically, providing an
account of what Janine could see: (1) the unbroken horizon; (2)
certain features of the town itself, close by; (3) between the town
and the horizon, the palm grove; (4), the space between the grove
and the horizon; (5) an Arab encampment.
This preamble to question 3 is intended to guide students in their
reading of the next paragraph:
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3.1
How does the brief description of the town, here, contrast with the
description which was given in the first paragraph? In the opening
sentences of pararaph 3, what signs of life are in evidence, and
how do these contrast with her impression of the distant horizon?
In the first paragraph, Janine, standing in the street, had felt
hemmed in and alienated by the crowd of Arab men, whereas in
paragraph 3, the town is at some distance: Arabs are present, but
unseen. No people are visible, and the signs that there is life down
there in the town are limited to the sight of peppers drying in the
sun, the smell of coffee, the sounds of voices and laughter, and
footsteps or perhaps stamping feet. These last sounds are
‘incompréhensibles’ to Janine. As her eyes travelled along the far
horizon from east to west, it seemed inanimate, geometric,
interrupted by no obstacle, resembling a perfect curve. Under the
clear sky, this horizon may be thought to represent some kind of
attractive, distant ideal, very different from the earlier awkwardness
she had felt in the crowded street, and remote also from the sight,
smell and sounds of the town of which she was still aware.
3.2
What did Janine particularly notice as she looked at the palm
grove and the nearby encampment? Explain the reference to ‘une
étrange écriture dont il fallait déchiffrer le sens’.
Janine noticed that the tops of the palm trees were rustling in the
wind, though no wind could be felt on the high terrace from which
she was looking. In the palm grove, the ‘carrés inégaux’ formed by
the clay walls are a sign of human activity, and they also contrast
with the ‘courbe parfaite’ of the horizon. The grove seems quite
separate from her, rather mysterious, a different place. She was
aware of the rustling of the trees: in the phrase ‘bruissait à son
sommet sous l’effet d’un vent qu’on ne sentait plus sur la terrasse’,
the alliteration in s suggests the sound of the trees. Beyond the
oasis, Janine also saw a herd of dromedaries, tiny in the distance,
standing around the tents of an encampment. Again, this suggests
human presence, though no people could be seen. The animals
were motionless, their shapes looking like a form of writing. In the
phrase ‘une étrange écriture dont il fallait déchiffrer le sens’,
Camus draws attention to Janine’s feeling that she was faced by the
unknown. The dromedaries are associated with the nomad Arabs,
themselves unseen; but the shape of the dromedaries suggests the
Arabs’ written language, another system of signs which was
mysterious to Janine and aroused her curiosity.
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3.3
What had struck Janine about the space between the grove and the
horizon? Comment on the expression ‘le royaume des pierres’.
Janine had been struck by the fact that there was no sign of life in
this area. What she could see is evidently indistinct – mainly the
shades of yellow and grey of the distant desert. The expression ‘le
royaume des pierres’ contains a paradox, in the contrast between
stony ground, infertile by implication, and the term ‘royaume’,
which suggests a place which is special, desirable, noble,
honourable – stretching all the way to the horizon, which itself has
seemed somehow perfect. There is something undefined but
almost mystically attractive about the perspective. She seems to be
drawn towards the inanimate, as opposed to people, with whom
she has been feeling constraint, unease.
4.1
Contrast Janine’s reaction to the scene with that of Marcel, as
suggested at the beginning of the fourth paragraph.
The fourth paragraph contains the main focus of the extract. Note
that, while it is Arabs who have been presented as the main cause
of her unease, she was not altogether at ease with her husband
either. Janine was completely fascinated and, as it were,
mesmerised by what appears to be silent, empty space, whereas
Marcel was feeling the cold and wanted to go back down to the
town. Janine, concentrating on the scene in front of her, was so
overcome that she did not speak, but pressed herself physically
against the parapet. Marcel, on the other hand, grumbles. The
sentences ‘Qu’y avait-il donc à voir ici? Il avait froid, il voulait
descendre’ are examples of free indirect speech, showing Marcel
grumbling as he stands beside Janine. This also tells the reader that
Janine was so absorbed in her thoughts that she was unaware of
the cold.
4.2
Comment on Janine’s thoughts as she gazed at the horizon. What
change gradually took place in her feelings? Discuss the phrase ‘un
nœud que les années, l’habitude et l’ennui avaient serré, se
dénouait lentement’.
As she gazed fixedly at the horizon, associating it with something
ideal (‘ligne pure’), she realised that, out there, there was
something she had been unaware of, ‘quelque chose (qui)
l’attendait’. This realisation made her sense that her life had always
been lacking in some way. She did not know what had been
missing, but she had not realised this before. As the afternoon
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changed to evening, the light itself seemed to be changing: from
hard and cristalline, to liquid – a softening which made her relax.
Earlier, in the town, she had been tense: in context it is suggested
that this tension is representative of her life as a whole. The phrase
‘un nœud que les années, l’habitude et l’ennui avaient serré, se
dénouait lentement’ uses the metaphor of the knot to express this
relaxation. The writer juxtaposes the opposite terms ‘serré’ and ‘se
dénouait’, emphasising the physical transition from tension and
relaxation. The phrase is composed harmoniously; the list of three
nouns (‘les années, l’habitude et l’ennui’) gives the idea a certain
resonance and emphasises the unexpectedness of the novel sense
of freedom which she was experiencing.
4.3
In the section from ‘Elle regardait le campement des nomades. . .’
to ‘. . . seigneurs misérables et libres d’un étrange royaume’,
Janine’s reflections are marked by a strong sense of paradox. How
successfully does the author develop the contrast between the
poverty of the nomads and what Janine came to regard as seeming
desirable about their way of life? In what sense did the nomads
inhabit an ‘étrange royaume’?
This question calls for personal value judgements, relating to the
ideas of poverty and wealth. The vocabulary emphasises the
‘negative’ aspects of the nomads’ life: ‘sans’, ‘coupés’, ‘errer’. This
vast, infertile space is only a small and insignificant part of a larger
space, and the nomads are few in number. It may perhaps be
worth adding, in this respect, that Camus is evoking a state of
mind, here, not conducting a geography lesson. Janine’s own
feeling of breathlessness is echoed in the idea of thousands of
kilometres of land stretching dizzyingly as far as the river which
brings fertility to the forest. She imagines the thankless, arid
conditions of the Arabs’ lives, which seem to contrast with this
distant fertility. Not having seen the nomads, Janine dissociates
them from the sense of alienation she had felt earlier with the
Arabs in town. The paradox, however, is that the nomads’
wretched life of constant movement, of relentless trekking across
the desert, seems to her to be desirable, rewarding, honourable
and thus fertile, despite being spent on the arid land where they
can only scrape a living. To Janine, their life is desirable because
they are free, beholden to no-one. Although they are povertystricken, they have their liberty. The point is reinforced by the
antitheses in the phrase ‘seigneurs misérables et libres’, in which
‘misérables’ – meaning impoverished, destitute (not ‘unhappy’) –
contrasts with ‘seigneurs’ and also with ‘libres’, implying
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‘misérables mais libres’. The ‘étrange royaume’ which they inhabit
is paradoxical, because it is not associated with wealth and
possessions but, precisely, with freedom; having no possessions,
the nomads are their own masters.
4.4
The last four sentences of this paragraph may be seen as the
climax of the story. How does Camus emphasise that this is an
exceptional experience for Janine? What are the main
characteristics of this experience?
Still paradoxically, Janine felt an extraordinary sadness, in an
exceptional experience which made her close her eyes with the
intensity of her thoughts. She felt that she was in the presence of a
promised land, a promised ‘kingdom’ to which she would never
belong – except at this fleeting moment, in her own mind. The
light, which had been in movement, now seemed to be frozen, and
the sounds from the town appeared to have ceased suddenly. This
suggests not an actual silence, but the exceptional intensity of
Janine’s concentration, which shut the sounds out of her
consciousness. The main characteristics of the experience are that,
to her, everything seemed to have become motionless: it was as if
space had stopped turning, and time had ceased. It represents
what might be called a ‘privileged experience’. Until now, she had
felt out of place with the Arabs and fractious with her husband, but
now, when time itself seemed to be suspended, she felt at one with
other people – no-one, she now felt, could grow old or die, and
everywhere, life, in the sense of time, movement, the tribulations
of living and the sense of one’s own mortality, seemed somehow to
have been transcended. The immediate living element has become
her own consciousness, with her mixed sensations of sorrow and
wonderment, and for a brief instant, unaware of time, she was
spellbound by the experience.
5. 1 To Janine, with her eyes closed, sights, sounds and even touch
seemed to be suspended. How well does the writer, in the fifth
paragraph, render the impression of the breaking of this spell?
The spell is broken by reference to movement, to the visible, the
auditory and the tactile. There was movement in what Janine could
see – the light, from seeming frozen, was again shifting; the sun
was going down; the western sky became tinged with pink, and a
cloud was forming in the east. Janine heard the sound of a dog
barking. She realised that she felt cold: her teeth were chattering.
These commonplace references, as the night drew in, suggest a
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return to normal perceptions of time and space. In contrast with
the preceding paragraph, this serves to dramatise even further the
intensity of Janine’s experience which had just come to an end.
5.2
How do you react to Marcel’s words to Janine? Would you judge
that, despite his words, Marcel is not entirely unsympathetic? What
does Janine’s final action suggest about her attitude towards
Marcel?
Aware of sound once again, Janine also heard Marcel’s words.
These link back directly to his earlier impatience, at the beginning
of paragraph 4, when he was cold and wanted to go back down
into the town. His words in the last paragraph are consistent with
the earlier impression given of him: they also helped to break the
spell, by his brusqueness: his words – especially ‘tu es stupide’ –
may seem sharp, even rather brutal: they are certainly
unsympathetic. To some extent, however, he compensated for this
by taking her by the hand, and doing so awkwardly. He had
evidently been completely unaware of what Janine was thinking
and experiencing. This may increase the reader’s sympathy for
Janine, who had been so moved that she could not use words to
express her sensations. The fact that she said nothing but followed
him docilely also suggests a somewhat passive, obedient attitude,
perhaps resigned, as though she knew he would not understand.
With the return to ‘reality’, she has become docile and seems to be
returning to the ‘nœud que les années, l’habitude et l’ennui
avaient serré’.
6.
Judging the passage as a whole, what, in your opinion, are its
main themes? Would you consider the ideas arising from cultural
differences between peoples are more important, here, than the
themes based in personal relationships? Do you think, for example,
that the writer’s evocation of Janine’s exceptional experience is
more or less compelling than the description of Janine’s physical
discomfort in the presence of the Arabs?
Personal opinions are sought here, which may relate to any of the
many themes in the extract.
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7.
Language practice
7.1
Note the usage with the verb ‘manquer’ in the sentence: ‘qui
pourtant n’avait cessé de lui manquer’ (paragraph 3). Compose a
sentence in French which illustrates the correct use of ‘manquer’.
Students’ attention may be drawn, for example, to the following
expressions :
Tu me manqueras – I’ll miss you
Jean lui manquait – He / She missed John
Elle manquera à sa famille – Her family will miss her
Il nous manque cinq euros – (impersonal usage) We’re short
of five francs
7.2
Grammar of negatives. Note the following negative expressions in
the passage:
on n’y voyait personne
rien ne bougeait entre les tentes noires
qui n’était cependant qu’une partie dérisoire
jamais, pourtant, il ne serait le sien, plus jamais personne
[...] ne vieillirait plus ni ne mourrait
Compose five sentences in French which use negative expressions
based on these examples.
When preparing their sentences, students could be advised to pay
careful attention to word order in the use of such expressions.
7.3
Identify the adjectives of colour used in paragraphs 3 and 4, and
note the adjectival agreements in number and gender.
The adjectives of colour appear as follows:
les terrasses bleues et blanches
les taches rouge sombre
ocre et gris, le royaume des pierres
le sol gris
de larges tentes noires
les tentes noires
une vague grise
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The apparent exception to the normal rule of agreement is found
in ‘les taches rouge sombre’: see below.
It may be noted that, earlier in the passage, the words designating
colour – ‘blanc’, ‘bleu’ and ‘pervenche’, in ‘vêtue de blanc’ and ‘un
bleu de pervenche’ – are nouns.
Which adjectives of colour remain invariable? Give examples of
other adjectives of colour which also remain invariable in French.
When nouns designating colour are used adjectivally, they are,
with a few exceptions, invariable. It is fairly easy for students to
remember that, for example, names of fruit or precious stones or
metals are invariable, when they are used to indicate a colour: e.g.
argent, bronze, cerise, citron, cuivre, émeraude, or, orange, perle,
rubis, saphir. The same applies also with other nouns such as:
azur, champagne, chocolat, ébène, paille, rouille, saumon. A noun
such as pervenche, in the second paragraph of the passage, may be
used as an invariable adjective or combined in a phrase, ‘couleur
de pervenche’, or, as here, ‘bleu de pervenche’. One of the
commonest exceptions is the word rose, which is regarded as an
adjective proper, as in ‘des écharpes roses’, pink scarves, or ‘des
roses roses’, pink roses.
In addition, when an adjective of colour is itself qualified, it is
invariable: an example in this extract is in the phrase ‘des taches
rouge sombre’. Others of the same type are, for example, bleu
clair, vert foncé, jaune paille, gris verdâtre, etc.: thus ‘des yeux
bleu clair’, ‘des cravates vert foncé’.
A subtler point may perhaps be introduced for some students:
adjectives occurring in pairs or longer groups are also invariable,
as in: ‘de l’encre bleu-noir’, ‘des cocardes bleu-blanc-rouge’.
However, contrast ‘des robes vert et bleu’ (each dress has green
and blue in it) with ‘des robes vertes et bleues’ (some dresses are
green, some are blue). In this extract, the phrase ‘les terrasses
bleues et blanches’ means that some are blue and some are white.
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LE CHEMIN DE L’ATELIER
TEXTE 18
Le chemin de l’atelier
Albert Camus
1.1
Which features of the situation described in the first paragraph
suggest the physical discomfort of Yvars?
Yvars was riding along laboriously, because he had only one good
leg; his other foot being crippled (the bicycle had a fixed wheel –
‘la pédale fixe’ – so he could pedal it with one foot). In addition,
the ground was wet. The noun ‘pavé’ has not been explained in
the glossary: could students who do not know the word surmise its
meaning? – He was riding along on cobblestones, which can be
uneven and are notoriously slippery when wet. He must keep his
eyes fixed on the road in front of him because of the additional
danger of the tramlines, which could trap the bicycle wheels. Yvars
would also swerve suddenly to let cars overtake him. Finally, his
lunchbag was uncomfortable: it evidently kept slipping round to
his side, so he sometimes had to hitch it back into place on his
back. It all adds up to a picture of physical discomfort. As is
suggested in question 6, this may also be seen to be broadly
symbolic of human discomfort and frailty, compared with the
setting in an attractive but impassive nature (‘la mer et le ciel...’).
1.2
Besides being physically ill at ease, Yvars felt bitter about what he
had in his lunchbag. What had he got for his meal, and what
would he have preferred to have?
This is designed as a straightforward comprehension question.
Yvars had only a plain cheese sandwich, instead of his preferred
meal of Spanish omelette or beefsteak fried in oil. This observation
is to lead on to the more general question of the failed strike. It
will become evident that Yvars could not afford a better meal.
2.1
In the first three sentences of the second paragraph, Yvars begins to
reflect on his personal condition. Why should his ride to work seem
longer than it ever seemed before? How old was he at this time?
How sound did his health seem to be?
Yvars’s ride may have seemed longer because of his discomfort that
morning and perhaps also because he was beginning to feel older.
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He was forty years old but, though he had a crippled leg, he was
still in fairly good health. He is described as being as lean ‘as a vine
shoot’ (implying strength, dependability, potential for growth),
though his muscles were now slower to get going than they used
to be.
2.2
What were his thoughts about his age, sometimes, when reading the
sporting columns? How would you judge his attitude here? Is it
bitter? resigned? humorous?
His response to reading sports reports was to think that he really
must be getting old: if a reporter calls a sportsman a ‘veteran’ at
the age of thirty, when admittedly one is already getting a bit shortwinded, he himself must be pushing up the daisies at forty. Yvars
then corrected himself for this humorous exaggeration: the
reporter was not altogether wrong, he thought, but no, he wasn’t
dead yet, though his sense of his own mortality has developed: ‘on
s’y prépare, de loin, avec un peu d’avance’. His attitude to his own
ageing seems to be resigned (‘il haussait les épaules’), but he is
also being lightly ironical, rather than bitter. His bitterness was
more focused when he was thinking about his packed meal.
3. 1 Why, at the age of twenty, had Yvars always liked to gaze at the
sea, and what had happened to change this in the years since then?
This is largely a comprehension question. Yvars had loved gazing at
the sea at all times (‘ne pouvait de lasser’); it made him look
forward to happy weekends at the beach. He had always liked
swimming, despite or because of his limp. Students could be
invited to reflect on the phrase ‘malgré ou à cause de sa boiterie’,
which suggests two almost opposite reasons for his enjoying
swimming. Since then he had got married, had a son, needed to
work overtime in order to have enough money. The weekends at
the beach had been replaced by work at the cooperage on
Saturdays and doing odd jobs for people on Sundays. Yvars
associated youth with happiness, with the sea, the hot sun and
girls; but his dominant sense now was that his youth had passed.
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3.2
What were the circumstances in which Yvars still liked to look out
at the sea? What mood is suggested at the end of the second
paragraph? How does the setting contribute to the creation of the
mood? Do you think that Yvars’s feelings are simple or complex at
such times?
Yvars liked to look out to sea only in the evenings, from his
terrace, when the light was not so bright. This marks a contrast
between the memory of strong sunlight during the day, and the
subdued light of the evening, darkening the waters. It was then
peaceful, back home with Fernande, wearing a clean, well-ironed
shirt after his day’s work, with some neighbours to chat with, and a
cold, refreshing glass of anisette. The mood here is meditative,
reflective. As evening drew in, the sky itself would seem to become
briefly softer, and Camus writes of the neighbours lowering their
voices. The setting, here, complements the mood, suggesting quiet
meditation, a sense of solidarity among the people and, for a short
moment, a feeling of harmony with the world. Yvars’s feelings are,
however, quite complex, for at these times of introspection he
would feel contented but also rather sad, uncertain about what it
was that he did feel. He is represented as being in a state of quiet
expectation, but not knowing what it is that he is hoping for.
4.
What would you say are the main themes of the first two
paragraphs?
The main themes of the first two paragraphs of the extract could
be seen as ageing, regret for lost youth, resignation at the
advancing years. Students may also consider that work itself,
attitudes to work and perhaps also the idea of going to work
unwillingly, are also central themes. The sense of discomfort which
predominates in the first paragraph is followed by the feeling of
regret and a sense of loss in the second, but this is balanced to
some extent by the idea of relaxed, peaceful consolation in a
physical and human setting. Underlying these themes, there is the
more general idea of an individual unsure of his place in the
universe, feeling dissatisfied and in some measure a misfit, and
wishing that things could be different.
5.1
Returning directly to the narrative of Yvars’s journey to work, the
third paragraph explains the background to the workers’ strike.
Why was Yvars’s heart heavy on this occasion?
Yvars’s heart was particularly heavy because the strike had just
failed. The outcome was that the workers would not get the raise
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in wages they had been hoping for. The previous evening, Yvars
had been to a meeting at which it had been decided to give up the
strike. Fernande’s disappointment is clearly implied, as she had at
first been full of joy, thinking they had won a pay rise. To Yvars’s
personal weariness is added the experience of defeat.
5.2
What particular circumstances had led to the failure of the strike,
and what was the general state of the barrel-making industry?
The particular circumstances were that the strikers had not gone
about their strike well, and their own union had been tepid about
it. There were not many of them, only fifteen or so strikers. Their
strike was a ‘grève de colère’ – suggesting an impulsive, unplanned
action. Yvars acknowledged that they couldn’t really blame the
union, because the union knew that other cooperages had failed.
The general situation was that tanker ships and road tankers were
threatening the industry: fewer new barrels were actually being
made and their work now consisted largely of repairing barrels that
were already in existence. Since the bosses needed to maintain
some profit margin, their policy was to keep wages down, despite
rising prices. This paragraph, which helps to explain Yvars’s sense
of resignation, offers a crisp analysis of an industrial and social
situation, seen broadly from Yvars’s point of view.
6.
Besides their particular function in the narrative, certain elements
of the passage may have a wider or a symbolic meaning. For
example, Yvars’s limp could be seen as a symbol of human frailty,
of human limitation, susceptibility to accident, disease and
inevitable death.
This preamble directs students’ attention to the symbolic
resonance of the extract. The symbolism also serves to generalise
Yvars, encouraging the reader to recognise and sympathise with
his predicament, which may have applications beyond the
immediate circumstances. Camus was suggesting a universal human
predicament.
6.1
Similarly, what could the sea be held to symbolise in this context?
In this context, the sea is used to symbolise youth, the life of the
senses (swimming), associated with happiness and physical
satisfaction. It is also presented as a symbol of freedom – the
freedom from responsibility which now seemed like a burden to
Yvars. The sight of the sea, which reminds Yvars of his youth,
106
triggers his regret at the passing of time. Almost personified in the
phrase ‘fidèle au rendez-vous’, the sea at the same time represents
the wider universe – it is always present, attractive, alluring but
indifferent to human hopes, frailty and mortality.
6.2
Do you think that the closing sentence of the extract – ‘Que
peuvent faire des tonneliers quand la tonnellerie disparaît?’ – has
any wider meaning?
The sentence is worded as an aphorism, a particular statement but
with the general significance of a proverb: when a trade becomes
redundant, what can the tradesmen do? What becomes of the
tradesmen? The first implied answer is that in such circumstances
there is nothing to be done: it seems to suggest resignation, the
sense of hopelessness felt by people when they lose their sense of
direction or purpose. Yvars’s uncertain state of mind on his terrace
in the evenings, not knowing whether he felt happy or unhappy,
rather passive, but in a vague state of expectation, matches this
implied resignation. The idea is, however, couched in interrogative
form: the sentiment is itself being questioned and, in terms of
Camus’s thought, it leads to an invitation to revolt against the
inevitable, to reject despair, despite the certainty of defeat. Since
this interpretation must go beyond the present extract, students
who wish to follow it up could be recommended to refer to other
work by Camus, notably Le Mythe de Sisyphe, L’Homme révolté and
such fictional texts as L’Etranger or La Peste.
7.
Comment on the style of the passage. It is evidently written largely
from the point of view of Yvars himself. Does the style seem
appropriate to his character?
The style is matter-of-fact, presenting a situation and a series of
attitudes in a systematic way. The sentences may be gramatically
complex at times, but they are not complicated intellectually.
There is no obvious straining for effect. The style could be called
‘natural’, presenting the situation with a certain amount of
composure. It is a relatively simple style, appropriate to a
straightforward character. Written mainly in the imperfect and
pluperfect tenses, this passage of narrative-description gives the
impression that it is dealing with facts. Thus, for example,
following the introspection of the second paragraph, the third
paragraph eventually shifts into an explanatory style, including
some relatively short sentences, which in places is almost
journalistic.
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8.
Exercices de langue
8.1
Les adverbes suivants paraissent dans le passage:
lourdement, doucement, pesamment, mollement, fort
Quels sont les adjectifs – au masculin singulier – qui
correspondent à ces adverbes?
Lourd, doux, pesant, mou, fort. The adverbial form ‘fortement’
also exists, but ‘fort’ itself is used as both an adjective and an
adverb. Some adjectives are regularly used as adverbs, as in parler
bas, coûter cher, travailler dur, peser lourd, etc.
8.2
Les adjectifs suivants paraissent dans le passage:
ancien, long, sec, violentes, profonde
Quelles sont les formes adverbiales qui correspondent à ces
adjectifs?
Anciennement, longuement, sèchement, violemment,
profondément. The examples illustrate one of the standard rules
for the formation of adverbs – by adding -ment to the feminine
form of the adjective – and two of the main apparent variants:
8.3
(1)
the adjectival endings -ent and -ant become -emment and
-amment, as in apparemment, couramment, etc (except, for
example, lentement);
(2)
in some cases, the vague e mute of the feminine adjective
becomes a definite é sound, as in confusément, intensément,
précisément, etc.. There are, of course, other types of variant,
not covered by this exercise: for example, assurément,
poliment, vraiment, absolument, assidûment, brièvement,
etc.
‘Sans’ + infinitive
Prenez note de la traduction, dans le glossaire ci-dessus, de la
phrase ‘sans trop savoir quoi’; ensuite traduisez en anglais la
phrase ‘sans relever la tête’, que vous trouverez au premier
paragraphe de l’extrait.
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Maintenant, traduisez en français les phrases suivantes:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(a)
(b)
(c)
Without first looking up the vocabulary, we will not be able
to understand the text.
That morning Yvars went to work without once looking at the
sea.
You cannot make a Spanish omelette without breaking eggs.
Sans d’abord chercher / Sans vérifier d’abord le vocabulaire,
nous ne pourrons (or saurons) pas comprendre le texte.
Ce matin-là Yvars est allé (alla) au travail sans regarder la mer
une seule fois.
On ne peut pas préparer une omelette à l’espagnol sans
casser des œufs.
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UNE JEUNE FILLE ET SES PARENTS
TEXTE 19
Une jeune fille et ses parents
Simone de Beauvoir
1.1
What did Laurence think might have caused Catherine to be so
upset?
Laurence thinks that Catherine might have read something
disturbing in a book, or that she had met someone who had upset
her.
1.2
What, however, seemed actually to be on Catherine’s mind, and
what reply did Laurence offer to comfort her?
Catherine was wondering how misfortune / hardship (‘le malheur’)
could be suppressed; Laurence replied that social workers were
there to help the old and the poor, and doctors and nurses to cure
the sick. Students could be asked for their view on this answer:
does Laurence’s answer actually match up to Catherine’s question?
2.
Why, in your view, did Catherine ask if she could be a doctor when
she grows up?
Answering Laurence in Laurence’s own terms, Catherine evidently
reacts by thinking that if she becomes a doctor she will be able to
help people when she grows up.
3.
When Catherine asks her mother what she and her father do to help
people who are in need, how does Laurence reply? Are you
convinced by Laurence’s answer? Is Laurence convinced by her
own answer?
Laurence says that she helps Catherine’s father to earn his living,
so that Catherine can continue studying and therefore help sick
people. Laurence maintains that in this way she too is helping
people. Catherine’s father builds houses for people who have no
houses – which, says Laurence, is a way of helping these people.
Laurence, while being somewhat condescending to Catherine,
produces a very unconvincing set of answers. Laurence is well
aware that what she has said is completely untrue (‘horrible
mensonge’), but she is at a loss to know how best to respond to
Catherine’s question.
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4.1
Laurence eventually finds out that her daughter has seen a poster
which may have upset her. Describe the poster in your own words.
The poster says that two-thirds of the people in the world are
hungry, and depicts the face of a beautiful-looking child, with eyes
that seem too big. The reference to the mouth (‘la bouche fermée
sur un terrible secret’) is powerfully evocative, suggesting not only
hunger itself, but also the silent suffering of a hungry child.
4.2
Discuss the different meanings that the poster has for Laurence
and Catherine.
For Laurence, the meaning of the poster is generalised: it is a sign
that the fight against hunger is going on – i.e. her reaction is
basically political, rather abstract. For Catherine, the meaning is
very particular and human: what she sees is a picture of a boy of
her own age, who is hungry. This leads Laurence to remember that
when she was a girl she had thought that grown-ups were
insensitive; she is now putting herself in Catherine’s place. This in
turn makes her think that adults do indeed fail to see many things
or at least – she corrects herself – that they do not pay attention to
things they can do nothing about. She then reflects that her father
and husband are right, for once, to say that it is no use having a
bad conscience about such things.
5.1
Laurence then recalls that she herself, like Catherine now, had
been very distressed, three years earlier. What had upset Laurence
at that time, and what conclusions does she now draw?
A torture incident had upset her. No details are given, but
Laurence now reflects that she had nearly made herself ill over it –
to no purpose, she thinks, because you have to get used to the
terrible things that happen in the world. She lists examples of the
‘horreurs du monde’ which appear in the news, in cinemas and on
TV, from the force-feeding of geese to the massacre of hostages. To
comfort herself, she concludes that such terrible events are bound
to disappear in time, but she is aware that children are more
vulnerable to such images.
5.2
On what grounds does Laurence reflect that terrible photographs
should not be displayed on posters in public? Again, is she entirely
convinced by the rightness of her own feeling about this?
Laurence thinks that, for the children’s sake, such photographs
should not be displayed on the walls in public, because children
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live in the present and do not have the defences that adults make
for themselves. She then reflects, however, that this is a
‘despicable’ thing to think: she is reacting now rather as she had
reacted when she was fifteen. A precise reason is not given, but she
is evidently aware that, in thinking that ‘it should not be allowed’
and, in effect, in suggesting censorship, she is oversimplifying the
situation. She is not convinced that this is a mature reaction, but
excuses herself by telling herself that she is responding in the
normal way a mother would in trying to protect her child.
6.
Laurence eventually tells Catherine that her father, Jean-Charles,
will explain all about it. Is this just an excuse? What selfjustification does Laurence comfort herself with?
It is an excuse: Laurence tells herself that a girl who is ten-and-ahalf years old should be beginning to be independent of her
mother – ‘le moment de se détacher un peu de sa mère’ – and to
rely more on her father. She is evidently aware that this is a lame
self-justification, and she consoles or excuses herself by thinking
that Jean-Charles will explain things to Catherine more
convincingly.
7.1
Examine Jean-Charles’s explanation. Why, in your view, is
Laurence embarrassed at the beginning of this explanation? What
evidence does Jean-Charles deploy?
Laurence is embarrassed because Jean-Charles’s tone is
paternalistic – i.e. he talks down to Catherine, though Laurence
reflects that he was not being condescending. She herself had been
slightly condescending, but she had tried to put herself in
Catherine’s place. Jean-Charles argues clearly that when parts of
the world were widely separated, i.e. before travel to distant places
had become much quicker and more practicable, people did not
know how to manage their affairs properly and acted selfishly. He
takes the poster to be a proof that people now want things to
change (for the better). Nowadays, he says, we have the means to
produce much more food than before; we are able to send it
quickly and easily from the rich countries to the poor. In adding
that there are organisations to do this, his argument is that the
problem is under control.
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7.2
How would you characterise Jean-Charles’s vision of the future?
Would you describe it as cautious? realistic? optimistic?
Jean-Charles’s vision is expressed lyrically; it is clearly optimistic,
and exaggeratedly so, as he contrasts the desert with a land of
plenty and describes the whole world as a ‘promised land’ of
smiling children with plenty to eat. There is a touch of exoticism in
the list: ‘gavés de lait, de riz, de tomates, d’oranges’. This vision
could not be said to be cautious or realistic; rather, it is utopian
and unrealistic – a deception. In context, Jean-Charles’s reference
to children ‘gavés de lait...’ contrasts with the inclusion of ‘le
gavage des oies’ in Laurence’s list of horrors.
7.3
Is Catherine satisfied by what her father says?
Catherine seems to have been convinced, imagining orchards and
fields of copious produce. Although she looks for clarification by
asking her question: ‘Personne ne sera plus triste, dans dix ans?’,
she seems satisfied that what her father has said is true, and that in
ten years’ time, children will not go hungry. She is satisfied enough
to say that she wished she had been born ten years later.
8.
How would you summarise the different attitudes that Laurence
and Jean-Charles have towards Catherine?
Catherine’s idealism contrasts with her parents’ more calculating
responses. Laurence is more understanding of Catherine, and
sympathises with her tears; whereas Jean-Charles does not take her
tears seriously. He is proud to think that she is mature for her age
– ‘fier de sa précocité’ when she makes her remark about being
born ten years later. He is pleased that she is doing well at school,
enjoying Latin and getting good marks in all subjects. He thinks
that they can make somebody of her. Laurence, on the other hand,
is aware of how bewildered a child can be at this stage; she is more
sensitive to Catherine’s feelings than Jean-Charles. She regrets that
she cannot console her daughter when she is unhappy, and
wonders what kind of ‘somebody’ they will make of Catherine.
9.1
Discuss the passage as a representation of parents’ attitudes
towards their child. To what extent could Laurence and JeanCharles be said to represent gender stereotypes?
This question invites students to offer personal judgements on, for
example, one parent passing the buck to another, when faced by
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an awkward question. Similarly, students might discuss whether or
not mothers are necessarily more sensitive than fathers to their
children’s needs. Are mothers necessarily more self-doubting,
fathers more assured? In this passage each parent is, to a greater or
lesser extent, self-deluding.
9.2
Do Laurence and Jean-Charles seek to mislead Catherine? Could
they be regarded as hypocritical towards her?
It is perhaps less a question of deliberately misleading than of
oversimplifying the situation. Laurence, in particular, is conscious
that her first replies were essentially a form of self-protection, and
in that respect her initial position could perhaps be seen as rather
hypocritical. On the question of the poster, Laurence seems to
offer little explanation, beyond the reflection that ‘c’est [...] le
signe que se poursuit la lutte contre la faim’. It is not stated
explicitly that she says this to Catherine or that she tells her that
these terrible things are bound to disappear. This is implied,
however, by the sentence ‘« Ce soir papa t’expliquera tout », a
conclu Laurence.’ Jean-Charles comes across as altogether more
confident in himself and appears to be persuaded of the merits of
his argument: he is presented – through Laurence’s eyes – as being
carried away by his own idealistic vision, in which there is an
element of self-congratulation. Again, this question invites
students’ personal responses.
10.
The passage dwells on the possible strength of images in
advertising. Have you come across any advertising that has had a
powerful effect on your own reactions?
Students may have their own experiences to recount, based on the
various form of advertising with which they may be familiar. Where
appropriate, they could be encouraged to review any exposure
they may have had to French-language advertising.
11.
Identify three features of the style of the passage which help to
make it resemble a spoken, rather than a written text?
Some students may find this question difficult. Comment could be
limited to the fairly obvious example of the spoken or informal
register in the use, in the narrative itself, of the shortened form ‘ça’
for ‘cela’: ‘Ça disparaîtra nécessairement...’ (page 78). Written
French might have preferred the full form here. The informality of
this use is demonstrated later in the direct speech of ‘On ne peut
pas dire ça’ (page 79). However, there are also more substantial
points to be made.
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(1) Relatively easy to recognise are the occasional verbless
sentences – a style which is not uncommon in journalism – which
also contribute to this informality of register. Sometimes, these are
very short phrases, typical of spoken language; for example:
‘Horrible mensonge. Mais à quelle vérité recourir?’ ‘Pouvoir de
l’image.’ ‘Réflexion abjecte. Abjecte: un mot de mes quinze ans.’
On other occasions they are slightly more developed: ‘Des
infirmières, des médecins qui guérissent les malades.’ ‘Cet
impitoyable regard des enfants qui ne jouent pas le jeu.’ ‘Dix ans
et demi: le moment pour une fille de se détacher un peu de sa
mère et de se fixer sur son père.’
(2) Whereas standard narrative would usually favour the simple
past tense, which may have the effect of making the events
recounted seem more remote, the informality of this passage arises
also from the use of the perfect tense as the main narrative past
tense, with an occasional alternation with the present tense of
either narrative or generalisation. For example: ‘Pour moi c’est un
signe: le signe que se poursuit la lutte contre la faim. Catherine a
vu un petit garçon de son âge, qui a faim. Je me souviens: comme
les grandes personnes me semblaient insensibles! Il y a tant de
choses que nous ne remarquons pas.’ This use of present and
perfect tenses gives the narrative both informality and immediacy.
Similarly: ‘Il ne prend pas ses larmes au sérieux, satisfait de ses
succès scolaires. Souvent les enfants se trouvent désorientés,
quand ils entrent en sixième; mais elle, le latin l’amuse; elle a de
bonnes notes dans toutes les branches.’ The use of the perfect
tense in any case produces an effect which is very close to a
present-tense narrative. This is shown, for example, in the switch
from the perfect to the future tense in the free indirect speech
which ends the following sentence: ‘Le visage de Catherine s’est
éclairé; elles ont rêvé sur son avenir: elle soignera les enfants;
leurs mamans aussi, mais surtout les enfants.’
(3) Although the passage is designed to be read as a third-person
narration, the general tone is one of relatively informal, spoken
French, drafted as though the narrator is speaking to herself. The
use of the free indirect technique allows ready transitions from
third-person narrative to informal, first-person reflections, as in ‘Au
début, le ton de Jean-Charles l’a gênée. Pas exactement ironique,
ni condescendant: paternaliste.’ Here, the third-person object
pronoun in ‘l’a gênée’ is followed by a verbless phrase which
represents Laurence’s own, first-person thoughts. A similar
transition is made in: ‘Laurence a de nouveau posé des questions
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et la petite a fini par parler de l’affiche. Parce que c’était le plus
important ou pour cacher autre chose?’ In this case, the thirdperson narration, concealing a first-person subject, is followed by a
free indirect comment, transposed into a past tense, equivalent to
a more formal narrative statement which might have begun
‘Laurence s’est demandé si...’ The effect is to suggest the
informality of someone thinking to herself.
12.
Exercices de langue
12.1 Prenez note de la phrase: ‘Peut-être l’affiche était-elle la véritable
explication’. Lorsque l’énoncé principal commence par le mot
‘peut-être’, il y aura inversion du verbe et du sujet. Composez en
français trois phrases qui commencent par ‘peut-être’. Modèles:
peut-être Jean n’en sait-il absolument rien; peut-être l’a-t-il déjà
fait hier matin; peut-être serai-je médecin.
12.2 Par contre, surtout dans la langue parlée, on trouvera le mot
‘peut-être’ suivi de ‘que’ et sans inversion. Par exemple: peut-être
que je serai avocat. Maintenant composez trois phrases en français
qui commencent par ‘peut-être que’.
12.3 Les noms de personnes. En français, le prénom ‘Laurence’ est un
nom de fille. Ce nom était assez répandu pendant les années 1960
et 1970, mais de nos jours il est beaucoup moins usité.
L’équivalent masculin est ‘Laurent’. Trouvez cinq autres prénoms
français qui ont une forme masculine et une forme féminine: par
exemple, Marcelle/Marcel.
Andrée/André, Jean/Jeanne, Patrice/Patricia, Joseph/Joséphine,
Alexandre/Alexandra, Nicolas/Nicole ...
12.4 Le prénom du père de Catherine, ‘Jean-Charles’, est un prénom
double. Les prénoms doubles sont très communs en français.
Trouvez cinq autres prénoms doubles qui sont très usités en
France.
A première vue, le choix de prénoms doubles, reliés par un trait
d’union, semblerait très vaste, notamment pour les noms
composés en combinaison avec ‘Anne’, ‘Marie’, ou ‘Jean’. Parmi les
noms composés féminins: Anne-Catherine, Charlotte-Emilie, MarieHélène, Anne-Marie, Marie-Anne (ce dernier donne aussi le nom
simple ‘Marianne’); et parmi les noms doubles masculins: CharlesEdouard, Jean-Baptiste, Jean-Paul, Jean-Pierre, François-Xavier. On
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remarquera aussi, par exemple, Jean-Marie ou Yves-Marie comme
noms composés masculins. Cependant, malgré leur fréquence – et
malgré la célébrité d’un Jean-Paul Sartre, par exemple – il semble
que les noms composés, fort à la mode au 19e siècle et toujours
très souvent usités au 20e, sont aujourd’hui moins favorisés.
12.5 En général, les prénoms ont une signification: par exemple,
‘Catherine’ signifie ‘pure’. Votre prénom à vous, a-t-il un
équivalent français? Ecrivez en français deux ou trois phrases sur
la signification de votre prénom et expliquez ce que vous en
pensez.
Exemples:
Emma – don, faveur, grâce, entière. Petite rédaction: En France,
aussi, il y a des jeunes filles qui, comme moi, s’appellent Emma. On
m’a dit que mon nom veut dire ‘entier’,‘don’, ‘grâce’ ou ‘faveur’
mais je ne sais pas au juste ce que cela veut dire. Je suis peut-être
gracieuse, quelquefois, mais suis-je un don? J’aime beaucoup mon
nom, cependant, parce que c’est un nom ordinaire et que quand
ma mère m’appelle par mon nom je... (anecdote sur un événement
réconfortant...).
David – bien aimé, le chéri. Petite rédaction: Je m’appelle David.
C’est un nom que l’on trouve aussi en français et qui signifie,
paraît-il, ‘bien aimé’, ‘le chéri’. Je me sens / je ne me sens pas bien
aimé parce que... (anecdote sur la vie familiale, disputes avec des
copains, des expériences au collège, projets qui réussissent ou qui
échouent...).
Pour cet exercice, ‘deux ou trois’ phrases suffiront peut-être, ou
encore davantage, si le sujet convient aux étudiants. Petite liste de
noms, de quelques équivalences et des significations qui leur sont
habituellement attribuées:
Alexandra, Sandra, Alexandre, Alexander, Alastair –
repousseur ou protecteur des hommes
Alice, Alison, Alissa – vérité, noble
André, Andrée, Andrew – homme
Anne – aimable, gracieuse
Antoine, Antoinette, Anthony – inestimable, digne de
louanges
Charlotte, Charles – fort(e), vigoureux (-euse)
Jill – jeune fille, petite amie (sweetheart)
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Gordon – intrépide, audacieux
Guillaume, William – casque, heaume, volonté
Jacques, James, Jack – Dieu surpasse
Jean, Jeanne, John – Dieu est miséricordieux
Laurence, Laurent, Laura, Lorna, Lawrence – couronné(e) de
lauriers
Louise, Louis – glorieux combattant
Margaret, Margot, Marguérite – perle
Marie, Moïra, Mary – goutte de mer
Niall – champion
Nicole, Nicola, Nicolas, Nicholas – victoire
Patricia, Patrice, Patrick – de descendance noble
Pierre, Peter – pierre, roc
Rory – rouge, roi roux
Sarah – princesse
Sophie, Sophia – sagesse
Thomas – jumeau
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ADOLPHE
TEXTE 20
Adolphe
Benjamin Constant
Many students may be expected to find this passage difficult. It should
be reserved for the more advanced stages of students’ studies. The
vocabulary and some features of the grammar (use of imperfect
subjunctive) will require especially careful preparation. The proposed
questions call for some subtlety of interpretation.
1.
Had Adolphe been a good student at university? What seems to
have been the attitude of Adolphe’s father towards his son, as
shown in the first three paragraphs, and what plans did he have
for Adolphe’s career?
Had Adolphe been a good student? Students may offer different
views on this: it will depend on what one means by ‘good’.
Adolphe states that, as a student, he had led a very undisciplined,
dissolute life. He had succeeded in his studies, and indeed he had
outdone his fellow students, but had done so only by dint of
working fairly stubbornly, that is persistently – ‘un travail assez
opiniâtre’. The implication is that he owed his success to quite
hard work, rather than to being gifted or otherwise meritorious.
The picture he paints of himself is, to say the least, decidedly
unflattering. As a result, he writes, his father’s high expectations of
him were probably not justified. Adolphe’s father had evidently
been well aware of his faults, but had been indulgent with his son,
always giving in to his demands, and sometimes anticipating them.
However, if his father’s treatment of him was noble and generous,
it was not tender. His father’s turn of mind was rather ironical.
Adolphe fully appreciated how grateful and respectful he should be
to his father, but felt that there was no sense of mutual confidence
between them. When Adolphe had finished his university studies,
his father’s plan was for him to travel around Europe, visiting ‘les
pays les plus remarquables’. He then wanted Adolphe to enter the
department in which he was the minister, with a view to Adolphe’s
replacing him one day. In summary, one might conclude that the
father was protecting and in some ways cosseting a perhaps
undeserving son.
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ADOLPHE
2.
What do you think of the portrait of Adolphe’s father, as depicted
in the paragraph beginning ‘Je trouvais dans mon père...’? What
are his father’s characteristics? Do you think that Adolphe
produces a one-sided picture of his father?
Before reaching a judgement, students should begin by
enumerating the father’s characteristics. Adolphe’s father is
described as not censorious, i.e. not critical of his son, but as an
observer who was cold and ironical, who would seem to smile at
him pityingly but then cut short their conversation impatiently. He
never had a conversation with his son which lasted more than an
hour. However, he did write Adolphe affectionate letters, offering
him reasonable advice. But when the two were actually together in
person, Adolphe felt somehow constrained with his father. He later
put this down to his father’s shyness (‘la timidité, cette souffrance
intérieure’), of which he had been unaware at the time. The two
sentences devoted to the effects of shyness (‘Je ne savais pas
alors... Je ne savais pas que, même avec son fils...’) mitigate the
implied criticism of his father at the beginning of this paragraph.
That impression of his father as a cold, hurtful and eventually
impatient man, who could communicate with his son more
effectively in letters than in the flesh, is therefore corrected. Not
only was his father not the stiff, distant, ironical person Adolphe
had imagined, he was in reality highly sensitive as well as
affectionate. He had hoped for expressions of love from his son,
but his own manner had inhibited Adolphe. This picture of
Adolphe’s father is therefore very far from one-sided. In this
passage, shyness, despite its unfortunate effects, is presented less
as a defect or weakness of character than as a source of personal
suffering. Students could be invited to reflect on the implications
of the cliché ‘painfully shy’: who suffers the ‘pain’?
Students’ opinions of this portrait may well be influenced by their
own experiences or expectations. They may note that the
responses of both father and son seem to be quite similar. Some
students may judge that, in such matters, appearances are
deceptive and that it may be wise not rush to judgement.
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ADOLPHE
3.
Judging from the paragraph* beginning ‘Ma contrainte avec lui eut
une grande influence sur mon caractère’, what are the main traits
of Adolphe’s character? Is he at ease with other people? He himself
states that he is ‘timide’: what other adjectives would you choose
to describe him?
*NB Correction: it was intended that the sentence beginning ‘Ma
contrainte avec lui...’ (p. 83, line 20) should not be run on from the
preceding sentence, as shown, but presented as the beginning of a
new paragraph. This question relates to the sentences from ‘Ma
contrainte avec lui’ to ‘comme une gêne et comme un obstacle’.
Adolphe’s character, he states, was strongly influenced by the
constraint between himself and his father, which has been shown
to be mutual, suggesting a similarity between father and son. Like
his father, Adolphe was a shy person, although he writes that,
being younger, he was more restless (‘agité’). He describes himself
as a very private, solitary person. He was not at ease with other
people. On the contrary, he presents himself as being rather
selfish, making plans only for himself and depending on no-one
else in carrying them out. He states that he felt uncomfortable
(‘une gêne’) not only in the presence of other people, but also
when they offered advice or help or showed an interest in him. He
saw them not as an encouragement but as an obstacle. As well as
being shy, Adolphe could therefore be described as inward-turned,
solitary (not quite the same as ‘lonely’), indifferent to others and
awkward in their company. He could, for example, be criticised as
being egotistical or self-sufficient, or perhaps excused for being
self-reliant. Either way, he seems unsociable and seemingly lacking
in human warmth. To balance this it could be argued that he
demonstrates considerable impartiality and shows a certain degree
of insight into himself.
4.
In the last paragraph, Adolphe writes about his difficulty in
communicating with others. How does he explain his preference for
being alone? Is he as self-centred as he at first makes himself
appear?
Adolphe explains his preference for being alone as the result of his
desire for independence and his impatience with the relationships
that he did have. This produced in him a real fear of forming any
new relationships, his natural reaction, he says, when he has a
decision to make, being to avoid the company of others. This
explanation elaborates his depiction of himself as someone who is
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ADOLPHE
only at ease when alone, who in company hides his real thoughts
and talks light-heartedly, making jokes to cover his awkwardness
and lack of confidence in other people.
However, this paragraph also suggests that he was not so selfcentred as this might make him appear. While it is true that he was
interested only in himself, he asserts that he was not in fact very
much interested in himself either (‘je m’intéressais faiblement à
moi-même’). In his heart, without realising it, he needed affection
(‘un besoin de sensibilité – see the explanation of the word
‘sensibles’ on p. 83); however, not finding affection, he would lose
interest in the things around him that did arouse his curiosity.
5.
What similarities and contrasts are revealed in the portraits of
Adolphe and his father? Do you consider that the apparent
‘conflict between generations’ shown here indicates a true conflict?
What are the effects of their shyness?
This question invites a summary of material used in earlier answers.
The dominant similarity lies in their shyness: Adolphe says of
himself that he was ‘aussi timide que lui’. From this flows the
constraint of their relationships. Adolphe shares his father’s
‘souffrance intérieur’, which afflicts old and young alike. Similarly,
each is consequently inhibited and defensive in his relationship
with the other, and each appears to regret the other’s lack of
responsiveness. There are obvious differences between them: the
greater experience of the father, who was indulgent towards
Adolphe and was bringing him up to replace him at the ministry,
the relative restlessness and extreme independence of the son.
Otherwise, they seem to be very much alike, and the reproach
which Adolphe expresses about his father – that he is awkward and
undemonstrative in his attitude – could apply to himself. Just as his
father is described as ‘caustique’, never conversing with his son for
very long, Adolphe states that he himself dislikes conversations,
which to him are merely ‘une nécessité importune’, and that he
adopted a joking manner as a form of self-protection. It could be
argued that Adolphe possibly depicts himself here as an even more
private and would-be self-contained person than his father.
Adolphe’s admitted lack of confidence in others, combined with
his resort to humour as a form of self-defence and selfconcealment, seems to be not unlike his father’s ironical manner
which, he writes, ‘convenait mal à mon caractère’. Such ‘conflict
between generations’ as appears in the extract could be said to
arise as much from their similarity of temperament, as from their
differences.
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ADOLPHE
6.
Language practice – abstract nouns, relative clauses
6.1
Some of the vocabulary of the passage is abstract: for example, the
noun ‘impatience’ is an abstract noun. Make a list of the abstract
nouns that are used in the fourth paragraph. Using a dictionary,
find verbs that correspond to each of these nouns: for example,
impatience > impatienter.
This question is included because the focus of much of the passage
is on abstract terminology, and a later question invites students to
include some abstraction in the sentences they compose. It may be
useful therefore to begin by defining an abstract as opposed to a
concrete noun: l’impatience as opposed to la bouche. It may also
be convenient to revise categories of nouns in general and perhaps
also to summarise the genders of certain abstract nouns in French
(such as the endings in -ance / -ence / -tion indicating feminine
nouns, -ment for masculine nouns, etc.). In the present passage,
among the abstract nouns in the section from ‘Je trouvais dans
mon père, non pas un censeur...’ to ‘... se plaignait à d’autres de ce
que je ne l’aimais pas’ (p. 83, the intended fourth paragraph), one
finds, besides impatience, such obviously abstract nouns as pitié,
présence, timidité, souffrance, impressions, ironie, douleur,
affection, etc.
Abstract nouns and some corresponding verbs. A few examples:
impatience – impatienter, to irritate; s’impatienter, to grow
impatient, lose patience
pitié – avoir pitié de (= compassion); plaindre (=contempt)
présence – présenter, to present, introduce; se présenter, to
introduce oneself, turn up
timidité – intimider
souffrance – souffrir, to suffer, put up with
impressions – impressionner, to impress, to shock
ironie – ironiser
douleur – endolorir
affection – affectionner, to be very fond of; affecter, to feign,
allocate, appoint, etc. Note also affection in the sense of a
medical complaint: les affections cardiaques, heart conditions.
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ADOLPHE
6.2
Examine the structure of the following sentence:
‘Je ne savais pas alors ce que c’était que la timidité, cette
souffrance intérieure qui nous poursuit jusque dans l’âge le plus
avancé, qui refoule sur notre cœur les impressions les plus
profondes, qui glace nos paroles, qui dénature dans notre bouche
tout ce que nous essayons de dire, et ne nous permet de nous
exprimer que par des mots vagues ou une ironie plus ou moins
amère, comme si nous voulions nous venger sur nos sentiments
mêmes de la douleur que nous éprouvons à ne pouvoir les faire
connaître.’
This is a long and complex sentence. The clauses beginning with
the word ‘qui’ are relative clauses. Does the sentence contain any
other subordinate clauses?
Conceptually and structurally, this sentence is demanding. Analysis
should help students’ comprehension, as well as providing models
of clauses for their own compositions (see questions 6.3 and 6.4).
Besides the sequence beginning with ‘qui’, here are several
subordinate clauses. The sentence may be analysed as follows:
‘Je ne savais pas alors ce que c’était que la timidité, cette
souffrance intérieure qui nous poursuit jusque dans l’âge le plus
avancé, qui refoule sur notre cœur les impressions les plus
profondes, qui glace nos paroles, qui dénature dans notre
bouche tout ce que nous essayons de dire, et ne nous permet de
nous exprimer que par des mots vagues ou une ironie plus ou
moins amère, comme si nous voulions nous venger sur nos
sentiments mêmes de la douleur que nous éprouvons à ne
pouvoir les faire connaître.’
Relative clauses: underlined. Revise use of qui and que.
Noun clauses: italicised.
There is one main clause – ‘Je ne savais pas alors ce que c’était que
la timidité...’, which includes the noun clause object ‘ce que c’était
que la timidité’ – followed by the noun in apposition, ‘cette
souffrance’. This noun is qualified by the four juxtaposed relative
clauses beginning with ‘qui’. These are adjectival clauses. Within
the last of these clauses appears the noun clause, ‘tout ce que nous
essayons de dire’, object of the verb ‘dénature’. The final relative
clause in this series contains two finite verbs, the second appearing
in the co-ordinated relative clause, ‘et ne nous permet...’. This
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ADOLPHE
clause, in turn, is continued by an adverbial clause of comparison,
‘comme si...’, qualifying ‘nous exprimer’. This is equivalent to a coordinated clause, and itself contains a final relative clause, ‘que
nous éprouvons...’, an adjectival clause qualifying ‘douleur’.
6.3
Compose three sentences in French dealing with a father’s attitude
towards his children. Each sentence should contain at least one
abstract noun and one clause beginning with the relative pronoun
‘qui’.
See below.
6.4. Compose three sentences in French dealing with a child’s attitude
towards his or her parents. Include in each sentence one or more
abstract nouns and at least one relative clause beginning with the
word ‘que’.
List possible abstract terms in French which may be useful for
exercises 6.3 and 6.4. The relative clauses and the abstract nouns
used in the passage in relation to qualities of character and
relationships should provide a starting point. Students should be
free to write about relationships with parents, guardians,
grandparents, the general subject being tensions and
interdependence between generations.
If this passage is studied after Texts 19 or 30, material from those
contexts could also be incorporated here.
Abstract nouns. Examples:
l’affection (f.)
l’ambition (f.)
l’amitié (f.)
la camaraderie
l’intimité (f.)
l’idée (f.)
le sentiment
l’indifférence (f.)
l’intérêt (m.)
la discipline
la force
la faiblesse
les espérances (f.)
les déceptions (f.)
le bonheur
le malheur
l’impression (f.)
les difficultés (f.)
une rêverie
l’incertitude (f.)
le mécontentement
une préférence
la confiance
les illusions (f.)
les succès (m.)
un échec
la vieillesse
la jeunesse
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ADOLPHE
la honte
l’orgueil (m.)
l’ingratitude (f.)
la reconnaissance
Composed sentences. The main purposes of these exercises are to
offer practice in incorporating abstract nouns into sentences and
to encourage revision of the correct use of the relatives ‘qui’ and
‘que’. Suggested approaches:
Mon père, qui... le bonheur de ses enfants, m’est...
Le père d’une de mes amies, qui... (relating to ‘amies’ or to ‘père’),
nous a dit que l’amitié / le succès scolaire...
Les pères de famille, qui ont quelquefois l’impression que leurs
enfants..., veulent que tous ces enfants...
Ma mère n’aime pas que je regarde trop souvent les actualités à la
télévision, mais c’est surtout mon père qui... (see also Text 19)
Les parents ont souvent des divergences d’opinions sur les mérites
/ l’éducation / la discipline des enfants: en particulier, les pères
de famille, qui... , trouvent que...
Un(e) enfant que le caractère / l’orgueil / la faiblesse de son père
déçoit, en est souvent soulagé(e), si / quand celui-ci...
J’aime bien mon père, que je... , mais il... mes rêveries et mes
illusions.
Les jeunes enfants / garçons / filles que vous... , sont d’habitude... ;
voilà la raison pour laquelle ils / elles...
Jacques avait honte de son père, qu’il croyait... (see also Text 30)
Les enfants que tu..., et les parents que nous..., imaginent souvent
que le mécontentement / la reconnaissance...
Alternatively, full sentences could be provided, with gaps for
abstract nouns and the relative pronouns to be inserted, e.g.
Complete the following sentence, choosing appropriate words
from the list:
qui
que
confiance
reconnaissance
caractère
Mon frère, — j’aime assez bien mais — ma sœur déteste
cordialement, pense que nos parents me préfèrent parce que,
malgré mon mauvais —, ils ont tous les deux — en moi.
Mon frère, que j’aime assez bien mais que ma sœur déteste
cordialement, pense que nos parents me préfèrent parce que,
malgré mon mauvais caractère, ils ont tous les deux confiance
en moi.
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UN HAUT POINT DU COLONIALISME FRANÇAIS
TEXTE 21
Un haut point du colonialisme français
Didier Daeninckx
1.1
How does the writer emphasise the remoteness of Canala, Gocéné’s
village?
The remoteness is emphasised by the reference to two days’
journey on foot along a cart track, followed by a further journey by
lorry, to reach the capital, Nouméa. The time taken for the journey
and perhaps also its implied arduousness, with a military escort,
emphasise the distance to be travelled.
1.2
Comment on the way the French assistant governor presents the
Kanaks’ trip to France to take part in the Colonial Exhibition.
What appears to be his attitude towards the Kanaks?
The assistant governor’s presentation is authoritarian and
patronising. The Kanaks are immediately suspicious when he
addresses them as ‘mes amis’ and are evidently aware of the
element of flattery in his words, when he refers to their fathers and
uncles who had fought for France in the Great War and helped to
save their ‘mère-patrie d’adoption’. At the time (1930–1), the Great
War was still fairly recent. In this context, the assistant governor
presents the journey to France as an honour for the Kanaks, a
special favour which will enable them to take a central part in the
Colonial Exhibition. He tells them that they are lucky to have been
chosen to travel to Europe, to show off their traditional songs and
dances, together with their ‘frères en voie de civilisation’. This is a
euphemism to express the ‘European’ view that these people are
uncivilised. They are regarded, patronisingly, as ‘les cœurs
farouches de la savane...’, now being sent, without being asked, to
be made into civilised beings by their French superiors.
Colonisation, he says, not only means bringing transport and
industry to the plains, forests and deserts. Its purpose is also
ostensibly to ‘gagner à la douceur humaine’ these untamed
savages. Daeninckx’s presentation of the assistant governor’s
words is ironical: even within the brief context of this extract, the
‘douceur humaine’ is shown to be that of an exploitative, war-like
Europe. (See also Text 23.)
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2.1
How long did the sea journey last? Was it a comfortable journey?
What incident was especially upsetting for the Kanaks?
The journey lasted about two and a half months, from 15 January
to the beginning of April 1931. It was a very uncomfortable
journey. The Kanaks were in the worst accommodation, described
as the ‘troisième pont’, where it was too hot by day, too cold at
night. Several of them caught malaria in the New Hebrides. When
three of them died – personalised by Gocéné’s reference to one of
their names – the ship’s crew threw their bodies overboard. This
inconsiderate disposal was especially shocking for the Kanaks,
whose tradition did not allow for burial at sea.
2.2
Discuss Gocéné’s reactions when they arrived in Marseilles and on
the journey to Paris. Were Gocéné’s experiences uniformly
disagreeable?
On their arrival in Marseilles and the subsequent journey, Gocéné’s
experiences were not uniformly disagreeable. Although, on arrival,
the Kanaks were immediately hustled into army lorries and taken
to the station, and Gocéné was very tired, his reactions were not all
adverse. At the station, they were all frightened because of the
noise, the smoke, the steam and the whistling of the engines, but
on the journey through the town Gocéné had found the novelty of
what he saw very striking. Before this, he had only known his
native bush-country; and now, as they were being driven through
Marseilles, one of the largest cities in France, he was wide-eyed
looking at the scene. His intense interest is shown in the listing
(see also question 7.1, below): ‘ Les lumières, les voitures, les
tramways, les boutiques, les fontaines, les affiches, les halls des
cinémas, des théâtres...’. They were very tired during the journey
by train, but there was also what he calls a ‘moment magique’ when
he saw snow falling in Morvan, and of course he was also looking
after Minoé. (Minoé’s role is important in Daeninckx’s novel as
whole, but she is presented only briefly in this extract.)
3.1
Describe and comment on the conditions in which the Kanaks were
forced to live at the Exhibition.
In Paris, the Kanaks were kept behind bars – in effect imprisoned –
in a reconstituted Kanak village in the middle of Vincennes zoo,
between the crocodiles and the pit of the lions’ den. This belongs
to a context in which they had not been allowed to rest or visit
128
Paris in order to protect them from the ‘bad elements’ of the great
cities, the ‘grands métropoles’ – an obvious lie. The sounds of the
wild animals terrified them, whereas at home, in New Caledonia,
the only creature that they had to be careful with was the fairly
harmless water snake. Here in Paris, they were treated as if they
were part of untamed nature.
This ignominious treatment contrasted with the dignified
intentions which had been suggested by the assistant governor in
Nouméa, and emphasises the deceit of the ‘civilised’ colonialists.
The Kanaks, presented as a gentle an respectful people, were
required to act according to a stereotype of the wild savage.
3.2
Which stereotypes did the French organisers rely on in presenting
the Kanaks to the public? How do you react to these stereotypes?
The Kanaks were turned into stereotypical exhibits and ordered to
carry out ignominious actions. Trainers treated them ‘comme si
nous étions des animaux sauvages’. They were made to re-enact
the supposed life of primitive ‘natives’, making fires in badly
conceived, leaky huts, carving canoes out of tree trunks whose
wood was as hard as stone, and the women were required to dance
at fixed times. They had to bathe and swim making noises like
animals. At first, the French even wanted the Kanak women to
make an exhibition of themselves by going bare-chested. The
exhibition notice in front of their enclosure labelled them as ‘[des]
hommes anthropophages’ – ‘cannibals’ (whence the title of
Daeninckx’s novel) – a stereotype of the untrustworthy,
dangerous, uncivilised native. The use of this learned word also
shows the pretentiousness of the organisers and again emphasises
the extent to which they were deceiving the Kanaks.
4.1
In the final paragraph of the extract, on what grounds does the
writer criticise the Exhibition?
He criticises the disproportion between the size of the exhibition
and the actual extent of the French Empire. Although the
Exhibition is on a large site (‘plus de cent hectares’), visitors get
no idea of the vastness and diversity of the French colonies: the
point is illustrated by the reference to going round the world and
from one continent to another, in the Exhibition’s electric train, in
the time it takes to smoke a cigarette. This last comment also
suggests the offhand way in which visitors to the Exhibition look at
the exhibits.
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4.2
Would you say that Gocéné was impressed by what he saw of
modern France?
Though he was impressed by what he saw of Marseilles, Gocéné was
not at all impressed by the exhibition – and yet this supposedly
represented the proud French society that imagined it was civilising
the Kanaks and the ‘natives’ from other parts of the world. In effect,
the French organisers were treating them as objects, presented for
their own enjoyment and to bolster their sense of superiority. To
the Kanaks, the Exhibition was self-defeating: far from showing the
superiority of the advanced European civilisation, it demonstrated
its complacency and cruelty. The Kanaks may have been naive and
inexperienced, but they were no fools.
5.
To what extent do you consider that the French attitudes
represented in this passage may be contrasted with official
attitudes found in Europe today towards non-European cultures?
This general question invites students to use their own insights to
comment on their own experience of attitudes towards nonEuropean cultures. Official attitudes in the period since the late
1950s have evolved away from the starkly ‘colonialist’ views evoked
in the extract. Students could be encouraged to investigate UK or
French legislation on such matters.
6.
Didier Daeninckx placed at the beginning of his novel the
following quotation from the poem ‘Liberté’, by Victor Hugo (given
in full on pages 153–4 of the anthology):
De quel droit mettez-vous des oiseaux dans des cages?
aux bocages – from
De quel droit ôtez-vous ces chanteurs aux bocages,
the hedge-rows
Aux sources, à l’aurore, à la nuée, aux vents?
De quel droit volez-vous la vie à ces vivants?
Victor Hugo, La Légende des siècles
What, in your view, is the relevance of this quotation to Gocéné’s
story? Does it also have any bearing, not only on colonialist
attitudes and experiences, but also on questions relating to
conservation and the environment?
The quotation is obviously relevant to the story of the caged
Kanaks and the circumstances in which they find themselves. The
Kanaks were taken from their natural home, treated like animals,
not consulted about their wishes, made to act artificially. The
130
sentiment in the poem also helps to load the argument in favour of
the Kanaks, whose enslavement here is contrasted with the
freedom of birds, singing and at liberty in nature. The quotation
makes an emotional appeal to the reader on behalf of the Kanaks.
The associated questions of conservation and the environment
arise from the idea of artificially forcing the Kanaks to behave
according to the uncivilised stereotype, instead of being allowed to
be themselves and act naturally.
7.
Language practice. Vocabulary exercises
7.1
On two occasions, the writer uses the device of making a list,
followed by suspension points. This device is often intended to
suggest an even more extended series. Listing can be a useful
rhetorical technique. In its context, for example, the sequence of
nouns, in ‘Les lumières, les voitures, les tramways, les boutiques,
les fontaines, les affiches, les halls des cinémas, des théâtres...’,
not only names these urban features; it suggests that Gocéné was
also fascinated by other features of the town. In addition, the use
of the list itself suggests that Gocéné, although very tired, was
wide-eyed with interest at that time. Most of the nouns are
introduced by the word ‘les’; one is introduced by ‘des’. What is the
difference in function between these articles?
The last noun, ‘des théâtres’, may look like a partitive article; it is,
however, the contracted form of ‘de’ + ‘les’ (‘les halls... des
théâtres’. In this list, ‘les’ is the specific, as opposed to the
generalising, definite article; ‘des’ is the possessive form. This
question may also lead to consideration of the functions of the
definite and partitive articles. In lists, the use of articles is usually
optional in French, but the text presents an opportunity to revise
the function of the definite article.
7.2
Another list in the passage is: ‘Il y avait aussi le Gabon,
Pondichéry, Karikal, Chandernagor, le Dahomey, les États du
Levant, la Cochinchine, l’Oubamgui-Chari, la Désirade, MarieGalante...’ What does this list suggest, in its context, in addition to
the named countries?
The strangeness of the names may imply a certain exoticism, but
above all the stylistic effect of the listing suggests the variety and
the vast, seemingly almost unlimited extent of the French Empire –
a whole colonial world, evoked emotionally. In context, this stands
in contrast with the relatively small size of the exhibition site,
131
however large it may seem. This is therefore not a mere list: the
listing implies also the pretentiousness of the French organisers,
wishing to show a wide range of overseas territories.
7.3
Draw up in French a list of your own choosing, containing at
least eight nouns. Then, as in the example given in question 7.2,
integrate the list into a grammatically correct sentence. Write also
one or two aditional sentences to create a context which will
explain what the list is about, adding if possible some emotive
implication, so that your list is not ‘a mere list’.
Here are some suggestions for possible subjects for the lists:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
good features of your own home town or village
what is wrong with your local area
sources of pollution
what your friends do in their spare time
your hobbies
what is wonderful (or terrible) about computers
possible careers
relatives who came to a family gathering
items of clothing
Simple lists can be drawn up by using sentences of the type: ‘Il y
avait des...’; ‘j’ai vu les / des...’. Additional sentences could then be
written to create a context for the list. However, contexts and
emotional attitudes may be supplied from the outset by
introducing the list with an expression of opinion. For example:
‘Ce que j’aime dans mon village, ce sont les...’; ‘Je déteste les
ordinateurs à cause de leurs...’ This exercise may also be useful for
revision of the use of the definite and partitive articles.
Recommend students to use articles, and to learn the genders of
the words which they include in their lists.
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7.4
Genders of nouns. Note that the ship in which the Kanaks sailed to
France was ‘le Ville de Verdun’. The noun ‘ville’ is, of course,
feminine. The usual French practice is that in such cases the name
takes the gender of the general type of ship or boat concerned. ‘Un
navire’ or ‘un paquebot’ will therefore have a masculine name,
e.g. ‘ le Normandie’, even though the name of the region itself is ‘la
Normandie’. Similarly, ‘une frégate’ would normally have a
feminine name. The same principle applies also with the names of
hotels, restaurants, makes of vehicles and other items such as
machines. Using this principle, translate the following sentences
into French:
– Did you dine at the Golden Crown (= un hôtel)
– The meal had been prepared on the Baby-Belling (i.e. a
make of cooker)
– We went to town in a Volvo
– They travelled to the U.S.A. on the Queen Elizabeth
– The driver said that his truck was an old Ford
Avez-vous dîné au Couronne d’or? (= un hôtel, but ‘la couronne’)
On avait préparé le repas sur une Baby-Belling (= une cuisinière)
Nous sommes allées en ville dans une Volvo (= une voiture)
Ils ont voyagé aux Etats-Unis sur le reine Elizabeth (= un
paquebot, but ‘la reine’)
Le chauffeur a dit que son camion était un vieux Ford (= un
camion)
133
UN ENTRETIEN AVEC LE PRINCIPAL D’UN COLLÈGE
TEXTE 22
Un entretien avec le principal d’un collège
Alphonse Daudet
1.1
What were Daniel’s very first impressions of the school? Would you
say he was at ease here?
The building was old and smoky black; in every respect, the school
seemed huge to Daniel, with its big porches, wide staircases and
seemingly endless corridors. The implication is that Daniel felt
particularly small there, and might well be feeling ill at ease,
intimidated by the building. He was, in any case, a little person: he
was ‘le petit chose’ of the title of the story, roughly equivalent to
‘Shorty’. Note the gender: the feminine noun, ‘la chose’, applied as
a nickname, is given the gender of the boy.
1.2
What kind of school had it been before the French Revolution?
What was now a school had been a large naval training college,
with up to eight-hundred students, all from the upper aristocracy.
The implication is that it had been a forbidding place of privilege.
2.1
At first, Daniel appeared nervous when he was in the head
teacher’s office. How well does the writer convey this nervousness?
A sense of nervousness may be thought to arise from the size of
the room and the remoteness of the head teacher sitting at a long
table. It is conveyed mainly, however, by the reference to Daniel’s
standing in the middle of this vast room, fidding with his hat while
he waited. This may be judged quite effective, especially in the
context of his initial uneasiness.
2.2
Do you think that the head teacher gave Daniel an appropriate
welcome? Describe the head’s face when he finally looked at
Daniel. Did he appear friendly?
When Daniel was brought in, the head teacher paid no attention to
him. Instead, he continued writing – this could be considered rude
and inconsiderate, as well as authoritarian. His face was small, dry
and peaky, his eyes colourless and cold. The impression conveyed
134
is far from friendly, as the head teacher turned the light onto
Daniel and scrutinised him through his pince-nez. Today, this is
unlikely to be thought an appropriate welcome for a new teacher,
though the date of the story (1868) may suggest that these are the
manners of an earlier period.
3.1
When the head teacher finally spoke, why was Daniel afraid he
would not be given the job?
The head teacher, thinking that Daniel, being both young and
short, looks like a child, responded indignantly: he needed a
teacher, what use to him was a mere child? Daniel’s understandable
reaction was to fear that he would not be given the job. He was
afraid he might be thrown out into the street and left without
resources. He refers to himself here in the third person, as if
looking at himself from outside and also emphasising the fact that
he was indeed a small man (‘le petit Chose eut une peur
terrible...’). The narrator distances himself as narrator, in what is a
rather amused way, from his younger self.
3.2
Although the head offered him the post, he was still uncertain
about Daniel. Why was this?
The head teacher’s uncertainty is shown firstly by his repeated rereading of Daniel’s letter of introduction, and then by his
somewhat condescending agreement (‘il consentait à me prendre
chez lui’). His decision is presented as, in effect, a personal favour,
because of the recommendation and the good standing of his
family. His direct misgiving, however, is because Daniel looked too
young for the post, which involved grave responsibilities.
3.3
Comment on the way the writer expresses Daniel’s reaction to
being given the post.
Daniel was overjoyed. His emotion is shown by the writer’s use of
suspension points and repetitions: ‘on ne me renvoyât pas... On ne
me renvoyait pas; j’étais heureux, follement heureux’. Daudet also
renders Daniel’s relief and profuse gratitude by means of his rather
extravagant wish that the head teacher had a thousand hands, so
that he could kiss them all. This exaggerated response suggests the
naivety of Daniel’s reaction, which in retrospect he seems to find
amusing.
135
4.1
What was Daniel’s mixed response to the appearance of M. Viot,
the ‘surveillant général’?
Daniel is intimidated by the terrible noise of the jangling keys,
which contrasts with the soft smile and the ecce homo image. The
image is a reference to pictures of Christ, brought before his
accusers: the picture is one of patient suffering, with the head
leaning to one side, wearing the crown of thorns. This suggests the
gentle or contained patience of a long-suffering character. In M.
Viot, however, there is also a note of menace and domination. The
mixed response arises from a combination of menace and
sweetness. There is menace in the fact that M. Viot had appeared as
it were stealthily, without a sound, although his smile seemed
extremely soft. While the kindly-seeming smile ‘m’aurait prévenu
en sa faveur’, the noise made by the keys – the ‘bruit terrible’
which had announced his presence – had been alarming. A
surveillant général is in charge of discipline and, here, security in
the school. Further, as a tall man (humorously stated as ‘un long
personnage’), he dominated ‘le petit Chose’, Daniel.
4.2
Why do the keys themselves appear menacing to Daniel? Discuss
the author’s use of personification of the keys and Daniel’s
reaction to them.
Daniel was disturbed by the noise of the keys, which irrupted
suddenly in the room. The keys themselves are presented as if they
were a menacing character, with their ‘air ironique et méchant’.
There is a particularly strong personification in the writer’s use of
threatening direct speech, dismissing Daniel as very inferior
compared with his predecessor, M. Serrières. Daniel felt that the
keys themselves were passing judgement on him, as if bemoaning
his presence with a sob. Students may feel that Daniel’s reaction is
highly imaginative or even too sensitive; it is, however, prepared
for by the preceding context, and the device is picked up again a
little lower down, when the keys represent a direct and insolent
threat: ‘Si tu bouges, petit drôle, gare à toi’.
5.1
How is Daniel made to feel inferior in comparison with M.
Serrières?
The head teacher’s remarks to the surveillant général, in which he
referred to Daniel in the third person, even though Daniel was
there in the room with them, were very humiliating for Daniel. He
is made to feel quite unsuitable for this post, compared with his
136
predecessor. The head described the departure of M. Serrières as
‘une perte presque irréparable’. What the head says of M. Viot
supervising Daniel has a similar effect: ‘si M. Viot veut bien prendre
le nouveau maître sous sa tutelle spéciale, et lui inculquer ses
précieuses idées sur l’enseignement, l’ordre et la discipline de la
maison n’auront pas trop à souffrir du départ de M. Serrières’: the
use of ‘trop’ is both condescending and damning. Because of
Daniel, the school will suffer in any case, even though M. Viot will
do the school a favour by providing Daniel with ‘special’
supervision.
5.2
How is an association established between M. Serrières and the
school rules?
M. Viot’s reference to ‘l’ordre et la discipline de la maison’, picked
up also in the book of rules he handed to Daniel, represents what
M. Serrières had provided but which Daniel is expected to lack.
Given M. Viot’s evident admiration for M. Serrières, the latter’s
supposed virtues serve to emphasise Daniel’s supposed
unsuitability, especially in relation to the maintenance of order and
discipline in the school.
6.
Are there any similarities between the school in the story and your
own school? What are the main differences?
This question is intended to invite discussion of students’
experiences of attitudes towards personal relations and questions
of discipline in school. Students may perhaps have little knowledge
of relations between, for example, school managers and teaching
staff, but they may well have views on discipline and orderliness as
part of a process of teaching and learning. See also Text 36.
7.
Language practice
7.1
Exclamatory terms and imitative (or onomatopoeic) sounds in
French.
The exclamation ‘allons donc! allons donc!’ reinforces what has
been said: here it expresses doubt or disagreement. The sound
repeated in this extract – ‘flinc!’ – is meant to approximate to the
clanking or jangling sound of metal on metal, such as chains.
Some onomatopoeic terms are the same in French and English, e.g.
‘ding dong’ is used in both languages, but many are different. Find
English equivalents for the following selection of conventional
137
French exclamatory terms and imitative sounds:
ça alors!
ouf!
hi! hi! hi!
ha, ha!
ouin! ouin!
dring!
paf!
toc!
floc!
plouf!
cocorico!
ouah! ouah!
The normal English equivalents are:
ça alors! = coo! cor! gosh! what do you know! (expressing
surprise, admiration)
ouf! = phew! whew! – pousser un ouf de soulagement
hi! hi! hi! = ha! ha! tee! hee! (laughter)
ha, ha! = ah, ha! (surprise, irony)
ouin! ouin! = boohoo! (as of a cry-baby)
dring! = ding! ding-a-ling! (a bell) – le téléphone a fait dring!
paf! = bam! wham! slap! (a blow of some kind)
toc! = knock! rat-a-tat! (knock)
floc! (also ‘ploc!’) = plop! splash!
plouf! (also ‘floc!’) = plonk!
cocorico! = cock-a-doodle-doo!
ouah! ouah! = woof woof!
To which could be added, for example:
ah! = oh!
ah bon? (also ‘ah oui?’) = really? (As used also in Text 23,
paragraph 1.)
ah non alors! (also ‘ah ça non!’) = certainly not!
coin! coin! = quack!
couic! = squeak!
cui-cui = tweet-tweet! (un gazouillis, gazouillir, pépier)
eh! (also ‘hé!’) = hey! (to attract attention)
eh oui! = I’m afraid so
eh non! = I’m afraid not
eh bien, hé bien = well
hou la! = wow!
meuh! = moo! (une meuh-meuh = a moo-cow, baby talk)
Usages may vary, as between ‘eh’ and ‘hé’.
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7.2
Compose five sentences in French, incorporating into them a
selection of the above terms so that the context illustrates their
correct usage.
7.3
Ecrivez en français un court récit (120 mots environ) au cours
duquel vous imaginez la situation d’une jeune femme ou d’un
jeune homme qui vient d’être nommé(e) à un poste d’enseignant
dans un lycée. Est-ce que cette personne sera joyeuse, inquiète,
fière? Et pour quelles raisons? Que pensera-t-elle de ce nouveau
poste? Quelles seront les démarches pratiques dont elle doit
s’occuper?
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QUEL ÂGE AVEZ-VOUS?
TEXTE 23
Quel âge avez-vous?
Driss Chraïbi
1.1
What is Chraïbi’s attitude towards the process of looking back over
his life, as revealed in the first paragraph?
He is at peace in doing so, unworried about details of time or
places. With a relaxed, easy-going attitude, he is looking back ‘à pas
paisibles, sans notion de temps ou d’espace’.
1.2
How does the George Bernard Shaw anecdote introduce the tone
and some of the message of the extract?
The light-hearted anecdote creates a tone of good humour and
gentle satire which continues throughout the extract. The George
Bernard Shaw story, which gains from its brevity, is about a middleaged woman pretending to be only thirty. The use, here, of pithy
direct speech also introduces the direct-speech dramatisations
which follow. The message is that people can be untruthful about
their age and that, for example, vanity or some other motive may
make them claim to be younger than they are.
1.3
Does the writer really think that what is written cannot be
challenged? When you have studied the passage as a whole, try to
complete the phrase which ends with ellipsis marks at the end of
the first paragraph.
The remark that ‘on ne récuse pas l’écrit, surtout s’il est l’officiel’ is
offered tongue-in-cheek. The writer is about to show that what is
written down can indeed be challenged, especially in official
documents. His own birth date, as the reader will see, is written
down officially, but is not trustworthy. The comment about official
documents is ironical. As for what is spoken this, by implication, is
even more untrustworthy: ‘quant à l’oral, on ne devrait
certainement pas s’y fier’. In other words: ‘si ce que l’on écrit peut
être douteux, ce que l’on dit est d’autant plus récusable’ ( = open
to challenge).
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2.1
Why does the author use the pejorative term ‘indigènes’ in the
second paragraph, referring to himself and fellow Moroccans?
The author is adopting the attitude of the French administrators in
Morocco, who considered the ‘natives’ of the country to be
uncivilised. The humour is partly self-deprecating, but the satire is
also aimed at the French colonial administration.
2.2
Comment on the humour of the sentence: ‘Mais il nous fallait nous
« civiliser », selon le manuel français d’Histoire, celui-là même qui
vantait mes ancêtres gaulois’.
This sentence develops the points raised by the preceding
question. Children in French colonial schools, in Africa and
elsewhere, were made to study the history of France. The irony is
that history lessons in the colonial education system treated the
Arab children as if they were French children studying in France.
Driss was therefore taught about the ‘ancestors’, the Gauls, he
never had. The expression ‘nos ancêtres les Gaulois’ is one of the
clichés of life in France. The official view of this centralising French
system was that it provided the natives of the French colony,
regarded as uncultivated, with a civilising educational programme.
(On these points, cross reference may be made to Text 21.)
2.3
Why did Driss need to have an official date of birth?
As a Moroccan, he had no civil status and therefore no birth
certificate. However, to be a student at the French lycée in
Casablanca, the lycée Lyautey, he needed to possess an identity
card. To obtain this, he needed a date of birth.
3.
List the various comic points that undermine the official version of
Driss’s age as determined by the police officer.
In the story recounted by the writer, the following comic points
are made. (1) The reference to ‘deux témoins dignes de foi qui lui
devaient de l’argent’ suggests that this was a put-up job, designed
to impress the policeman. The witnesses could be relied on
because they owed his father money: being in debt to his father,
they can therefore be counted on to say the right things. The joke
is continued in the conversation lower down, when the two comic
witnesses chorus their answers (by implication, untrue) together,
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simply echoing the words of Driss’s father. (2) The phrases ‘je
m’appelais Driss avec deux « s » s’il vous plaît, Idriss en arabe mais
on prononce Driss’ are reported speech by his father, a supposedly
inferior ‘native’, offering a language lesson to the colonial official.
(3) The continuation of the indirect speech – ‘ que j’étais bien son
fils et qu’il était content de moi, oui, monsieur, sage, obéissant,
studieux’ – shows his father putting on a good show for him,
suggesting that Driss is worthy of admission to the lycée, by means
of details which are quite irrelevant to the issue of an identity card.
It is suggested humorously that Driss deserved an identity card
because he was a good boy. (4) The statement ‘c’était l’époque des
moissons quand, avec l’aide de Dieu, il est venu au monde’ uses
seasons, not dates, to indicate when he was born. The rather
poetic words, including the reference to divine providence,
contrast with the pedestrian, ‘practical’ questions asked by the
policeman, relating to the crops. (5) The image of the inferior man
outwitting the more powerful but uncomfortable ‘superior’ is
continued in the following exchange which picks a date at random:
‘– Au milieu de juillet? proposa le commissaire. (Il s’épongeait la
face, la nuque.) Le 15? – Pourquoi pas le 15? dit mon père’.
The outcome describes the official procedure in a comic way:
‘Après de rapides calculs opérés sur un buvard avec une plume
Sergent-major, on me nantit d’une date de naissance officielle,
certifiée et tamponnée par un officier de police : 15 juillet 1926’.
The invented date, calculated on a piece of blotting paper, by
means of an identified make of pen, is certified and stamped
officially – a comic way of satirising the laborious official procedure.
It is a classic humorous situation, with a gullible bureaucrat and
‘natives’ who take advantage of him. Students could be invited to
think of other such situations they are familiar with.
4.
What is the point of the comparison which the writer establishes
between himself and his ‘younger’ brother, Abdel Hak?
Here, Chraïbi continues his ironical treatment of the French
colonial bureaucracy, showing the ‘natives’ manipulating the
officials. On the basis of his invented date of birth, Chraïbi writes
that he would be seventy-one at the time of writing. He says he can
prove that this official birth date is true (though he knows that it is
invented and therefore probably false), by comparing himself with
his brother, Abdel Hak. Abdel is actually four years younger than
Driss, but officially he is shown as being four years older. His
brother had had no formal education, but in order to obtain a
driving licence he needed a birth certificate showing an official age.
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As Abdel was taller than Driss, whose height, as a boy, had been
estimated at 1m.60, it was supposed that Abdel was older than
Driss. Appearances were trusted: ‘l’habit fait le moine’, writes
Chraïbi, contradicting the proverb. In this ludicrous situation,
common sense is put into reverse. Abdel is shown as four years
older instead of four years younger. Perhaps he had obtained his
documents from the same police station, jokes Chraïbi. This
reversal is then compared to a watch which works anticlockwise:
instead of being seen to be younger, Abdel was judged to be older.
Your height shows your age, just as your official papers show that
you have been civilised. Chraïbi’s conclusion, following this farcical
‘logic’, is that just as your height indicates your age, having official
documents shows that you are civilised. Both statements
demonstrate the foolishness of the colonial bureaucrat.
5.1
How does Driss’s mother’s version of his age contrast with the
official version?
Having made fun of the official – bureaucratic – version of his age,
Chraïbi contrasts this invention with his mother’s memories about
his birth. What was the truth about his age? His mother, who is
presented here with great affection, should know. Her version is
based on her own anecdotal memories: she was baking bread when
she had the first labour pains, so this tells her that it must have
been between 8 and 10 a.m.; there was blossom on the lemon tree,
so it was definitely springtime, March, April or May; cousin Meryem
was away on a pilgrimage, which gives a rough indication of the
year – ‘1930, 1931 ou 1929’ – but only approximately, depending
how the Muhammadan and Christian calendars match up. Neither
calendar is clear, and the calculation is compared to ‘une équation
algébrique à deux inconnues’. In any case, his mother thinks that
the actual date does not matter, her good-humoured indifference
contrasting with the ‘official’, bureaucratic view.
5.2
Compare this approach to calculating a person’s age with the
method described in the passage from Calixthe Beyala in Text 2.
There ia a clear parallel between the two situations: each draws a
contrast between official documentation and references to natural
cycles. Loukoum’s official name (‘Mamadou Traoré’) and birth
certificate (‘la gynécologie’), and his official age in years (shown
wrongly as seven) contrast with his family name and his age as
estimated according to the seasons (ten). Similarly, Driss’s official
age is an invention, and is contrasted with the ‘human’
143
recollections of his mother. These too are expressed at least partly
in terms of the season, the lemon tree in blossom. In both cases,
the intimate and domestic are contrasted with the formal,
depersonalised procedures of the state.
6.1
The general tone of the passage is comic, with elements of irony.
What, however, do you think are the serious points that the author
is making?
The ‘serious’ points arise from the contrast between cultures; the
high-handedness and gullibility of the colonial authorities,
contrasted with the naturalness and sense of humour of the
‘natives’. There is a further, gentler irony in the juxtaposition of
the untrustworthiness of the coloniser’s official documentation
alongside a certain deviousness in the colonised. The generally
serious official approach is contrasted with the good-humoured
manipulations of the Moroccans, and there is some reversal of
roles, with the underdogs outmanœuvring the authorities. While
the basis of the passage is a criticism of an authoritarian colonial
system, the author’s tone is set by the opening words. Rather than
being resentful, his statement, ‘Je remercie la vie’, shows that he is
grateful for the experiences he is about to relate.
6.2
How would you summarise the differences between ‘oral’ and
‘written’ cultures, as described in the extract? Which version are
you more sympathetic towards?
The written carries credence because it is ‘official’, but it is
impersonal and not trustworthy; the oral is not trustworthy either,
but it is more engaging and more ‘human’. Students who are
sensitive to the humour of the piece are likely to prefer the oral.
6.3
How does the final reference to the missing birth certificate in ElJadida sum up a general argument in the passage? What does it
tell us about the idea of an ‘official’ version of facts?
A general argument is that, though it may be indispensible for
formal purposes, official documentation (dismissed as ‘les
paperasses’) cannot be trusted. The information given in such
documents is unreliable, and the importance attached to them is
presented as being misplaced. The writer’s humorous treatment of
this theme is emphasised in the closing lines of the extract, where
the official himself is shown to have some sense of humour: since
no certificate can be found, it follows that the writer does not exist.
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The official view is that the document is more important than the
human individual. The trenchantly negative tone of the official, his
absurd logic and the writer’s own humorous approach are
emphasised here by an accumulation of negatives: ‘Rien, cher ami.
Rien de rien. Aucune trace. Vous n’existez pas.’
7.
Language practice
7.1
The proverbial expression ‘l’habit ne fait pas le moine’ is roughly
equivalent in meaning to the English proverbs ‘all that glisters is
not gold’ and ‘don’t judge a man by his appearance’.
Find three other French proverbs or sayings and their English
equivalents.
A few suggestions for French proverbs or sayings, with English
versions or equivalents:
(a)
The same proverb or saying:
La fin justifie les moyens
The end justifies the means
On ne fait pas d’omelette sans casser des œufs
You cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs
L’exception confirme la règle
The exception proves the rule
Tel père, tel fils
Like father, like son
(b)
An equivalent proverb:
Vouloir c’est pouvoir
Where there’s a will, there’s a way
Il n’y a pas de cause sans effet
There is no smoke without fire
Chat échaudé craint l’eau froide
Once bitten twice shy
Un tiens vaut mieux que deux tu l’auras
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
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7.2
The writer also uses various other idiomatic expressions. Explain
the meaning of the following phrases:
tout le reste est littérature
mon regretté confrère
toutes proportions gardées
j’ai vu le jour
la taille fait l’âge – et les paperasses (font) la civilisation
The implications, in context, of these expressions could be glossed
as follows:
tout le reste est littérature: this is not an attack on ‘literature’. It is
the humorous use of a quotation from Verlaine’s poem ‘Art
poétique’, meaning here that anything which is not ‘life’ (probably
referring, in context, to anything not concerned with his own life
and human relationships) is merely fiction.
mon regretté confrère: a set expression, showing respect for a
deceased colleague. Chraïbi is humorously comparing himself to
George Bernard Shaw. In this context, this is not immodesty:
rather, he is making fun of himself.
toutes proportions gardées: a set expression meaning ‘making due
allowances’. It is the equivalent of ‘relatively speaking’.
j’ai vu le jour: a standard expression meaning ‘je suis né’.
la taille fait l’âge – et les paperasses (font) la civilisation: these
are obviously untrue generalisations, expressed as aphorisms using
humorous juxtapositions. Note the ellipsis of the word ‘font’,
without which, strictly speaking, the phrase is grammatically
incomplete. It states satirically that the taller you are, the older you
are, and that the more paperwork (here, identity documents) you
have, the more civilised you are.
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7.3
On the model of the ‘version de ma mère’, above, write a humorous
short story in French (approximately 150 words) about the time
and date of your own birth. For example, to indicate the time of
day or the day of the week, you could refer to routines at home;
describe the season in order to suggest the month; to identify the
year, another family event or a national or international event of
some kind could be used as a point of reference. The following
expressions may be helpful:
j’ai vu le jour...
on m’a dit que ce jour-là...
à la maison, on...
c’était l’époque où...
selon mon oncle...
cette année-là...
c’est ainsi que j’ai dû être né(e)...
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UNE VISITE AU THÉÂTRE
TEXTE 24
Une visite au théâtre
Gustave Flaubert
For more advanced students, the passage could help to illustrate the
close interdependence of literary forme and fond, some aspects of the
questions requiring experience of the stylistic and rhetorical devices of
French. The text is written in past narrative and descriptive tenses, but
to ease students’ interpretation, the questions are framed in the present
tense. Transposition into a past tense could encourage more objective
analysis.
Questions
1.
How well do you think Emma’s feelings are expressed in the first
paragraph? What do you think is her dominant emotion?
That she was excited is shown by the reference to the beating of
her heart as she entered the vestibule of the theatre. She was also
feeling superior to the crowd rushing along a different corridor:
she was filled with pride as she went upstairs to the boxes in the
dress circle, enjoying the luxury of pushing open the padded
doors and breathing in the dusty air. Her dominant emotion seems
to be that of taking pleasure in feelings of vanity, of exclusiveness,
superiority. Her feelings are rendered expressively by the tactile
and olfactory references: ‘pousser de son doigt... l’odeur
poussiéreuse’. In addition, the two comparisons – ‘comme un
enfant’ and ‘avec une désinvolture de duchesse’ – suggest two
sides of her personality, a naive, childlike pleasure in the sense of
touch and a perhaps more mature social aspiration, combining to
suggest an immature snobbery. The measured rhythm of the
sentences and especially of the relatively long third sentence of the
paragraph expresses the dignity of Emma’s progress and posture,
culminating in the reference to the offhand social superiority of a
duchess. Emma was acting a role, as she prepared to watch the
role-playing of the opera.
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2.
The second paragraph evokes the scene in the auditorium from
Emma’s point of view. What are the main things that strike her
about the scene?
The scene is described from Emma’s point of view. She seems to be
struck mainly by the social standing of the people there and all the
activity in the auditorium. The audience is presented as being
made up of business people; they are at ease in this place, and
some of them are obviously regular opera-goers who know one
another and carry on talking about their business affairs. It is
evident that Emma does not belong to this social group. Emma’s
attention is drawn particularly to the young dandies – the
fashionably and ostentatiously dressed fops – in the audience,
showing themselves off, wearing bright ties and posing elegantly
with their yellow gloves and gold-topped canes.
3.1
How effectively does the author describe the orchestra tuning up
and the scene on stage when the curtain rises?
This is mainly a stylistic question: it could be omitted for less
experienced students, or used as a basis for comprehension. The
‘effectiveness’ of the description derives in part from the author’s
use of lists (which also help to evoke the animation of the scene),
and in part from the sentence rhythms. The discordant din made
by the orchestra is suggested by the variety of instruments and the
sequence of participles and the final verb, strongly emphasised:
‘ronflant’, ‘grinçant’, ‘trompettant’, ‘... qui piaulaient’. The scene
on stage is presented in quite a matter-of-fact way. The fourth
paragraph could almost be transposed into stage instructions. For
comprehension, students could perhaps try this, using the present
tense: ‘Décor: le carrefour d’un bois, avec... Des paysans ...
chantent...’ (etc). The sentence rhythm, with on the whole a
succession of fairly short phrases, gives a generally flat,
monotonous impression. This conveys the artifice of the scene.
These are just actors. A suggestion of emotion is nevertheless
provided by the slightly longer period of the sentence ‘[...] il
survint un capitaine qui invoquait l’ange du mal en levant au ciel
ses deux bras’. However, even this reads like a touch of
exaggerated stage-business in an otherwise dull scene.
Emma, on the other hand, is transfixed by the spectacle – link to
question 3.2. To provide extra guidance to students, questions 3.2
to 6 combine explanation with series of questions.
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3.2
In paragraph 5, Emma is completely absorbed in the scene she is
watching. What memories does it conjure up for her? Why is she
able to follow the story of the opera easily? How does the author
suggest that she identifies with what is happening on the stage, and
especially with the character of Lucia?
The scene makes her think of Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of
Lammermoor (1819), on which Donizetti’s opera (1835) was based.
She had read the novel when she was a girl. The opera, with actors
wearing tartan, reminded her of the images of fog and heather and
the sound of Scottish bagpipes which she associated with the
novel. She is able to follow the story easily because she can
remember it from the novel. She is carried along by the rhythm of
the music and imagines that she feels the notes of the violins so
keenly that it is as if her own nerves were the strings of the
instrument. This makes her feel that she is herself physically part of
the scene; she is completely fascinated by the stage set, the
costumes, the characters and all the romantic details which take
her out of herself and transport her to another world, an ‘olde
worlde’ place of lords and ladies, swords and velvet clothes, and
with a squire in waiting. Identifying herself with both the visual
details and the sound of the music, Emma is then highly receptive
to the role of Lucia – a romanticised young lady, superior and
wealthy enough to be able to toss a purse of money to a squire.
She stands alone on the stage to sing her solo, introduced by the
notes of a flute which suggest the tinkling of water or twittering
birdsong; this suggests an analogy between the heroine and the
bird, which prepares for the references to wings and flying –
commonplace images of romantic escapism. The author shows how
much Emma identifies with the heroine of this tragic romantic tale
by drawing a close parallel between Lucia’s love lament and
Emma’s own feelings – her desire to escape from her present life,
to fly away in the embrace of a lover.
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4.1
When the actor Edgar Lagardy makes his entrance on stage, Emma
is at first struck by his physical appearance. In this mini-portrait,
which features of the description seem to appeal to Emma? Why is
he described as having a certain ‘célébrité sentimentale’? Do you
detect any irony in this description? Is Lagardy really the
admirable person that Emma imagines him to be? What is the
impact of the final summary of Lagardy, ‘cette admirable nature
de charlatan, où il y avait du coiffeur et du toréador’?
The suddenness of Lagardy’s appearance on stage is marked
stylistically by the short sentence which closes paragraph 5. To
Emma, he seems splendid and majestic. She is struck by his
paleness, his strong body in period costume, including a dagger,
languorous eyes and white teeth, suggestive of artificial postures
on stage. He appears a combination of extremes, of opposites: the
hot-blooded Mediterranean south and an air of cold, sculptural
marble. Hearsay has it that, with a modest background as a boat
cleaner, he had been loved by a Polish princess who fell in love
with him and ruined herself. He had later abandoned her for
other women. He thus brings with him the reputation of a
passionate lover who treats women with some disdain. These
circumstances, too, seem to appeal to Emma, but the description is
clearly ironical. She admires what appears to be the romantic lover
in Lagardy, but he comes across to the reader as an egotistical and
manipulative exhibitionist. The author calls him a ‘cabotin’, a ham
actor who makes sure that the advertisements for him mention
how fascinating he is, what a sensitive soul he is. Whereas the first
two sentences of the paragraph are evidently written from Emma’s
point of view, the last sentence reveals the author’s opinion. In
this judgement, Flaubert summarises Lagardy as a good singer (the
‘bel organe’), with the confidence an actor needs (‘imperturbable
aplomb’), with plenty character but not so much intelligence, and
with more emphasis than lyricism in his singing. Syntactically, the
sentence leads up to the object of the verb ‘rehausser’: ‘cette
admirable nature de charlatan’, thus placing the emphasis on this
somewhat paradoxical statement that, as a charlatan, Lagardy is
admirably successful and on the bathos of the final, dismissive
similes: ‘où il y avait du...’ means ‘with a touch of’; ‘coiffeur’ echoes
the themes of keeping up appearances and also of Lagardy’s
modest background; the ‘toréador’ reference produces a strong
ending, picking up the ideas of both the vigorous showman and
the hot-blooded, romantic south, which so appeals to Emma.
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4.2
In paragraph 7, Emma feels that what is happening on stage is
somehow a reflection of her own experiences. By what signs does
the author show her sense of involvement with the acting? How
well do you think he creates a climax at the end of the paragraph,
when the scene comes to a close? What accounts for Emma’s feeling
of dissatisfaction?
Seated in her theatre box, Emma leans forward towards the stage
and the tension of her concentration is indicated by her scratching
at the velvet in the box with her fingernails. The sounds of the
singing voices filled her heart, as if they were calls for help from
drowning people. The simile ‘comme des cris de naufragés dans le
tumulte d’une tempête’ is itself a sign of Emma’s desperation, her
need for a passionate romantic love: she feels that the anxieties
and intoxication displayed on stage are her own, reminding her of
a time when she had almost died. She feels that she is living what
she is watching; the woman’s voice, in particular, seems to speak
for her. A certain dissatisfaction is expressed; this arises from the
contrast between the tearful passion of the love scene on stage and
Emma’s own feeling that no-one had loved her as Edgar loves
Lucia. The lover who had deserted her is now a fairly vague figure
in her mind; he is almost anonymous here, just the ‘il’ of a
romantic parting in the moonlight; but he had not had Edgar’s
tearful longing. The scene on stage, involving Emma very
immediately, suits Emma better than her own memory. The
general excitement of the audience’s applause, conveyed by the
words ‘la salle craquait’, leads to the repetition of the stretto,
whose movement is evoked through the rhetorical listing. The
sentence structure, leading harmoniously to balanced, generally
longer phrases, expresses Emma’s sense of involvement with the
spectacle, rising to the climax in which she cries out. Combining
the sound of her voice with the vibration of the final chords, the
author brings together Emma’s feelings, the music and the idea of
the last ‘adieu’, suggesting her sense of total identity with the
operatic scene and with the themes of love, death, exile, hope and
tragedy.
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5.
The final part of the extract is devoted to a conversation between
Emma and Charles. How does Charles’s first question contrast
with Emma’s state of mind at this point? Has Charles understood
what the opera is about? What is Emma’s reaction to his questions?
Do you consider that the use of direct speech helps to convey their
characters effectively?
Charles’s first question is awkward, expressed in clumsy popular
French (‘pourquoi donc est-il à la persécuter...’), contrasting with
the sonorous expression of romantic love on stage. Interrupting
Emma’s heightened emotion at the end of the stretto, Charles’s
naive question shows that he has not understood the plot of the
opera; he is responding to appearances. His misunderstanding,
conveyed in summary reported speech only, extends to the detail
and the movement of the plot. His insensitivity is stressed by his
reported comment that the music makes it hard to understand the
words. His dependence on Emma is suggested by his posture as he
leans on her shoulder, evidently irritating her. After she has
attempted to explain the plot to Charles, Emma’s reaction is finally
one of impatience. She feels that it is not worth trying to explain
(‘qu’importe?’), and speaks to Charles very sharply and
dismissively, with the repeated, short-tempered ‘tais-toi’. The
direct speech is effective in conveying both Charles’s dogged,
good-natured but uncomprehending responses and Emma’s at first
long-suffering patience, followed by irritated rejection. His
modesty contrasts with Emma’s sense of her own superiority.
6.
This passage begins by evoking Emma’s feeling that this trip to the
theatre is a special occasion. It also dwells particularly on the
effect that the performance has on her. Have you yourself ever felt
similarly involved – in a play, for example, or an opera, or a film
shown in a cinema? Do you think that such experiences serve to
‘take you out of yourself’? Alternatively, do they perhaps provide
you with some kind of insight into yourself?
Since the issues raised by this invitation to personal response
could be far-reaching, this question could be used as a basis for
personal discussion or for debate. It may be noted that while
Emma is the principal character and the main narrative focus of the
extract, she is also treated ironically by the author: Charles is
deluded about the characters and plot of the opera,
misunderstanding the appearance of things on stage, but Emma
herself is shown to be taken in by the performance. She evidently
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contrasts her own excitement and enthusiasm with Charles’s
blundering dullness. Unlike Charles, however, Emma is quite
uncritical of herself and takes the performance to be an expression
of her own intimate experiences and longings: her own insight
into herself is limited.
7.
Language practice: the imperfect and the past historic tenses
7.1
The passage illustrates very clearly the difference in usage between
the imperfect tense and the past historic (or simple past) tense.
Identify each of the finite verbs in the first four paragraphs of the
extract. Explain in each case why the author has used the tense
shown.
In principle, the past historic tense (underlined below) marks
single actions or events as the narrative progresses. The imperfect
tenses (italicised) describe background circumstances or
continuing states. The two tenses are combined in the first and
fourth paragraphs. The second paragraph uses only the imperfect
tense, as Emma looks about her at the scene the theatre. When the
narrative continues, in the third paragraph, the verbs – with one
exception – use the past historic tense.
Un battement de cœur la prit dès le vestibule. Elle sourit
involontairement de vanité, en voyant la foule qui se précipitait à
droite par l’autre corridor, tandis qu’elle montait l’escalier des
premières. Elle eut plaisir, comme un enfant, à pousser de son
doigt les larges portes tapissées; elle aspira de toute sa poitrine
l’odeur poussiéreuse des couloirs, et, quand elle fut assise dans sa
loge, elle se cambra la taille avec une désinvolture de duchesse.
La salle commençait à se remplir, on tirait les lorgnettes de
leurs étuis, et les abonnés, s’apercevant de loin, se faisaient des
salutations. Ils venaient se délasser dans les beaux-arts des
inquiétudes de la vente; mais n’oubliant point les affaires, ils
causaient encore cotons, trois-six ou indigo. On voyait là des têtes
de vieux, inexpressives et pacifiques, et qui, blanchâtres de
chevelure et de teint, ressemblaient à des médailles d’argent
ternies par une vapeur de plomb. Les jeunes beaux se pavanaient
au parquet, étalant, dans l’ouverture de leur gilet, leur cravate rose
ou vert-pomme; et Mme Bovary les admirait d’en haut appuyant
sur des badines à pommes d’or la paume tendue de leurs gants
jaunes.
Cependant, les bougies de l’orchestre s’allumèrent; le lustre
descendit du plafond, versant, avec le rayonnement de ses facettes,
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une gaieté subite dans la salle; puis les musiciens entrèrent les uns
après les autres, et ce fut d’abord un long charivari de basses
ronflant, de violons grinçant, de pistons trompettant, de flûtes et
de flageolets qui piaulaient. Mais on entendit trois coups sur la
scène; un roulement de timbales commença, les instruments de
cuivre plaquèrent des accords, et le rideau, se levant, découvrit un
paysage.
C’était le carrefour d’un bois, avec une fontaine, à gauche,
ombragée par un chêne. Des paysans et des seigneurs, le plaid sur
l’épaule, chantaient tous ensemble une chanson de chasse; puis il
survint un capitaine qui invoquait l’ange du mal en levant au ciel
ses deux bras; un autre parut; ils s’en allèrent, et les chasseurs
reprirent.
7.2
‘La salle craquait sous les bravos; on recommença la strette
entière; les amoureux parlaient des fleurs de leur tombe, de
serments, d’exil, de fatalité, d’espérances, et, quand ils poussèrent
l’adieu final, Emma jeta un cri aigu, qui se confondit avec la
vibration des derniers accords.’
Using the above sentence as a model, compose a sentence of your
own, using the appropriate tenses to show the difference between
single actions and descriptive or continuous states.
Examples: Il faisait très beau ce matin-là et, lorsque nous sommes
arrivés, la cour du collège résonnait des cris aigus des adolescents.
Les élèves qui jouaient ont arrêté leur jeux pour nous regarder
avec curiosité et, en nous voyant, quelques professeurs qui
causaient près de la porte d’entrée se sont tus.
7.3
In direct speech, Charles uses the perfect tense, not the past
historic, for actions in the past. In modern French the use of the
past historic is normally confined to written contexts: ‘...celui qui
est venu tout à l’heure’, ‘il est parti avec son père’ – these are
normal in conversational French.
Now re-write the sentence quoted above, in question 7.2, putting
into the perfect tense the verbs which are in the past historic.
La salle craquait sous les bravos; on a recommencé la strette
entière; les amoureux parlaient des fleurs de leur tombe, de
serments, d’exil, de fatalité, d’espérances, et, quand ils ont poussé
l’adieu final, Emma a jeté un cri aigu, qui s’est confondu avec la
vibration des derniers accords.
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7.4
156
Write an essay in French (about 150 words) describing a film you
have seen, which made you feel involved in the action. Explain
which characters or circumstances you identified with.
DEUX AMIES
TEXTE 25
Deux amies
François Mauriac
1.1
What are the main differences that Thérèse remembers between
herself and Anne, as adolescent girls?
Anne seems to have been rather frivolous, liking to spend time
chattering and laughing. Since she liked sewing – the old domestic
stereotype, thought of as being women’s work – she is presented
as being more practical than Thérèse. Thérèse, by contrast, likes
reading – which Anne hated – and she likes to think that she is
interested in ideas, commenting that Anne ‘[n’avait] aucune idée
sur rien’. Thérèse evidently thinks of herself as being more
intellectually mature than Anne.
1.2
Comment on the type of reading that Thérèse enjoyed. Did she
favour any particular type of book?
She did not favour any particular type of reading, but enjoyed
reading anything, indiscriminately. The examples given represent a
contrasting mixture, but of old-fashioned writers. Paul de Kock was
a very popular nineteenth-century French novelist – with a
reputation, incidentally, for writing rather spicy novels, the most
famous of which was La Pucelle de Belleville (1834). This contrasts
with Sainte-Beuve’s more serious and reflective Causeries du
lundi, which in turn contrast with Thiers’s history of Napoleon.
The author is emphasising that Thérèse’s reading was random: the
examples are of old, seemingly outdated books, the kind of books
you might find left around in houses in the country. Above all,
Thérèse is shown to have had intellectual pretensions which Anne
did not share.
1.3
Despite their different interests, what did the girls have in
common?
The presentation suggests directly how little the two girls had in
common. They did not have any evident similarities of character,
but they simply liked being together, on hot afternoons, when the
heat forced people to stay indoors.
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DEUX AMIES
1.4
How effectively does the writer suggest the intensity of the heat on
these days? Identify the military metaphor which Mauriac uses for
this purpose. How are the visual and the tactile impressions
brought together?
The evocation of intense heat may be thought to be very effective.
The author uses a range of literary devices: the fairly standard
metaphor of the ‘feu du ciel’ is followed by the less predictable
military metaphor (‘assiège’ / ‘barricadés’), suggestive of physical
force and constraint, as if they are at war with the heat. The
impression of time passing as they wait for the heat to die down
reinforces this sense of the intensity of the heat. The double
reference to the heat (tactile) and the light (visual) of the sun is
rendered by the simile ‘lumière pareille à une gorgée de métal en
fusion, soudain jaillie, [qui] semblait brûler la natte’. The simile
suggests an unbearable, suffocating heat, akin to that of a smelting
furnace: the heat and the light appear to be liquid, spurting
(‘jaillie’) into the room when the shutters are opened a little. The
effect of the heat on people, and on the two girls in particular, is
also reinforced by the choice of the verb ‘se tapir’, which has
connotations of animals hiding away from danger. The physical
heat creates a sensuous complicity between the humans.
2.1
Had the heat died down completely when, eventually, the two
friends used to go outdoors, in the evenings? What does the
reference to ‘un lac’ contribute to the description?
No, the heat had not died down completely. It was still held
beneath the oak trees, like stagnant water. The adjective
‘stagnante’ picks up the idea of liquid heat from the previous
sentence. The girls stretched out at the edge of the field, as if
beside a lake. The implication is that the air in the open field was
cooler, evoking the girls’ desire for freshness and relaxation after
the intense heat of the day, which is now associated with the
sound of the cicada and the setting sun, very low in the sky.
2.2
Describe the pictures which the girls tried to imagine in the shapes
of the moving clouds, as the sun was setting. Is there anything
threatening in this description?
The clouds themselves are threatening. In ‘des nuées orageuses’,
the term ‘nuée’ – rather than ‘nuage’ – suggests not just clouds but
thick clouds, and is associated with the term ‘nuée ardente’ –
heavy, fiery clouds in the sunset. However, this is not a weather
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DEUX AMIES
report: it is essentially an impressionistic description, suggesting
the sky at sunset, with the light shining onto the lower part of the
pine trees. Anne would see pictures in the clouds and try to get
Thérèse to see the same images. However, as the clouds shifted,
what she had seen as the shape of an angel changed into that of an
‘étrange bête étendue’. There has been a movement from
something idealised to something deformed, a weird stretched-out
beast, by implication a threatening image. (In the wider context of
the novel as a whole, this combination of the attractive and the
unattractive has implications, including sexual implications.) In the
immediate context of the extract, this reference implies that one’s
vision may be fleeting and fragile, just as the relationship between
the two girls may be: the friendship, so attractive to Thérèse, may
be fragile, may change for the worse.
3.1
The third paragraph moves on to September days, when the friends
used to go outside together in the afternoons. Comment on the
writer’s way of expressing the happiness which Thérèse and Anne
experienced on these occasions?
The writer suggests their mutual enjoyment of physical
experiences: they share the discomfort of the dry countryside, ‘le
pays de la soif’, walking a long distance together over the sandy
soil, to reach the source of the Hure, both stepping barefoot into
the cold spring water. They share the sense of heat and sharp cold,
suggesting also extremes of feeling. However, it is the scene in the
hunters’ hide which most clearly reflects their happiness: it is
expressed as a form of contentment as they stay there together,
not talking – they have little in common – just being together. The
silence between them, like that of hunters awaiting the prey,
contrasts with the earlier image of Anne as a chattering, laughing
girl. There is an unspoken complicity between them, a delicate
happiness which is described as both chaste and ‘informe’: it is
fragile and vulnerable.
3.2
Could Thérèse’s friendship for Anne be described as paradoxical?
Towards the end of the third paragraph, the description is further
developed. Discuss Thérèse’s feelings about Anne as a hunter. What
do you think of Anne’s treatment of her prey?
Thérèse’s friendship for Anne is paradoxical: not only do the two
girls have little in common, but Thérèse positively hated Anne’s
hunting. Nevertheless, she was ‘insatiable’ for Anne’s company.
The account of Anne as a hunter is quite vivid: the choice of gun
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DEUX AMIES
(with no recoil, suitable for a young girl); Thérèse standing apart
from Anne when she was shooting; Anne, aiming into the sky,
presented as if she were shooting at the sun (killing light, life).
Thérèse, keeping her distance, blocked her ears against the sound
of the gun and the kill. There is also an element of paradox in
Anne’s treatment of the bird. She was gentle, loving even, with the
wounded bird: she handled it carefully, touched the still warm
feathers with her lips, as if kissing it, then choked it. Students may
well have opinions about this combination of gentleness and
violence, and about hunting in general. Thérèse, ‘qui haïssait ce
jeu’, is revolted by this, even though Anne is presented as
Thérèse’s great friend.
4.
On the basis of their exchange of words when Anne went away in
the evening, how would you sum up the nature of Thérèse’s and
Anne’s friendship for each other?
The friendship seems to be uneven, rather one-sided. Thérèse was
evidently more attached to Anne than Anne was to Thérèse. Anne
could easily have come back the next day; there was probably
nothing to stop her, but she did not want to come, thinking that if
they saw too much of each other, they might fall out. Again, the
relationship appears fragile. Thérèse’s reply conveys an injured
tone, plaintive and long-suffering: ‘Oui... oui... surtout ne t’en fais
pas une obligation: reviens quand le cœur t’en dira... quand tu
n’auras rien de mieux.’ She is saying: ‘OK, please yourself; come
when you have nothing better to do’. This blend of loyalty and selfabasement is consistent with the picture of Thérèse when she
stayed with Anne during Anne’s lark-hunting. Anne had ignored
Thérèse’s dislike of the hunting, while Thérèse wanted to be with
Anne nevertheless. At the end of the extract Anne appeared
indifferent to Thérèse’s thoughts, unconscious of them perhaps, as
she rode away, ringing her bicycle bell. This final touch – ringing
the bell – shows that Anne was light-hearted on such occasions,
while Thérèse was aware of the gathering darkness, the ‘route déjà
sombre’.
5.
The principal verb tense used in the extract is the imperfect. In this
text, the imperfect relates to events taking place over a period of
time in the past. In the light of this, what is the effect of the use of
direct speech, towards the end of the passage?
The introduction of direct speech adds a dramatic, more
immediately personalised dimension to what has been a
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generalised description of events happening over an extended
period of time. The extended period is conveyed by the use of the
imperfect tense: this is what used to happen. The direct speech is a
variant on the use of free indirect speech (in ‘[Anne] ne souhaitait
pas de la voir tous les jours... Anne préférait...’ etc). The use of
direct speech therefore makes the exchange seem more
immediate. The attitudes of the two girls are contained implicitly in
their words. Thérèse is herself uncertain about the nature of this
friendship, having asked herself, at the beginning of the extract,
why she had been so happy in Anne’s company when they had so
little in common. The introduction of direct speech here appears
to act almost as a cover for this uncertainty, as if Thérèse is
remembering the kind of things they used to say to each other, as
she puzzles over the nature of their relationship. The imperfect
tense is the dominant tense in the passage, and even the exchange
of words contained within this generalised past is presented as
generalised : ‘disait-elle, ... Thérèse répondait...’, i.e. ‘she used to
say... she would reply...’. This is the kind of reply she used to give,
but it is presented as if it were a particular quotation.
6.
Language practice. Indirect speech
6.1
Example:
Direct speech – Je le ferai bientôt, a dit Pierre.
Indirect speech – Pierre a dit qu’il le ferait bientôt.
Using this example as a model, transpose the following sentences
into indirect speech:
– Je n’irai pas au cinéma ce weekend, a dit Jean.
Jean a dit que....
– Elles ne veulent pas y aller non plus, a répondu Marie.
Marie a répondu que...
– Tu viendras demain? lui ai-je demandé.
Je lui ai demandé si...
– Jean a dit qu’il n’irait pas au cinéma ce weekend (ce weekend-là).
– Marie a répondu qu’elles ne voulaient pas y aller non plus.
– Je lui ai demandé si elle (s’il) viendrait demain (le lendemain).
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DEUX AMIES
6.2
The last paragraph of the extract contains examples of what is
called free indirect speech. For example, the sentence ‘Elle ne
souhaitait pas de la voir tous les jours’ is a free indirect rendering
of Anne’s words. In direct speech Anne might have said, for
example: ‘Je ne veux pas te voir tous les jours’. Note the change of
person and of tense.
What might have been Anne’s direct-speech equivalents for the
following?
– Anne préférait ne pas revenir
– pourquoi se voir tous les jours
– elles finiraient par se prendre en grippe
– Je préfère ne pas revenir (disait Anne).
– Pourquoi devons-nous nous voir tous les jours? (demandait
Anne).
– Nous finirons par nous prendre en grippe (disait Anne).
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LA BELLE SAISON
TEXTE 26
La Belle Saison
Jacques Prévert
1.1
The poem consists of a number of details to describe a girl. These
are presented without explanation, as if they were the ‘facts’ of
the case. In lines 1–4, what are these facts?
The girl is hungry, lost and cold; she is alone and has no money.
The itemisation adds up to a feeling of destitution, implying
desperation. She is also standing motionless, suggesting in context
someone who is at a loss about what to do. It is suggested that, at
the age of sixteen, she is a vulnerable adolescent and, at least by
implication, she is represented as being innocent.
1.2
Do any features of the description encourage you to sympathise
with the girl?
Students may well have varied responses to this question. The first
words, ‘à jeun’, are a direct appeal to the reader’s sympathy,
reinforced immediately by ‘perdue’ and ‘glacée’ and by the
description in the second line. It may be her loneliness and
vulnerability which contribute most to arousing a feeling of
sympathy in the reader.
1.3
Consider what is not said about the girl: is it poignant that she has
no name?
No personal background whatsoever is given: the picture could
almost be likened to a random, anonymous snapshot. The fact that
she is given no name could indeed be poignant: she could
represent any girl. She is anonymous and lost. Her anonymity also
suggests the universality of the situation: a seemingly individual
girl represents a universal situation.
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LA BELLE SAISON
2.
The setting of the poem in time and place is indicated in the last
two lines. What does this setting – in central Paris, at noon, in the
summer tourist season – contribute to the effect of the poem? How
are the girl’s personal circumstances contrasted with the setting?
Do you detect any irony here, or in the title of the poem, ‘La Belle
Saison’?
The setting is in the heart of Paris at midday on August 15th. The
name itself, the ‘Place de la Concorde’, suggests peace and
harmony. The Place de la Concorde is in the political and the
tourist centre of Paris, at the bottom of the Champs Elysées. There
is often a great deal of traffic here: it is a place of activity, wealth
and power, including political power. The place itself therefore
contrasts with the image of the girl who is motionless, solitary,
vulnerable and seemingly powerless. The reference in time, to
August 15th, contrasts the height of the hot summer holiday
season with the cold, hungry, penniless girl. The reference to her
being ‘glacée’ on a traditionally hot summer day may be
particularly striking. Midday may suggest the heat of the day, but it
is also the time when people think about lunch. Both the time and
the place therefore contrast ironically with the projected image of
a motionless girl. The title is very ironic, contrasting the stereotype
of the holiday season (‘la belle saison’) with the condition of the
girl: her situation is far from ‘belle’.
3.
What does the adverb ‘debout’ tell us? Would our reading of the
poem be very different if the girl were described, for example, as
‘couchée’ or ‘étendue’?
She is standing upright: she seems to be presented as a victim, but
the fact that she is standing could be taken to imply that she may
want to do something about her situation. If she were imagined as
lying on the ground or on a bench, this would project an entirely
different image: it might suggest that she was injured, or simply
resting, or it could be taken to imply resignation, for example.
Instead, there could be something defiant about her upright
stance. Revolt is not expressed, but it could be implied. ‘Debout’ is
also chosen, quite evidently, for purposes of the rhyme with ‘sou’,
and the optional rhyme with ‘août’. The ‘t’ of ‘août’ may be
pronounced or not, but in any case it provides a rhyme ‘for the
eye’ – simple but neat.
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4.1
The poem contains no verb and no explicit form of explanation or
narrative: it begins without preliminaries, going directly to the
heart of the matter. How do you react to this? Do you find this
technique disconcerting? Do you think it is objective, as if the
writer were ‘just reporting the facts’? Or could it be said to be
emotive, appealing to our feelings and emotions?
If these were ‘just the facts’, they would be very selective; they are
chosen to emphasise certain aspects of the girl, notably her
vulnerability. The technique could be disconcerting, but it also
resembles a technique for objective reporting, a quick summary of
facts, resembling brief notes, which may add to the strength of the
evocation. Students may be struck by the brevity of the poem: it
may seem more like a thumbnail sketch than a poem. The
telegraphic style avoids making any explicit statement either about
the girl or about the poet’s own feelings: as such, it could be
thought to be dispassionate. However, the effect of the words
chosen is to invite reflection and appeal directly to the reader’s
feelings of commiseration and sympathy.
4.2
In what ways does the poem resemble an unimportant ‘fait divers’,
i.e. a minor news item in a newspaper? How does its poetic form
help to distinguish it from a such an item?
The scene may resemble a ‘fait divers’ by its presentation in note
form, with no elaboration or explanation, and no ‘moral’
conclusion. It also deals with a subject which could be thought to
be relatively unimportant. However, the poetic qualities invest the
situation with a sense of its importance, or even its universality.
Although it depicts an ordinary, possibly even trivial scene, its form
implies that the scene is indicative of something much larger and
more important. Some of the poetic qualities are mentioned in
questions 5 and 6.1.
5.
Comment on the possible poetic effects of the poet’s use of rhyme
and, in line 2, alliteration.
The rhyme is quite restrained, and is limited to the masculine
rhymes of lines 2, 4 and 6. The rhyme provides some harmony, but
it also avoids making a facile jingle of these short lines of verse.
The lengths of the lines are roughly of six or seven syllables,
approximating to alexandrine hemistiches, thus implying a certain
seriousness of tone, and also unifying the poem by the rhyme. In
the second line, the alliteration in ‘s’ produces a singing quality; it
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LA BELLE SAISON
also places emphasis on these particular words by linking them by
their sound, and therefore dwelling especially on the girl’s solitude
and deprivation, her poverty.
6.1
In what way may the use of just a few short lines of verse be said
to contribute to the effectiveness of the poem?
The shortness of the lines helps to keep the picture simple and
understated: perhaps paradoxically, this may serve to emphasise an
underlying message. The attractivess of the poem may be thought
to lie in its simplicity. Both this simplicity and the brevity of the
poem may help to make it memorable.
6.2
There is no explicit message in the poem, but the poet nevertheless
appears to imply a moral or an argument of some sort. What
message do you think the poem conveys?
The moral, if such it is, arises from a sense of irony and injustice.
This derives from the contrast between the situation of the girl and
the characteristics of this place at this time of day and season of the
year. The girl is alone and ignored, but surrounded by wealth,
affluence and comfort. The implied argument is a ‘socialist’ one:
the presence of this bereft girl stands as a reproach to the wellheeled and powerful society around her. The message which arises
from this representation of social injustice, is an appeal for
sympathy which could imply a call to action. This remains unstated,
however: it would be a reader’s response, rather than a ‘moral’
stated explicitly by the poet.
7.
Imaginative literature – such as poems, plays and works of fiction
– frequently directs its appeal to abstract ideas (such as
loneliness, loss, happiness) and to the reader’s sense perceptions
(usually: sight, sound, touch, taste, hearing and movement). Which
abstract ideas predominate in this poem, and to which of the
reader’s sense perceptions does it make its main appeal?
The main abstract ideas could be seen as deprivation, lack of some
kind, loneliness, the discomfort of hunger and the implied
injustice. The main sensorial appeal is visual: the poem uses the
sense of the sight to draw a brief word picture of the scene,
focused mainly on the girl, with only general reference, at the end,
to the setting. The setting itelf is hardly descriptive; it is limited to
a bald statement of the where and the when. Perhaps curiously,
there is no reference to sound. The visual image could be likened
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LA BELLE SAISON
to a (silent) snapshot. The girl’s stillness may be implied by
‘glacée’, which also suggests the sense of touch, while ‘à jeun’
refers to both touch and taste. ‘Immobile’, a visual reference, may
emphasise the singularity of the girl in what is a place of
movement; it could suggest a monumental quality which sets her
apart. Other terms relate to more abstract feelings rather than
specific sense perceptions: ‘perdue’, ‘toute seule’, ‘sans un sou’ –
which suggest absence and deprivation.
8.
Language exercise
Rédigez en français une courte composition (environ 120–150
mots) pour décrire la jeune fille du poème. Inventez pour elle une
personnalité, et expliquez, par exemple,
–
–
–
–
–
–
d’où elle vient,
les vêtements qu’elle porte,
pourquoi elle n’a pas d’argent,
les raisons pour lesquelles elle n’a pas mangé,
où elle va,
ce qu’elle est en train de penser.
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L’ECOLE DES BEAUX-ARTS
TEXTE 27
L’École des Beaux-Arts
Jacques Prévert
1.
Comprehension: describe in your own words the events and the
situation evoked in this short poem.
A father demonstrates the Japanese flower game to his children.
The children are suddenly struck by the wonder of what they are
watching, and the poet concludes that they will never forget this
moment: the flower was a thing of wonder, made especially for
them.
2.1
The title of the poem, ‘L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts’, refers to an
institution of learning which is renowned for training art students
in a disciplined and highly academic way, including subjects such
as anatomy. Do you detect an ironic contrast between the title of
the poem and what the poem actually says?
There is an obviously ironic contrast between the title and the
poem itself. The situation which is described has something of the
lesson or demonstration about it, and the subject is a form of
artistic creation, but the experience then becomes something
which is far from that of a dry or formal academic education. This
‘school’ is not a public institution, but the children’s own home.
The object created does not have the precision of, for example, an
anatomical specimen.The effect of the experiment is magical, and
the memory of the wonderful experience will be long-lasting.
2.2
At what point, when the father’s practical ‘demonstration’ turns
into something unusual, does the ordinary suddenly become
magical? How does the syntax or vocabulary mark this moment?
The moment of the change is marked by the short line ‘surgit
alors’, which introduces a poetic inversion of the verb and the
subject. While this syntactic device gives resonance to the
unexpected experience, the word ‘surgit’ itself also suggests the
suddenness of the change. By delaying slightly the introduction of
the grammatical subject, ‘la grande fleur... le nénuphar’, the poem
also conveys the sensation of the children’s moment of
expectation. The vocabulary, especially with the first polysyllabic
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adjective of this stanza (‘multicolore’), therefore dwells on the
strength of the children’s initial sense impression, which precedes
the realisation of what is happening, as the ‘petite boule de papier’
becomes a ‘grande fleur’.
3.
Two lines of the poem each consist of only one word. What special
emphasis, in their context, attaches to the meaning of these words?
This question overlaps with question 2. ‘Multicolore’, contrasting
with the banality of the ‘petite boule de papier’, emphasises the
bright visual impact, whose effect on the children is picked up in
the other single-word line: ‘Emerveillés’. This one word embodies
the main theme of the poem: the children’s wonderment. They
marvel at the sudden appearance of the beautiful flower from the
little ball of paper.
4.
The children are described as ‘émerveillés’ – they are marvelling
at what they see. This quality of ‘émerveillement’ or wonder was
most important to the Surrealist writers and to Prévert. Do you
think that this is only a child-like quality? Could you explain how
it might be related to artistic creation?
The quality – this sense of the marvellous – is certainly not only
child-like. It is shared by many adults, especially perhaps the
creative artists who may look on things and on experience with
new eyes. The ‘child-like’ is not the same as the ‘childish’. This
apparently naive little poem, which may appear childish to an
inexperienced reader, suggests the excitement and stimulation of
artist-minds as they come across new ways of looking at
experiences which had once been familiar or even humdrum. Out
of the apparently ordinary, marvellous experiences may emerge, to
be caught and communicated by artistic means. As background, a
brief introduction to the intentions and works of Surrealist writers
and artists may not be inappropriate here, and also to ‘primitivism’
in art, for the poem has quite broad literary and artistic
implications.
5.
Why will this flower, and this moment, be preserved in the
children’s memory?
Their surprise, and the memory of it, will last forever, because of
the sudden and totally unexpected appearance of the flower, made
especially for them. In their memory, the flower will therefore
never fade: it is an eternal flower. Like beauty in art, it will
transcend time.
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6.1
Consider the structure and pace of the poem, with its three distinct
stages. The first two parts of the poem are composed in the present
tense. Identify the verbs in these sections. Why is the present tense
appropriate to the account of the father’s actions, and of his
children’s immediate reaction?
The structure is of (1) the group of the first two stanzas, followed
by (2) a third, separate stanza. The present tense used in the first
two stanzas is suitable for evoking the actual progress of the
demonstration and the immediacy of the children’s reaction. The
verbs are: ‘choisit’, ‘jette’, ‘surgit’ and ‘se taisent’. The pace itself is
gentle and deliberate, matching the idea of a systematic
demonstration. Each of the first two stanzas contains a main clause
and a second, co-ordinated clause, representing the careful actions
of the father and finally dwelling directly on the children’s
wonderment.
6.2
How is the third and concluding part marked as different from
what precedes it?
The conclusion is characterised by the introduction of the future
tense, marking a prophecy or foresight about the future, expressed
as a poised, reflective statement. Whereas what preceded is largely
descriptive and evocative of the demonstration and its effect, there
is a rather didactic edge to this closing section, thus echoing the
title itself: ‘L’École des Beaux-Arts’. The argument is that, unlike
formal, institutionalised education, what this school teaches is
highly personal and magically memorable.
7.1
Some lines contain obvious rhymes ‘for the eye’; others have
rhymes ‘for the ear’. For practice in the pronunciation of French,
identify the various rhyming words.
For the eye the most obvious rhymes are: jette / cuvette; eux / eux;
intrigués / émerveilles.
For the ear, in addition to the above: tressée / papier / intrigués,
followed by instantané / émerveillés / se faner; alors /
multicolore; japonaise / se taisent.
For comment on the words which do not rhyme, see question 7.2.
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7.2
What, in your opinion, do the rhymes contribute to the poem?
The rhymes provide unity and give a certain musicality, serving
also as a disciplined structure for the poem. The lines which do
not rhyme – lines 12, 14 and 16: ‘jamais plus tard dans leur
souvenir’, which stands alone in this respect, and the pair ‘subite’
and ‘minute’ – also stand out precisely because they do not rhyme.
Rhymes in French require at least one vowel sound in common.
‘Subite’ and ‘minute’ share the final ‘t’, and they have an evident
assonance in the repetition, in reversed order, of the ‘i’ and ‘u’
sounds. Phonetically, there is a certain harmony between these two
words.
Prévert was also playing games with traditional principles of French
prosody, by rhyming masculine and feminine endings. He also
flouted, for example, the classical principle of not allowing a word
to rhyme with itself. By using ‘eux’ / ‘eux’ at the end, he concluded
the poem by stressing the presence of the children themselves.
Children were an often-repeated focus in his poetry, as illustrated
also by Text 26 and Text 28.
8.
Look at the visual shape of the poem. Readers sometimes think
that they can make out an outline picture – or ‘ideogram’ – in the
way that these lines are disposed typographically on the page.
Could the shape be taken to represent anything mentioned in the
words of the poem?
With the lines of verse centred on the page, as presented, the
shorter lines have been thought to represent the stem of a flower
or plant, with the longer lines suggesting the upper surface of the
waterlily, imagined in the second stanza. The third stanza may
perhaps lend itself best to the waterlily interpretation. Could the
second stanza suggest, roughly, the shape of a bowl or vase with a
narrowed top? This approach remains, however, very subjective;
some students may well find the idea too fanciful.
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CHASSE À L’ENFANT
TEXTE 28
Chasse à l’enfant
Jacques Prévert
1.
Is there anything shocking about the title? Is another kind of hunt
alluded to in the poem?
An analogy is established with a ‘chasse à courre’ or animal hunt,
such as ‘la chasse au chevreuil’ or ‘la chasse au renard’. The title
may also suggest ‘la chasse à l’homme’, the manhunt. In either
case, the idea of a child as the prey in such a hunt may be thought
to be shocking, or at the very least, surprising – unexpected and
perhaps disconcerting. The animal analogy is perhaps the stronger,
as shown by line 14: ‘comme une bête traquée’, and the shock
effect of this attitude in the hunters predominates.
2.1
The first line of the poem becomes a refrain which is clearly
menacing. What does this refrain contribute to the poem?
The repeated line ‘Bandit! Voyou! Voleur! Chenapan!’ emphasises
the energy and hostility of the hunters. Their indignation at the
miscreant they are chasing is evident. The line adds the drama of
direct speech and with repetition it becomes a menacing refrain,
arousing the reader’s sympathy for the hunted child.
2.2
Certain other lines are also repeated. Identify these lines and
suggest why the poet may have chosen to repeat them.
Certain lines are repeated in order to emphasise their meaning,
and to act as a limited refrain, as in songs. This heightens the
emotions associated with the words. The repeated lines are:
Au-dessus de l’île on voit des oiseaux
Tout autour de l’île il y a de l’eau
and
C’est la meute des honnêtes gens
Qui fait la chasse à l’enfant.
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The first of these couplets is repeated to form the closing lines.
This creates a balance, with the initial setting recurring as the final
scene. Both are presented as a seemingly peaceful island scene,
but limited to the birds and the surrounding sea. This scene
contrasts with the shouts of the hunters. In context, and
particularly at the end of the poem, the birds may come to be
regarded as symbols of freedom, attractive, lightweight and flying
free. Line 3 looks like a naive statement of the obvious, but its
importance is made clear towards the end of the poem (see also
questions 8 and 9). The sea is often used in literature as an
ambiguous image, variously associated with ideas of life (water and
also salt) and of death (by drowning). A similar ambiguity is played
on in this poem, the sea serving both as a support for
imprisonment and as a possible way of escape. In the popular
French imagination, the island may have associations with the
infamous prison on Devil’s Island and its legends of manhunts.
The second repeated couplet also repeats the words of the title
and establishes a sharp contrast between the words ‘enfant’ and
‘honnêtes gens’. Stylistically, the word ‘chasse’ echoes ‘meute’, and
‘enfant’ is parallel to ‘honnêtes gens’, in an ironic juxtaposition
which reinforces the reader’s sympathy for the child, but also raises
questions about the application of the words ‘honnêtes gens’. In
the term ‘honnêtes gens’, the word ‘honnête’, besides meaning
honest and trustworthy, has broader social connotations, implying
well-mannered, correct behaviour. (See also question 6.2.) The
supposed honesty of these hunters is contrasted with the child’s
guilt. The words ‘honnêtes gens’ stress the nature of the hunters,
who regard themselves as ordinary, reasonable, honest people, but
who are described, through the ‘meute’ metaphor, as a pack of
hunting dogs. What the poet means by this is explained as the
poem develops.
For the repetition within line 31, see questions 3 , 4 and 8.
3.
Study carefully the changing viewpoint in the poem. Keep asking
yourself: Where is the poet now? How much can he see of the scene?
For example, how close is he to the action at the beginning (lines
2–3), which offers a setting that suggests a general view of the
island?
This question, which invites also a summary of the development of
the poem, could be taken either here, as an introduction, or at a
later stage, to allow revision. Some later questions are designed to
repeat or develop points raised in question 3.
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In lines 2–3, the viewpoint is fairly general, an overview of the
scene, as imagined by the poet. He knows that this place is
surrounded by water; only the birds are visible. In lines 1–4, it is as
though he cannot see what is happening. However, an explanation
is provided in lines 15 and 23, where the reader will learn that it is
night-time. At first, it is as if the poet is at some distance from the
action, but can hear the sounds of the shouting voices. Line 5
represents the poet’s own question, which is then answered in
lines 7–8, as though the chase has come nearer to him and is now
to some extent visible. There follows an explanation of the
circumstances (lines 9–11), providing a narrative background,
which is continued in line 13. The visual point of view then
becomes much clearer, in lines 14–16, as the story is told with
great immediacy, as if this were a visual close-up. The poet now
appears close enough to be able to see who these hunters are: they
are listed in line 17, and the poet comments on them in lines 19–
22. The focus then moves closer to the hunted child (lines 23–26),
represented, although unclearly, as a tracked animal fleeing before
the gunshots which can be heard and are seen as flashes in the
darkness. As the shouting continues (line 27), it may be presumed
that the boy continues to run, and the poet then supposes that he
has escaped from his pursuers. These remain on the shore (lines
28–29), having failed to catch the boy. The point of view here is
again that of a more distant observer, also wondering what has
happened to the boy. In line 31, the poet asks the question
urgently in the repeated phrase ‘rejoindras-tu le continent!’. (On
line 31, see also question 4 and question 8.) The shifting viewpoint
has functioned as a witness to a passing event. The hunt is heard in
the distance, approaches and then moves away again, leaving the
poet, at the end of a narrative, to speculate on the outcome.
4.
How important is sound, in the refrain and in line 5? Does the
emphasis on sound suggest that the poet cannot see well? How do
you react when the poet, instead of posing as an omniscient
observer, uses the interrogative form?
This question serves as a summary and development of points
raised by questions 2.1 and 3. The emphasis on the sound of
shouting does indeed suggest that the scene is not easily visible.
There is a certain uniformity of sound in the nasal syllable at the
beginning and end of the lines and in the alliteration in ‘v’. The
refrain expresses the sounds that the hunted boy must be hearing:
like the reader, he can hear but cannot see his pursuers. This
therefore evokes the fear the boy may be feeling and may further
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arouse the reader’s sympathy. In line 5, there is an alliteration in ‘s’
and ‘k’, perhaps suggestive of breathlessness or hissing or intakes
of breath, as the poet reflects on the sounds of the shouting.
Students’ reaction to the insertion of questions may be to wonder
how the narrator, largely omniscient, can be so unaware. However,
the questions are essentially rhetorical, and help to dramatise the
scene and make it seem more immediate. Students may note that
the questions do not carry question-marks, though this feature is
not prominent, given the general absence of punctuation. (See
also question 8, on the interrogation in line 31.) Students will note
that the refrain in line 1, and whenever it is repeated, uses
exclamation marks, thus setting these shouted words apart from
most of the rest of the poem and emphasising the urgency of the
sounds.
5.
Lines 9–11 provide background details, presented in the pluperfect
tense. In what way do these lines influence our reading of the
poem? By line 15, we have been brought ‘up to date’ with what is
happening, and the story resumes in the present tense once again.
Why is the use of the present tense a powerful way of telling this
particular story?
This narrative flashback in lines 9–11 adopts the boy’s point of view
and influences the reader’s response to the poem by making it
clear that the boy has been treated harshly and has reacted by
escaping. The explanation in the pluperfect tense distances that
part of the past from the present: the boy has already begun his
escape, and the reason for his action is presented as a past in the
past. The use of the pluperfect therefore throws into relief the
sense of the immediacy of the hunt itself. Following the
description of the pursuers as a ‘meute’ in line 7, it confirms the
pitiful situation of the boy and justifies the focus of the poet’s –
and no doubt the reader’s – sympathy. In this context, the present
tense helps to emphasise not just the immediacy of the action but
also the poet’s and the reader’s sense of identification with the
hunted boy.
6.1
Comment on the occupations of the pursuers (line 17).
The ‘gendarmes’ and ‘rentiers’ are stereotypes of the respectable,
the powerful and the law-abiding, indeed, the law-enforcing. The
‘artistes’, who observe and create, are commonly associated with
rebellion, but here they are seen as belonging with the powerful
oppressors. The ‘touristes’ are by implication well-off people who
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are at ease and interested in what is going on around them. These
are occupations of people who become associated with social
injustice. If imagined even as passive onlookers, they may
themselves be presented as part of the injustice they witness.
6.2
What is the force of the adjectives ‘honnêtes’ (lines 7, 19) and
‘braves’ (22) in describing the boy’s pursuers?
As a group, the pursuers are shown as people who either deal with
other people or observe them: the implication is that they are selfconfident people who know how to behave correctly in good
society. As ‘[des] honnêtes gens’, the pursuers may be considered
to be respectable people, confident of their own honesty, and also
polite, well-mannered, reasonable, responsible, with a good
opinion of themselves. (See also question 2.2.) The reference to
the need for a licence for some kinds of hunting (line 21) suggests
the law-abiding self-image of these men; it is also an ironic
comment that there is no need for a licence to go child-hunting.
‘Honnêtes’ and ‘braves’ are terms which they would apply to
themselves. The adjective ‘braves’, placed before the noun, means
both courageous and good, in a simple way, obliging, keen to be
helpful. These ‘braves gens’ are good-heartedly doing their bit to
help out. In this respect there could also be an implication that
they are being rather naive, simple-minded. In context, the
particular force of these adjectives is to stress the complacency of
the hunters and the poet’s irony: what is courageous or reasonable
about joining a baying pack to hunt down a single boy? The poet’s
point of view has become very clear here: in effect, he is saying that
if this is what being ‘honnête’ and ‘brave’ means, he wants none of
it.
6.3
In what tone is the word ‘messieurs’ used later (line 28)?
The word ‘messieurs’ – equivalent to ‘gentlemen’ – takes up the
idea of the ‘honnêtes gens’ once again. It dwells on their idea of
their own respectability, which by this stage is contrasted not only
with their previous actions but also with their frustrated
appearance: ‘verts de rage’. The tone here is not just ironical, but
sarcastic: whereas ‘messieurs’ is a term of polite, respectful
address, these people have been acting like animals.
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7.
‘Qu’est-ce qui nage dans la nuit’ (line 23): Where is the poet now?
Is he any closer? Can he see any better? The poet does not use
question marks, but a number of sentences are obviously
interrogative. How is he affecting our feelings by his use of
interrogatives alternating with explanations – by his alternately
not knowing, and then knowing, at least something about what is
happening?
In line 23, the poet appears to be closer to the hunted boy,
although the image remains indistinct. Metaphorically, the
darkness is like water in which the escapee is swimming,
suggesting both the poet’s difficulty in making out the boy and the
effort which the escaping boy is having to make as he runs ahead of
the hunt. The alternation of questions and explanations suggests
the immediacy of the events as well as stressing the poet’s curiosity
about the disconcerting scene he is witnessing. In this way his
running commentary on the scene captures both his curiosity and
the excitement of the chase. The poet is anxious and questioning
about the outcome – that is, about the welfare of the boy.
8.
Does the poet ever catch sight of the boy who is being hunted? What
is different about the poet’s use of the question ‘Rejoindras-tu le
continent’ (line 31)? Note that this ‘question’, which is itself
repeated, is presented as an exclamation. How is this utterance
different from earlier questions, in vocabulary and in affective
power?
The poet evidently never sees the boy, who remains a mysterious
and somewhat idealised figure. He represents the victim or
underdog. The sentence ‘rejoindras-tu le continent!’ differs from
the earlier interrogations in raising a question about the future
rather than about the immediate chase. Although it is presented
not as a question but as an exclamation, it expresses a real rather
than a rhetorical question. However, it is not only a question – it is
also an emotive expression of hope. The poet is wondering if the
boy will manage to escape to the mainland. The ‘continent’ now
becomes a symbol of freedom from injustice and ill-treatment.
Unlike the earlier questions, this ‘question’ is pitched as a general
speculation which is given considerable affective power by the
tutoiement, which implies affection and total sympathy with the
hunted boy.
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9.
The poem ends with the repetition of lines 2–3. Does this come as a
surprise? Why do you think the poet has repeated this reference to
the setting? How does this leave you feeling? Has the boy got
away?
It is possible that some students may find this repetition surprising:
it served initially as a fairly simple setting of the scene, the place
where the action is unfolding. The repetition in lines 32–33
apparently marks a return to the peaceful setting of the beginning.
However, by balancing the opening lines and the conclusion, the
poet sets a frame around the description of the hunt, and implies
that the peaceful appearance was deceptive in the first place. The
final scene is overlaid by the emotional exclamatory question
‘rejoindras-tu le continent’. The poet has expressed the hope that
the boy will have escaped, but he also fears that he may be lost and
perhaps drowned. Just as he had seemed to swim in the darkness
(line 23), could he be swimming now? The question is left open,
throwing into relief the themes behind the anecdote: the ideas of
the injustice perpetrated by the adult world and the cruel
victimisation of the child.
10.1 Sometimes, as in the poem ‘La Belle Saison’, Prévert lets facts
speak for themselves, and draws no explicit conclusion. In ‘Chasse
à l’enfant’, however, he implies his own attitude quite directly. On
what grounds might this be described as a poem of protest?
The answer is signalled by the preamble to the question. The
protest is implicit in the description of the events and their cause.
Although no moral or message is stated explicitly, it is evident that
the poet’s sympathies lie totally with the fleeing boy. This arises
directly from the explanation given in lines 9–11, the images of the
hunt and the dismissive, ironical treatment of the pursuers.
10.2 Summarise the wide range of stylistic devices Prévert has chosen to
use here, to support his polemical approach.
The main devices used are: direct speech exclamations (line 1,
etc.), rhetorical questions (lines 5, 23, 24), the twice-uttered
question-exclamation (line 31), metaphor (lines 7 and 19), to
which may be added the repetition of the animal metaphor, albeit
weak, in ‘galope’ / ‘galopent’ in lines 15, 16), simile (line 14),
symbolism (notably the birds and the ‘continent’, as brought
together in lines 31 and 32, to represent freedom), repetitions (as
discussed). The economical narrative, as in lines 9–11, and the
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ironical social comment on the hunters may also be regarded as
stylistic features, and the general night-time setting could be read
as an objective correlative for the darkness of the situation in
which the child is enveloped. Among the stylistic devices should be
included the prosody of the piece: for example, there is
considerable repetition in the assonances of the rhymes and the
verse syllable counts are very wide ranging in this piece of fairly
free verse.
11.1 The poem may arouse high feelings in a reader. Show how these
feelings are designed to stir up moral indignation in readers, to
arouse sympathy for the child-victim.
This question is intended to allow a summary of students’ reactions
to earlier questions, dwelling mainly on the sympathy which
readers are likely to feel for a victim of harsh treatment. This
represents the ‘positive’ message of the poem.
11.2 The poem also imitates and mocks the ‘righteous indignation’ of
the boy’s pursuers. How does it achieve these effects, and how
successfully does the poet create a climate of fear, suggestive of
misuse of power?
Completing question 11.1, this question invites a summary of the
‘negative’ message in the conflict between pursuers and pursued,
notably the self-righteousness of the pursuers, whose indignation
is expressed through the repetition of their shouted refrain. It is
they who consider themselves to be ‘[des] honnêtes gens’, but
their self-proclaimed reasonableness is belied by the brutality of
their hunt. This effect, which suggests the misuse of their power by
these generally well-established adults, is achieved by means of
irony and the juxtaposition of their violence with the boy’s implied
fear. The climate of fear is created by the description of the chase
and the shouting of the hunters, as the boy is treated like a
dangerous animal, to be tracked and shot.
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UNE ENFANT DU SIÈCLE
TEXTE 29
Une enfant du siècle
Christiane Rochefort
Questions
1.1
How, in the first three sentences, does the author suggest that Jo is
being passive, and is perhaps depressed?
The author has adopted a narrative form in which the character,
Josyane (Jo), meditates on her past. Here, she reflects that she
used to be somewhat creative, that she used to write things on bits
of paper. Now, however, she no longer did this. Instead, she would
just look out of the window, pretending to be sewing, watching
people go by in the rain. She evidently felt she should be doing
something, but there was a lethargy about her which does indeed
suggest a passive or depressed state of mind.
1.2
What correlation is there between the setting and Jo’s mood? Do
you think it is appropriate, here, to use rain as part of the setting?
The setting matches Jo’s mood of lethargy or some degree of
depression. It may be worth pointing out that depression is not
the same as boredom. In this small apartment Jo feels hemmed in,
and the falling rain is used as an image, an objective correlative for
her mood. This is a fairly standard image, usually thought to be
appropriate: a cross-reference to Verlaine’s poem ‘Il pleure dans
mon cœur’ (page 171 of the anthology) would serve to illustrate
the association between setting and state of mind.
1.3
By what means, in these sentences, has the author created a sense
that Jo feels enclosed?
The setting is more than just the rain: Jo is enclosed in the flat,
gazing out of the window, for hours on end, looking at an iron
gate, and in an urban environment. The ‘grille’ could also be
suggestive of the bars of a prison.
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2.1
In the fourth sentence, beginning ‘Maintenant on voyait la
grille...’, Jo explains that the family has moved to a bigger flat.
What elements in this explanation suggest that Jo is ‘nobody’s
fool’, that she is a ‘street-wise’ girl?
She comments that they have moved to a bigger flat because the
family is growing bigger. Jo was well aware of all that this implied,
with eleven of them (ten plus Catherine) in four rooms, and
another baby, if not twins, ‘on the way’. Jo is evidently familiar with
the idea of getting an increased state subsidy: the baby ‘en
germination’ might be twins. Jo reports that her parents, working
the system (‘autant en profiter’), had requested even more space.
This ‘street-wise’ approach is reflected also in her comment that
the doctor might have got it wrong about twins: he had made an
equivalent mistake in the past. To Jo, there is nothing ‘romantic’
about the expected baby. She appears to share the cynicism which
she attributed to her parents.
2.2
Comment on the style of this fourth sentence: does it succeed in
suggesting a familiar routine?
The sentence is mainly a series of fairly short clauses, suggesting a
very matter-of-fact, perhaps rather cynical approach to the business
of child-bearing and obtaining a larger flat. These are presented as
familiar activities. The repetition of ‘on’, meaning variously ‘we’
and ‘they’, suggests a rather depersonalised routine.
3.1
Jo’s feelings had hurt her in the past – she had been afraid of the
buildings, for example – but by now she feels empty (‘j’étais vide’).
What does she seem to find unacceptable about the fact that things
are settling into place? What imagery does she use to convey this?
Do you think she is becoming fatalistic?
What Jo found unacceptable was that she was getting used to the
situation, but that it did not involve her feelings much any more.
She used to be afraid of the buildings and to have feelings for the
boys (ils la faisaient ‘brûler’), but now she was disillusioned. She
felt that she had lost such feelings. This is rendered by the image of
her heart, no longer touched by these things, and by her comment
that her head felt like a block of cement. This simile echoes the
idea of the impersonal buildings around her and supplements the
sense of oppression on the rainy day: she herself felt heavily
‘overcast’, like the weather which was not going to clear up that
day. The depressing thought is repeated: ‘ça ne se lèvera pas’, and
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is rendered quite vividly by the switch to the present and future
tenses: ‘Le temps est bouché, ça ne se lèvera pas de la journée...’
Her comment that ‘les choses se plaçaient à leur place je ne sais
pas...’ – that things seemed to be becoming ordered and
predictable – indicates a recognition of their dull ordinariness,
together with a realisation that she did not understand her own
feelings, that she did not quite understand what she meant. Being
aware of this, however dimly, suggests a wish for things to be
different: it is quite a complex attitude and not completely
fatalistic.
3.2
What is meant by the paradoxical wording of the exclamation
‘Mal, bon mal, reviens!’? Why might she welcome a return to her
previous sense of being hurt? What quality has Jo lost in her
response to life?
This exclamation confirms that, though disheartened and dull, Jo
was not passively resigned to her present feelings. Thinking that
she had lost the ability to be responsive, to have real feelings and
the power to assert her own individuality, she personalises the
‘Mal’ to which she had once been sensitive. Emphasising it by
repeating the word, she addresses the pain she had once felt but
had now lost, in the paradoxical request: ‘... bon mal, reviens!’ To
be hurt or upset by life was preferable to indifference, and to not
having any responses to experience.
4.
How effectively does the image of the ‘cul-de-sac’ contribute to Jo’s
feeling of being hemmed in by her life?
Judging ‘effectiveness’ calls for the reader’s personal opinion.
Although being in a cul-de-sac is a fairly commonplace image, it
does express visually the idea of having nowhere to go. The feeling
of being hemmed in is particularly well suggested by the image of
being in a cul-de-sac in both directions. This catches an idea of
frustrating enclosure: not only was she going nowhere, she felt
that she was coming from nowhere as well. The banality of the
image, a measure of the ordinariness of Jo’s circumstances, is
offset by this image of a double dead-end, in which the visual also
has a temporal application: Jo felt that both the past and the future
were blocking her in.
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5.1
What are the narrative advantages of introducing the imaginary
dialogue, beginning with ‘Où vas-tu?’ Does one hear only the voice
of a younger Jo here, or is a more mature voice also present?
The direct speech dramatises the rather abstract meditation which
precedes it. The advantages of introducing dialogue are: (a) it
introduces a variation in the pace and tone of what is effectively a
monologue written in free indirect speech; (b) it makes explicit
the self-questioning which is a basic feature of the extract; (c) it
suggests a division within Jo, as if an older Jo were questioning her
earlier self; (d) it also adds a touch of humour, as Jo briefly makes
fun of herself. When Jo’s own voice asks the further question: ‘Où
est la petite Jo?’, it is as if she were a grown-up asking after the
little girl. However, there is also an added resonance: the question
is reinforced by the rather biblical tone adopted in the
introductory sentence – the sound of a voice on the wind in the
desert: this allows the question to take on a broader significance,
almost equivalent to ‘What has become of the earlier Jo?’ It
becomes a rhetorical question of wider, more universal import.
5.2
Notice that the text takes on a double dimension in visual as well
as auditory terms. Jo pictures herself as she had been as a younger
girl: what makes this image appear poignant?
The auditory reference of the imaginary spoken words, like sounds
in Jo’s ears, is supplemented by the visual image, a memory of
herself as a little girl, confidently running errands. This image has
its own poignancy because of the contrast in scale (‘toute petite
fille au milieu des grandes maisons’). As a little girl, full of herself,
she had been unaware of the oppression she now felt among the
high-rise buildings. This younger self, resilient and self-confident
(‘si faraude’), also offers a poignant contrast with her present selfdoubts and lack of confidence.
6.
What is Jo’s main sentiment when her thoughts turn to death, to
her own death?
Beyond remembering the idea that a dying man’s life passes before
his eyes, Jo’s main sentiment is that of her own solitude and
insignificance. She pictured herself small and alone among the
impersonal houses, overwhelmed by the image of a seemingly
endless vista, which is suggested by the largely unpunctuated
sentence: ‘Maisons maisons maisons maisons’.
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7.1
Jo imagines herself talking to Guido, associating the Italian
builder with freedom in the countryside. Why do you think she
should ask him if he builds these houses which oppress her? Does
she imagine that he is calling her name?
She asks this because she associates Guido with the countryside.
The urban housing, in contrast, represents oppression,
claustrophobia. Jo was speaking to herself and during this
conversation going on in her head, she imagines a voice calling out
behind her: ‘Jo! je me retournais; et personne.’ These are
recognisable signs of loneliness and, in context, distress.
7.2
What evidence in the text could explain why Jo thinks she is
probably going mad? In the sentence beginning ‘C’est probablement
ce qui m’arrivait...’, how does the punctuation help to express Jo’s
state of mind?
Most immediately, it was because she was imagining a conversation
with the absent Guido that she felt she was perhaps going mad.
Thinking that she could hear his voice behind her, she had even
imagined that he had perhaps come back. Realising the extent of
her delusion and depression, she corrected herself: no, she was
not going mad, but her ‘soul’ was being deadened; she felt that she
was dying in this place, alienated. In the sequence ‘c’est ça devenir
une grande personne cette fois j’y étais je commençais à piger’, the
breakdown in punctuation expresses her disorientation. In a quick
accumulation of sensations and ideas, she has a rapid, as-it-were
breathless, realisation that this is what growing up is all about.
8.
What does she imagine that growing up means? Comment on the
placing of the adverb ‘éternellement’ (top of page 128).
She associated growing up with dying. Growing up means feeling
that you are going mad, being trapped in a dead-end, preserved in
aspic (like a bit of food), mending an apron – for ever and ever.
The adverb ‘éternellement’, placed at the end of the sentence,
emphasises the feeling of unending monotony, of a dull existence
of domesticity whose banality is the more oppressive for seeming
to be hopeless.
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9.
How well does Jo express the contrast between body and soul,
oppression and freedom? Is her expression a cliché or does her
choice of words, suggesting an opposition between stasis and
movement, make her statement memorable?
A personal response is looked for here. The sentiment in the
words ‘Si on a une âme on devient fou, et c’est ce qui m’arrive’ is
picked up in the sentence ‘L’homme est composé d’un corps et
d’une âme...’. Whereas the first statement (‘Si on a une âme...’) is
brief and rather self-deprecating, the second is more fully
developed: this phrase is a set expression, though not exactly a
cliché. Jo has taken the set expression and applied it to her own
circumstances, associating the body with the houses and urban
control, oppression and stasis, and the soul with the countryside,
and especially with the idea of movement in the hills, suggesting
light-hearted freedom.
10.
Jo, still with a trace of idealism, feels that she is longing for
something, but she does not know what this ‘quelque chose’ might
be. How effectively do you feel the author has conveyed this sense
of undirected yearning? What is the point of Jo’s use of the stock
phrase which is used at the beginning of a fairy tale: ‘Il y avait
une fois...’ ?
Again, a personal response is invited. Jo retained a vestige of
idealism, a longing for her life to be other than it was. The use of
indeterminate pronouns (‘quelque part’, ‘quelque chose’) and of
negatives (‘...je n’aurais pas’, ‘je ne savais pas’, ‘qui n’existait pas’)
emphasises a strong feeling of absence, of something lost.
Although the countryside has been presented as an image of
freedom, Jo’s mind could not focus on any specific location. Her
feeling of emptiness and her unfocused yearning are made quite
touching by the use of the ‘fairy tale’ opening. ‘Il y avait une fois’
(like ‘il était une fois’ – equivalent to ‘once upon a time’) shows Jo
once again stepping outside herself, imagining her situation in
terms of a fairy tale, in a somewhat self-mocking way, as if to
mitigate her feelings. The non-existent fairy tale is about absence
and loss: there is no subject, just as she too was feeling that her life
was about nothing, had no point. The phrase represents a
momentary effort to escape from this sensation of the
pointlessness of things.
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11.
In the last four sentences of the extract, the focus returns to the
first picture of Jo at the window, looking out at the rain and the
iron gate. What image of herself is she trying to recapture here?
Does she succeed in doing so?
Jo was now trying to recapture the picture of herself as a little girl,
when she had been confident and seemingly carefree. The text
states that she almost managed to recapture this image (‘j’arrivais
presque à la voir’), i.e. she did not succeed. The abrupt shift from
the hypothetical fairy tale to the thought of her earlier self suggests
that this earlier self could be the subject of the tale: the former,
carefree self was now something that did not exist. This expresses
Jo’s feelings of the loss and disillusionment. Looking through the
rain, she cannot see clearly, and the phrase ‘Je regardais la grille
jusqu’à ce que mes yeux se brouillent’, which suggests an intense
concentration, implies also that there were now tears in her eyes.
This feeling of loss and futility is rendered by the last two short
references to the teeming rain, in which Jo’s emotion is shown by
the refrain-like repetition of the words ‘Ça ne se lèvera pas’.
12.1 From the passage as a whole, does the text strike you primarily as
a piece of written French or does it seem like a transcription of
spoken French? Whichever you choose, is there anything about the
punctuation and the choice of vocabulary which justifies your
choice?
Though obviously ‘written’, the text is presented primarily as a
reflection of the thoughts of an adolescent girl, using some of the
characteristics of spoken French. In places, the punctuation is
irregular, and there are various lexical or syntactic indicators of
‘oral’ familiarity: for example, the widespread use of ‘ça’ and the
inclusion of familiar terms, as shown in the glossary (‘môme’,
‘trucs’, ‘piger’), and of verbless sentences ( e.g. ‘Plus maintenant’,
‘La pluie, des gens’, ‘De la pluie’, ‘Nulle part’). The question ‘Où
j’allais?’, with no inversion, suggests conversational as opposed to
formal French. It is noticeable that when Jo adopts an older
personality she drops this chatty tone and uses instead the
standard formal inversion: ‘Où vas-tu?’, ‘D’où viens-tu?’ The
‘written’ French indicators are also evident, notably in those
aspects of the punctuation which follow meticulous editorial
usage, as in the use of direct-speech markers, and in the fact that
most sentences are complete sentences, albeit including the
common French practice of linking uncoordinated main clauses by
commas, as in ‘Les phrases allaient et venaient, il y en avait qui
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sortaient de derrière moi, je me retournais, personne.’ The use of
the past historic tense in ‘ils le mirent sur la demande’ is a formal
or written French marker, whereas the adoption of the future
tense in the repeated phrase ‘Ça ne se lèvera pas’ gives an effect of
direct speech (see also question 3.1).
12.2 Jo’s mood may perhaps seem to be melancholy, but the tone has a
certain humour. This may include black humour, i.e. the use of
humour when treating subjects which are not in themselves
amusing, or which may actually be intrinsically distressing or
tragic. What evidence of humour do you find in the passage?
Jo’s ‘mood’, her attitude towards herself, and the tone, or the
attitude of the character or author towards the reader, are often
combined. This is found, for example, in the humorous sequence:
‘La pluie, des gens. C’était des gens. De la pluie’, which also plays
on the rhetorical device of the chiasmus. It is found also in the
dramatised conversation: ‘– Où vas-tu? [...] – De nulle part’, in
which Jo makes fun of herself. The satire in ‘Il y avait une fois
quelque chose qui n’existait pas’ is a form of self-deprecating
humour: the mood is melancholy, but the tone humorous, as it is
also in the non-sentence: ‘Maisons maisons maisons maisons’. A
humorous tone is perceptible in the inclusion of terms of formal
register or terms resembling offialese: ‘pour cause d’accroissement
de famille’, ‘en germination’, within the otherwise largely
conversational tone. The humour in the treatment of the initial
situation, which presents Jo’s family as fairly stereotypical
exploiters of the social services, could be thought to be a form of
‘black’ humour, less for its satire of social scroungers than for the
context in which Jo’s distress, her mainly melancholy alienation,
are the dominant mood.
13.
Exercice de langue
Ecrivez en français un essai (environ 120 mots) qui commence
ainsi: ‘Moi aussi, quand j’étais plus jeune, je...’ Décrivez dans
votre essai une expérience mémorable ou des ambitions que vous
avez eues mais que vous avez maintenant abandonnées.
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ALORS ARRIVÈRENT LES VACANCES . . .
TEXTE 30
Alors arrivèrent les vacances . . .
Christiane Rochfort
Correction on page 133 of the student anthology: the fourth glossary
item should read ‘a 15-ton truck’.
Questions
1.
Summarise in your own words the events described in the extract.
Show how the narrator gradually builds up to the point at which
Patrick is put out of the car.
Students will make their own summary. Many of the details are also
picked up again in later questions. The theme leading up to
Patrick’s being put out of the car is introduced from early in the
extract, when he asks to be allowed drive, ‘rien qu’un peu’.
Especially as his father was such an incompetent and dangerous
driver, this was intended as a modest request, though Patrick also
commented dismissively that he thought he could drive at least as
well as his father. Thereafter, the irritation and anger of the father
and the scorn and anxiety of the son become the central leitmotif
of the narrative, accompanied by the anxieties of most of the other
passengers. There is an increasing urgency in Patrick’s exchanges
with his father. Beginning with Patrick’s embarrassment whenever
his father was shouted at by other drivers, they lead up to Patrick’s
own insulting comment that he would rather be an orphan than
dead. On an earlier occasion, Patrick had almost been slapped by
his father but had been saved when his father had to put his hand
back on the steering-wheel to avoid running into a tree. Finally, his
father hit him, as the car had not yet started off again, and Patrick,
left by the roadside, was triumphant. The extract concludes when
his father, conceding that Patrick will have been taught a lesson,
performed a dangerous U-turn and drove back to pick him up,
only to find that Patrick had disappeared.
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2.
What are the main characteristics of the father, Maurice? Is the
pride that he takes in his car seen as a good quality or as a defect
of character? Why, in your opinion, are the nouns in ‘Tenue de la
Route’ written with capital letters? What is his attitude towards
(a) his own driving, (b) other road users, (c) the members of his
family?
This is largely a comprehension question, requiring, however,
some interpretation or synthesis. Jo refers to her father variously
as ‘papa’, ‘le père’, and ‘le vieux’, presenting him as a bad driver
(he is also a ‘chauffard’) and a self-centred, arrogant, vulgar,
irritable, domineering, disputatious and small-minded man whose
excessive and unquestioning pride in his car illustrates his
defective character. He thinks that his old car should be able to
overtake anything on the road. His pride in the vehicle’s ‘Tenue de
la Route’ – a merely technical feature, but presented with capital
letters to reflect the importance of its roadholding in Maurice’s
eyes – is turned against him by Jo. Maurice’s driving is so bad that
Jo comments that its reputation for good roadholding must be
true: if the car’s roadholding were not so good, his driving would
not keep it on the road for very long. In the words ‘Tenue de la
Route’, the capital letters therefore contribute to the satirical
dimension of the story. They may also be regarded as the
equivalent of inverted commas, representing Maurice’s own words
and self-satisfied tone. Maurice is proud of his driving and enjoys
the self-respect and sense of power which it gives him. His
arrogance shows in his bad manners to the other drivers: he is
unconcerned about them and does not appear at all bothered
when they shout insults at him for his terrible driving. The author
produces a a cartoon-like picture of drivers hurling insults at him.
His attitude towards the members of his family is overbearing and
bullying, short-tempered, impatient; he nearly runs into a plane
tree when he takes a hand off the steering wheel to hit Patrick; he
looks at his watch impatiently, afraid that his average speed will be
reduced when he stops for Catherine’s sake. He embodies lack of
consideration. Although Jo comments that he has a soft spot for
Patrick, the only affection he shows is for the car, though his actual
treatment of the car is not unlike his treatment of the other
people. Since his pride is injured by Patrick’s remarks, his way of
dealing with Patrick is a particular focus of the extract.
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3.
Why does their father have a soft spot for his eldest son, Patrick?
What seems to be Patrick’s main attitude towards his father? How
did Patrick behave in the car? In your opinion, did he deserve to be
left at the roadside? What did Patrick himself think about this?
Maurice has a soft spot for Patrick because, as the the eldest son,
Patrick ‘continues’ the father; he is the male heir. As narrator, Jo is
rather mocking about this. Patrick is embarrassed by his father and
his main attitude is one of disdain and superiority: he criticises his
father’s driving and lectures him righteously about giving priority
to the right in a built-up area. He also insults Maurice crudely and
he eventually seems pleased and relieved to be left out of the car,
though at this point the extract does not show Patrick’s point of
view directly: it is Jo, as narrator, who states that Patrick was
gloating when he was left at the roadside, presumably because he
now felt safe from his father’s driving. Did he deserve to be put out
of the car? – Students’ opinions will no doubt differ.
4.
How effectively does the writer convey the impression of a car full
of people? Work out where each person was sitting in the car.
Examine the roles played by Jo’s mother and by the other children.
Do you think that these characters are treated sympathetically by
the narrator? Is this a united family?
The narrative gives a clear impression of a packed car. It is possible
to work out where each person is. Jo is in the back of the car with
Nicolas and half of Catherine sitting on her knees, and the twins
squashed up together in the other corner of the back seat,
jabbering away together, independently of the others. At first,
Chantal is also in the back seat. Patrick is in the front, between his
father and mother. The father is driving, and the mother eventually
has Chantal on her knee, beside the window, in case she has to be
sick. Each is assigned a characteristic, so that they are distinguished
from one another: Jo – evidently looking after the others in the
back seat, and of course serving as eyes and ears for the reader;
Chantal – on the point of being sick; Catherine – in danger of
wetting herself; the twins – packed in tight, looking out the
window and chattering in their own made-up language, in a private
world of their own; Nicolas – picking flowers when the car stops
and letting them go in the air; Patrick – complaining about the
driving. Their mother is characterised as protective, long-suffering,
rather timorous, afraid they will be killed (‘le platane’ is the stock
term used in French for running into a tree beside the road),
changing wet pants, objecting, though weakly, to Patrick’s being
190
left behind, then insisting on going back for him; she has more
force of character when she argues with Maurice, which contrasts
with the first feeble objection she had made (‘Maurice...’), when
Patrick was told to get out of the car. Compared with the father,
the rest are presented relatively sympathetically. All are shown as
victims of the father’s character and of his driving. The obvious
discomfort of Catherine and Chantal may arouse some degree of
sympathy in the reader, though Jo herself does not seem
particularly interested in them, other than as irritants to her father.
Nicolas, whose role is very limited, is treated sympathetically –
sitting on Jo’s knee in the car, and playing with flowers during a
stop. The twins kept out of the squabbling, paying no attention to
what was going on in the car. Some students may think that the
twins had the right idea, for this is a far from united family, unless
one counts their being united in discomfort.
5.
Does the passage convey a realistic image of family life, in your
view? The story is told from the point of view of the narrator, Jo.
However, Jo herself appears to have a subordinate role: she
literally has a ‘back seat’. Why do you think she refers to her
parents, for the most part, as ‘le père’ and ‘la mère’?
Students will probably have varying views on the degree of realism,
but they may well judge that the image of family life is not without
truth. In general, Jo is placed almost as if she were an outside
observer, even though she is a member of the family and is
certainly not a neutral onlooker, stating baldly that her father
‘conduisait comme un cochon’ and that she was very scared in the
car. However, the emphasis is mainly on her role as an observer
rather than as a participant. This device is part of the evocation of
her sense of alienation (see also Text 29). This in turn is
underlined by her use of the rather impersonal ‘le père’ and ‘la
mère’, a pejorative way, here, of designating one’s parents.
Although the word ‘papa’, implying a potential for affection, is
used at the very beginning of the extract, ‘le père’ is the common
term afterwards, reducing the father primarily to a function. The
family, as a group of largely self-centred individuals, is one of the
dehumanising forces bearing down on Jo. The description of the
journey is satirical, and the characters are in effect caricatures,
which lends humour to the piece.
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6.1
Parts of the story are dramatised: do you think that dialogue is
used convincingly?
This question is intended to encourage the expression of personal
views. The dialogue is likely to seem convincing, with its
conversational idiom, the dropping of the ‘ne’ in the negative,
short – sometimes verbless – sentences, exclamations and sharp
retorts.
6.2
What does the use of familiar language add to the humour of the
passage? Do any of the incidents contribute to the humour?
Comedy is produced by the use of familiar vocabulary, some of
which is pointed out in the glossary, including the abnormal
spelling of ‘Oké’ and the use of vulgar terms (‘merde’, ‘conneries’).
The lack of punctuation in some direct speech (‘Je vais te laisser
sur la route tu vas voir !’) also adds a lighter touch. The general
tale of Patrick’s dispute with his father, beginning in the third
paragraph and continuing to the brief sentence at the end of the
extract, which states baldly that Patrick was no longer where they
had left him, provides a comic framework. Within this framework,
various events are handled in quite a comic way: the incident with
the 15-ton lorry (‘priorité à droite’ – the father did not have
priority, despite what he said, but in any case ‘un si gros que ça a
toujours la priorité’, insists Patrick), the arrogant father then taking
a bend on the wrong side of the road, the pun on the word ‘droite’
and Maurice’s failed attempt to hit Patrick because he had to grab
the steering wheel to avoid crashing, the episode of Catherine’s
‘pipi’, Maurice’s complaint about having his average speed
reduced, and the delayed ‘beigne’, in which the familiar term
‘beigne’ becomes, more seriously, ‘sa gifle’ when Patrick is finally
hit, though Patrick’s defiant reaction turns even this into slapstick.
7.
In summary, what do you take to be the main themes of the
passage? Does any one theme strike you as being more important
than the others?
The main themes could be defined as, for example: family
relationships, paternal intolerance, maternal care, family discord,
obedience and disobedience, the disciplining of a child, children’s
spirit of independence or rebellion, alienation, car driving and
driving etiquette. If there is a single dominant theme, it is probably
that of the father’s character and attitudes, and the disproportion
between the pettiness of his words and actions and the dignity
which he thinks he has when he is behind the wheel of the car,
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‘plein d’allant, de dynamisme, d’autorité’. Students could also be
asked whether they think there is a moral in the story, though the
text itself does not come across as overtly pedagogical.
8.
Language practice. Oral exercises
8.1
Emphasis. In spoken French, unlike English, the main emphasis
commonly falls on the last syllable of a word or a phrase. Practise
the pronunciation of the following, placing the emphasis on the
italicised syllables:
–
–
–
–
8.2
priorité
accélérant
victorieusement
Papa conduisait comme un cochon.
Placing the emphases in the same way, say the following out loud:
– Aux arrêts, Nicolas cueillait des fleurs.
– C’était un autre homme: plein d’allant, de dynamisme,
d’autorité.
– Il s’offrait une petite récréation.
Normally, the main stress will fall on the last syllable of the wordgroup. For native English speakers, the correct placing of normal
stresses is not necessarily easy, especially in polysyllables which
also resemble English words, such as ‘Nicolas’, ‘dynamisme’,
‘autorité’, ‘récréation’.
– Aux arrêts, Nicolas cueillait des fleurs.
– C’était un autre homme: plein d’allant, de dynamisme,
d’autorité.
– Il s’offrait une petite récréation.
The same exercise could be practised with proper names of two
syllables or more, especially those which have the same or similar
forms in both English and French, for example: Christine,
Margaret, Catherine, Bernard, Michel, Antoine, Dorothée,
Dominique. The names of authors listed on pp. iii–iv (the Contents
pages) of the Vivre c’est lire Anthology could be used for this
exercise.
The placing of stresses may of course vary according to context
and the degree of emphasis desired: e.g. ‘ce n’était pas lui, c’était
un autre homme’.
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8.3
French intonation. There are many variations in French
intonation patterns; however, a basic pattern in French commonly
uses a rising intonation within a sentence, followed by a falling
intonation at the end of the sentence on the last emphasised
syllable. Say the following sentences using this pattern:
– J’en ai marre à la fin, de ce morveux.
– Un si gros que ça a toujours la priorité.
Rising intonation on the first two stresses, falling intonation on the
third.
8.4
Using the same general intonation pattern, say the following
sentences out loud:
– Il pensait que quitter sa belle voiture c’était un châtiment
suprême.
– J’aime mieux être orphelin que d’être mort.
– Toujours à critiquer ce que font les autres.
– Il pensait que quitter sa belle voiture c’était un châtiment
suprême.
– J’aime mieux être orphelin que d’être mort.
– Toujours à critiquer ce que font les autres.
8.5
Practise the emphases and some intonation patterns of spoken
French by producing a dramatic performance of the above story,
allocating roles to members of the class.
The exchanges on p. 133 of the anthology may lend themselves
particularly well to this exercise. One or two students could also
be invited to share the role of narrator, adapting relevant parts of
the text as required.
194
UN HOMME D’AFFAIRES EXTRAORDINAIRE
TEXTE 31
Un homme d’affaires extraordinaire
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Questions
1.
In the first exchange with the little prince, how well does the writer
dramatise the businessman, making him seem like a real person?
Students are asked for a personal value-judgement here. The
dramatisation is effected through direct speech, consisting mainly
of a series of numbers, to which are added small ‘human’ touches.
These are clearly intended to make what could otherwise be a very
cardboard figure seem more like a real person. The prince’s
‘bonjour’ and his comment that the businessman’s cigarette needs
lighting produce: (1) the preoccupied ‘bonjour’, inserted as a kind
of aside while the man is preoccupied in adding up his sums; (2)
his reply, after further calculations, that he does not have time to
light it; finally (3) his exclamation ‘Ouf!’– a conventional
interjection to represent a big sigh – before he recites the
somewhat fantastic total: 501,622,731.
2.
Describe the main characteristics of the businessman.
The businessman is vain, arrogant, self-centred, self-serving. He
thinks he is important and highly efficient. The repetition of ‘je
suis sérieux, moi’, juxtaposed with the uselessness of his activity,
demonstrates his blinkered, vainglorious character. He
concentrates on figures to the exclusion of human values and
resents the interruption by the little prince. He is placed in a
ludicrous position, counting, as it were, for the sake of counting,
and complaining that he had been interrupted by a bird, twentytwo years earlier, which disturbed him by falling with a ‘bruit
épouvantable’, and then, eleven years later, by rheumatism,
because he did not get enough exercise. The prince’s arrival is his
third interruption. To him, possession and quantity are intrinsically
desirable, to the exclusion of human values, understanding and,
one might say, common sense.
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3.
The passage contrasts a child’s innocence with the misdirected
experience of the adult. This is done mainly by means of a
dialogue that focuses on an argument about values. What are
these values?
In the broader context of the story, Saint-Exupéry deals with
approaches to ‘grown-up’ and child-like approaches to knowledge.
The passage illustrates this by contrasting the imaginative and the
utilitarian. The argument, built around the question of the nature
of ‘possession’, suggests the ultimate vanity of the pursuit of
utilitarian gain, and questions the notion of ‘practical’ activity. This
is expressed as an argument between idealistic human values,
associated with the freshness and innocence of the child, and the
illusoriness of dehumanising adult experience.
4.
Find four or five examples of satirical exaggeration in the
presentation of the argument.
Examples of satirical exaggeration: the terrible noise of a falling
bird, the magnitude of the businessman’s figures, this magnitude
combined with meticulous precision (‘je suis précis’), the implied
repetition of the whole figure (‘cinq cent un millions...’etc.) with
each addition, the years spent counting, as indicated by the
reference to his having been disturbed twenty-two years earlier,
the ideas of possessing and ‘managing’ the stars, placing them in
the bank for safe keeping and counting them. On this point SaintExupéry has also adopted the stock image of the miser.
5.
Which do you consider the more persuasive, the arguments of the
businessman or those of the little prince? How does the writer
weight the argument?
Students are asked for a personal opinion here on the way the
writer has presented the ideas of possession and the meaning of
wealth. An argument could be set up in favour of keeping up
appearances and possession (of wealth, no doubt, rather than of
stars) as against service and modesty. However, from the
beginning, the argument is weighted against the businessman and
in favour of the little prince. This is achieved by the evocation of
the businessman’s handling of the figures, his insistence on the
amount of work he has to do, his rejection of childish nonsense,
his failure to remember the word ‘étoiles’, as well as his idea that
stars – or anything else that is not already owned by someone –
can be possessed. His insistence on his seriousness, combined with
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the vanity of his attitudes and actions, weights the argument
decisively in favour of the little prince. The notion that possession
may consist of writing figures on a piece of paper and putting it
into a drawer is a satire on banking. When the businessman speaks
down to the prince with his verbal quibble that ‘Les rois ne
possèdent pas. Ils règnent sur’, he reveals himself also as a pedant.
This foolishness contrasts with the modesty, innocence and
directness of the little prince. In contrast with the opinionated
businessman, the prince is willing to learn. His views about the
nature of possession are couched relatively realistically in terms of
his scarf and his flower. Even though, to the businessman, he is a
nuisance, one of the unimportant people, he is shown to be
practical: watering the flower, sweeping out the volcano. As
opposed to the businessman’s selfishness, the little prince is
presented as a naive idealist with a concept of service to others.
This is an argument from utility which leaves the businessman with
nothing to say. The idea of sweeping out the extinct volcano as
well, which may appear to be as futile as the businessman’s notion
of possession of the stars, emphasises in a humorous, understated
way the principle of acting through good will for others rather
than through self-interest.
6.
Towards the end of the passage, the little prince comments: ‘C’est
assez poétique. Mais ce n’est pas très sérieux.’ This gently
contradicts the businessman’s repeated assertion that he is
‘sérieux’. In what way could the little prince’s words be seen as a
summary of the episode?
What the little prince found to be ‘assez poétique’ was the idea of
writing down the number of stars and locking the number in a
drawer: i.e. this is a pointless objective by its own standards, but its
pathos, its very uselessness suggests an element of idealism. The
little prince sees this as an amusing practice, his judgement being
gently mitigated by the adverbs in ‘assez poétique’ and ‘pas très
sérieux’. This points to the contradiction in the businessman. The
word ‘poétique’, used by the little prince as a term of approval,
could possibly be read also, in this context, as meaning ‘illusory’.
The little prince’s comment brings together two underlying ideas
of the extract: his own idealistic, ‘poetic’ search for knowledge,
contrasted with the would-be ‘practical’ but actually pointless
activity represented by the businessman.
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7.
Language practice
7.1
Revise the French practice in writing cardinal numbers.
7.2
Say the following calculations out loud in French, and complete
them with the correct answers, choosing from the following models:
‘douze et trois font quinze’, ‘douze plus trois égale quinze’; ‘quatre
fois trois font douze’, ‘quatre multiplié par trois égale douze’;
‘treize moins cinq égale huit’, ‘treize ôtez cinq reste huit’; ‘dix
divisé par deux égale cinq’:
23 + 8 =
32 + 29 =
47 + 24 =
59 + 22 =
80 + 21 =
24 – 7 =
33 – 6 =
48 – 21 =
81 – 22 =
108 – 20 =
7×3=
8×9=
9×7=
12 × 9 =
17 × 13 =
18 ÷ 3 =
100 ÷ 4 =
156 ÷ 13 =
170 ÷ 4 =
204 ÷ 8 =
Vingt-trois et huit font trente-et-un. Trente-deux plus vingt-neuf
égale soixante-et-un. Etc.
7.3
Note the use of the word ‘le businessman’ in French. From your
dictionary or your general knowledge, find five other nouns which
are originally English but are in common use in French.
Note that in English ‘business man’ is sometimes spelt as two
words: not in French. A few examples of English words used in
French:
le
le
le
le
le
le
la
le
le
le
boycott (whence also: boycotter, le boycottage)
bridge
budget
business
football (whence: le foot, footballeur, footballeuse)
leader (also: le leadership)
superstar (note the gender)
web
week-end (usually hyphenated in French)
zip
Such terms should be generally distinguished from the Frenchified
borrowings which do not quite correspond to English usage, such
as ‘le tennisman’, ‘les waters’ (toilets), les WC (toilet, but plural in
French – ‘aller aux WC’ – and pronounced as ‘les double-vécés’ or
simply ‘les vécés’).
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More advanced students could be offered information about
French policies designed to restrict what is regarded as the
intrusion of English or American words into French.
7.4
Oral exercise. Taking turns to play the roles of the little prince and
the businessman, organise a dramatised reading of the passage.
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UNE PERSPECTIVE FRANÇAISE SUR L’ECOSSE
TEXTE 32
Une perspective française sur l’Ecosse
Jules Verne
Questions
1.
According to this account, what appears to have been a suitable
means of travel from central Edinburgh to Callander in the midnineteenth century?
Take a railway train from central Edinburgh to Newhaven, then a
paddle steamer from Granton Pier to Stirling, calling at some
landing stages on the way. Thereafter, travel by train from Stirling
to Callander. The journey will take quite a long time: notice Starr’s
early start.
2.
Starr’s walk through Edinburgh resembles a pretext for an early
form of ‘cultural tourism’. Do the details ring true? How could this
have been an effective way of setting the Scottish scene for a
French reader of the time?
Students will have their own views on whether or not the details of
the presentation ring true – rain, the Canongate, Holyrood Palace,
Waverley, etc., not forgetting a dutiful gesture to the kilt and
goatskin sporran. Walter Scott’s writings were a major European
influence in the nineteenth century. For an educated French
reader, familiar with some history and with works by Scott, the
details chosen could well have proved effective. Since Verne refers
to features of the town which his main character, James Starr, does
not notice, he is manifestly selecting local references likely to
appeal to his readers. He is also suggesting that Starr, ‘vrai fils de la
vieille Calédonie’, is so well integrated into the setting that he pays
almost no attention to it. Students should be informed that to
French readers, Scotland itself, at that time remote from France,
would have seemed mysterious and romantic. This question is
designed to encourage students to look up some of the local
details, if necessary. The references to John Knox and especially to
Mary Queen of Scots, who was also Queen of France, could have
been expected to appeal to interested and reasonably well-read
French people.
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3.1
How effectively does Verne render the impression of a busy
passenger steamer at Granton, preparing for its journey?
This is intended mainly as a comprehension question. The
description is relatively short and may be judged the more effective
for that. Reference to the swirling black smoke, the roar of the
boiler and the ringing of the ship’s bell suggests the preparations
for departure. The quick description of crowds of passengers –
merchants, farmers and ministers of religion, rushing to get there
before the boat leaves – creates the impression of a busy landing
stage. The writer completes this by describing Starr jumping
smartly aboard, but not being the last to arrive.
3.2
Before the steamer departs, what details of ‘local colour’ does
Verne include to suggest that the passengers are accustomed to this
trip?
Verne states that, despite the teeming rain, none of the passengers
sought shelter in the boat’s saloon: instead they are presented,
implicitly, as hardy people who stayed out on the deck, standing
still but well wrapped up for the trip. The implication is that they
have prepared themselves for a journey they are used to, and that
they are braced for the rain and the cold. Some of the passengers
have brought flasks of gin or whisky to drink during the journey.
This, suggests Verne, is a recognised practice: they keep
themselves warm by also ‘getting dressed on the inside’.
4.
When the boat journey begins, Verne again adopts the mode of a
tourist guide, to describe something of the scenery and its
historical associations. This is interspersed with Starr’s thoughts
about the circumstances of his trip.
4.1
What are his main preoccupations during the journey?
Starr is mainly preoccupied by the letters he has received, his ‘plus
gros souci’ arising from the countermanded request. He wonders
what is going on, and is anxious that he may be being watched. He
also wonders if he will be met at Callander, reflecting that miners,
accustomed to working underground, do not like the kind of bad
weather that they are experiencing. Simon Ford’s son Harry could
be delayed. Starr tells himself that if he is not met at the station in
Callander he will go on alone to the Dochart pit. The elements of
an adventure story are being put into place.
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4.2
What is special, in Starr’s mind, about the mine at Alloa?
Finding himself at Alloa for the first time in ten years, Starr reflects
that the Alloa mine is still a working and profitable mine, bringing
wealth to the area by giving employment to a large number of
miners. This makes it special because other neighbouring mines
(Starr was obviously thinking of his old mine) were worked out
and no longer employed anyone. In this way, the reference to
Alloa is tied in with the main line of the story. The statement that
the ‘mines d’Alloa [sont] presque contiguës à celles d’Aberfoyle’ is
an example of Jules Verne’s ‘poetic licence’ with place names,
referred to in the introductory note on page 143; the two places
are more than 25 miles apart.
4.3
How graphic do you find the references to the weather and the
passing scenery in this part of the extract?
Students will no doubt have their own views about the quality of
this narrative-description. In the paragraphs relating to the passage
from Granton Pier to Crombie Point, places are named and some
associations are briefly evoked. Later on, however, not very much
is actually visible since the scene is set on a rainy, squally December
day. There is quite an energetic description of the rain in the
sentence ‘La pluie, fouettée par une brise violente [...] passaient
comme des trombes’, and the few statements about the weather
may appear realistic enough. On the other hand, what can be seen
is ultimately very limited. In the paragraph from ‘Cependant, le
Prince de Galles continuait à soulever de grosses lames...’ to
‘...n’étaient même pas visibles à travers les rayures obliques de la
pluie’, Verne returns to the tourist mode, with a list of places
which, the narrative states, were mostly not visible. When the boat
was on the winding river between Alloa and Stirling, a bright
interval allowed a glimpse of Cambuskenneth Abbey; then the town
of Stirling, the castle and two bridges came into view. There is
nothing detailed in these descriptions; indeed, ‘descriptions’ is
hardly the right word. Largely hidden by fog or rain, the
‘references’ mentioned in the question are essentially a list of
names and associations – rather as though a guide were saying:
‘What you can’t see on your left is the interesting 13th-century
square tower of Airth (‘Ayrth’) Castle...’ There might be some
resonance in the list, and the Scottishness of the names would
have had a certain exotic appeal for a French readership. The
references to places may perhaps be judged to be less graphic than
informative and only potentially interesting. To readers unfamiliar
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with the area, they may seem like a picturesque list of Scotssounding names. Those who know the area well may query the
accuracy of some features or formulations – for example, the idea
that ‘les sommets neigeux des monts Grampian’ were visible upriver from Queensferry (page 145).
5.
This is the beginning of the narration of an adventure story. Do
you think that Verne succeeds in holding the reader’s attention
both for the main narrative of Starr’s reflections and in the
background descriptions?
This question invites students to offer their own opinions. There is
probably a reasonable balance between the narrative and the
descriptive interludes, but on the whole these two elements of the
story are not closely integrated. The narration of Starr’s reflections
on his situation (page 146) is interlarded into the largely touristlike descriptions, which may themselves seem sometimes rather
dutiful. The main narrative picks up markedly in the last few lines
of the extract, when Starr arrives in Stirling and travels on to
Callander. After the relatively leisurely account of the journey by
boat, fairly brisk sentences finally increase the pace. This suggests
that, following a picturesque preamble, the action is at last getting
under way.
6.
Exercice de langue
Rédigez en français un essai qui évoque un voyage – réel ou
imaginaire – à travers une ville ou un paysage. Adoptez le ton
d’un guide touristique pour signaler des endroits intéressants, y
compris leurs associations historiques, littéraires ou autres.
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LIRE, C’EST SENTIR
TEXTE 33
Lire, c’est sentir
Dorothée Letessier
This extract touches on the theme of the collection as whole – vivre,
c’est lire – and presents some attitudes towards reading novels and
towards the book as physical object. The extract may be read in conjunction with the other Letessier passage (Text 14). Parts of the text may
also suggest links with other authors in the collection, including, for
example, Christiane Rochefort (Texts 29 and 30), Flaubert for the idea of
personal involvement with fictional subject-matter, as evoked in Madame
Bovary’s response to the opera (Text 24), or Camus for the theme of
being out-of-sorts with one’s way of life, illustrated through the situation
of Janine (Text 17).
Questions
1.
Why does Maryvonne not buy a new jumper for herself while she is
in the shop?
She will not buy a new jumper because she regards this as bending
the rules of her life: it is something that she will only do on
paydays or to cheer herself up when she is feeling very low.
2.
What kinds of novel does Maryvonne like best, and what is it
about them that she enjoys?
She prefers long novels because they last for days on end, and
especially novels by women writers. She likes to become familiar
with the characters, and in long novels she feels she is spending a
long time living with them. She also enjoys thinking about them
when she has finished a session of reading; when she starts each
new chapter, she feels that she is meeting them again, as if they are
friends. She is sensitive to the atmosphere of such novels, their
‘climat’: to her, they have a language which takes her out of
herself.
3.
Judging by Maryvonne’s comments towards the end of the first
paragraph, would you say that she is much affected by her reading?
She enjoys reading so much that she often feels the urge to reply
to the author, but she never does so, because she is afraid that
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what she might write could be a judgement on herself and that she
might somehow break the spell of her first reading impressions,
her ‘émotion première’. This suggests that she is strongly affected
by her reading. Also, as an adolescent, she spent rainy Sundays
reading so much that what she calls the frontier between her own
life and other people’s lives became blurred. Her reading also
stimulated her to write. She looked on her own future life as if it
were a novel, and kept a journal in which she wrote about her life
grandiloquently – ‘avec... emphase’– as if she were writing war
memoirs. The implication is that she wrote exaggeratedly about
herself, as if to make her life seem more interesting. Reading (and
writing) may be presented, here, partly as an escape, but they are
also seen as a means of realising her own self. From all this, one
may conclude that her reading had a powerful effect on her.
4.
What evidence is there, in the second paragraph, that Maryvonne is
feeling ill at ease?
The first clue is in the word ‘déjà’: Maryvonne obviously regrets
that the night has drawn in so soon. There is weariness in her
thought that the winter seems endless. Then, at the hotel, she feels
that the manager is spying on her, and that her announcement that
dinner is at 7.30 is a form of regimentation. The patronne’s sharp
tone is shown by the verb ‘lance’ (as in ‘lancer une insulte, une
menace’). Maryvonne’s unspoken response is: ‘Bien, chef, on y
sera’, as if she were a subordinate, following orders. Remember
that she is a factory worker, used to carrying out instructions at
work. She is also used to doing what is expected of her at home. At
present, having escaped from both constraints, Maryvonne’s
comment on being told when to come for dinner is touchy and
sarcastic, which is another indication of her unease.
5.1
When Maryvonne thinks about the physical characteristics of a
book, she begins by mentioning its smell. Why, according to the
fourth paragraph, does she like the smell of books?
Maryvonne likes the smell of the books, of the paper, the ink, the
glossy cover. Its smell gives her a sense of complicity with the
book. She feels that, when she reads it, the printed object will
come to life. The smells are both powerful and delicate, but there
is also variety in her impressions. She says that she can tell which
publisher produced a book (in this context, ‘éditions’ is a
reference to ‘maisons d’édition’) from its particular smell. For
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Maryvonne, the smell of a new book is part of the physical pleasure
of reading it.
5.2
She also personifies books, treating them as living beings. Find
examples of her personification of books, and comment on the
relationship she establishes between herself and such books.
For Maryvonne, the book is a physical thing and the pleasure it
gives is also partly physical. Her physical response, if
commonplace, is expressed with some emphasis: ‘Lire est aussi un
plaisir physique. Je sens un livre. J’écoute le bruit des pages. Je les
palpe.’ This idea of the life of the book suggests a human
relationship – obviously visual, but also auditory, tactile and (see
question 5.1) olfactory – with the books she reads. This leads to
personification, at first in the metaphor ‘le livre prend son souffle’,
which associates the rhythm of paragraphs and spaces with a
rhythm of breathing: as a reader, she feels that she breathes in time
with the book. The personification is developed in the last two
sentences of the paragraph, where the book is referred to as a
companion. This is not a strong personification, being quite a
conventional way of referring to books: ‘C’est un compagnon
docile, s’il s’ouvre, quand je veux, à la page marquée et me fait
taire.’ The clause ‘s’il s’ouvre’ is not a strong personification either,
because the verb is pronominal rather than reflexive. However, the
last phrase: ‘me fait taire’ is a little stronger: the written word is
like speech, and the implication is that Maryvonne falls silent when
the book speaks to her. The personification is more vivid in: ‘Le
livre prend son souffle dans l’arrangement de ses silences et je
respire à son tempo’ and in ‘Nous cohabitons des heures, des
jours, des semaines parfois et mes humeurs jouent sur les lignes’.
The term ‘cohabitons’ suggests an intimate relationship in which
her own moods depend on what she is reading.
6.
Why, when she has finished a book, does Maryvonne have mixed
feelings? What do you think about her approach to reading?
Her feelings are mixed because, while she is relieved to have got to
the end of the book, she also feels let down. ‘Déchirure’: she feels
torn away from the book. She is sorry to have reached the end of
her link, her relationship with the book and feels disappointed that
the author has no more to say to her. This produces her sense of
being let down by the author: she is left wanting more; she must
begin again, but with another book, because she will not re-read
the same book. In this respect, it would seem that she reads these
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novels essentially ‘for the story’, for ‘l’heureuse surprise’ –
referring to the reader’s curiosity and feeling of anticipation.
Maryvonne is also left feeling that her life has not been changed by
the experience. She is an enthusiastic reader, but she feels let
down at the end, and therefore needs another book. This is a
limited reading mode, though it is one in which she is very
involved. Seeking mirages, she always needs other books which
will contain heroines with whom she feels she can identify. Her
reflections end on a positive note, as she imagines that she will
find herself in the heroines of other books.
Students are invited to offer personal comments on Maryvonne’s
approach to reading. The subject is then continued, in more
general terms, in question 8.
7.
In the last paragraph of the extract, Maryvonne explains how her
present reading usually differs from the way she used to read
when she was fourteen. What is the difference?
The difference is that at fourteen she could read a whole, long
book (’un volume double’) in one sitting; an avid reader, she
would ‘devour’ the book. Now, on the other hand, her reading is
usually interrupted either by other people, or because she has
‘better things to do’, or simply because she is tired. Remember the
context again: she is a housewife, mother and factory-worker.
8.
To what extent does Maryvonne find fulfilment in reading? Would
you say that her approach to reading contradicts or complements
the idea that ‘vivre, c’est lire’?
Maryvonne’s sense of fulfilment in reading – that is, reading novels
– is presented as partial, since her feelings, when she has finished a
book, include an element of dissatisfaction. She feels alive when
she is reading, and also has the physical sensation of a complicity
between herself and the novels she likes: she seems to treat books
almost sensuously. This therefore suggests an analogy between her
practice and the idea that living is reading – or that reading is
living. The analogy between living and reading is not complete, of
course, since Maryvonne is reflecting on the practice of reading
novels as a form of escapism, rather than as an engagement with
the realities of life. Nevertheless, such escapism itself is an element
of ‘living’: at the very least lire, c’est sentir. Although escapist
reading may produce feelings of dissatisfaction (see question 6),
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her reading is part of her life, giving her a sensation of being truly
alive. Reading is therefore not a ‘mere’ escape for her: her
approach to reading novels appears to complement the idea that
living is reading.
9.
The main narrative in the extract is composed in the present tense.
Do you think this is a suitable tense for its purpose here?
Once again, personal responses are encouraged. The last sentence
of the extract returns to the narrative of Maryvonne at the hotel,
where she is lying on the bed, reading the Christiane Rochefort
novel she bought at the Prisunic. The passage began with a
running-commentary type of narrative, using the present tense,
akin to inner monologue, but respecting the normal conventions
of written syntax. The present tense functions for both the
narrative statement of specific actions (‘j’achète... je me
promène...’), for thoughts and more general reflections on her
habits and states of mind (‘je ne m’offrirai pas... je réserve ce
genre...’, ‘je reste fidèle... j’aime les gros livres...’). The present
tense is usually adopted for narrative in order to afford the reader
a feeling of immediacy, a sense of direct involvement and possible
complicity with actions or events as they actually take place. On the
other hand, it is obviously a narrative artifice in this case, since
telling the story and living it are self-evidently separate functions,
though thinking the thoughts and writing them down are not
necessarily so clearly separate. However that may be, the technique
is commonly regarded as suitable: it tends not to disconcert
readers, who usually accept the convention for what it is and
readily suspend disbelief.
10.
Exercice de langue
Ecrivez en français un essai (120 mots) dans lequel vous expliquez
les raisons pour lesquelles vous avez aimé (ou: n’avez pas aimé)
un livre de votre choix. Au cours de votre essai, commentez le sujet
du livre et la qualité de l’écriture. Considérez aussi son aspect
physique, par exemple: ses dimensions, son poids, sa couverture, la
qualité du papier, et même, s’il s’agit d’un livre neuf, son odeur...
208
LIBERTÉ
TEXTE 34
Liberté
Victor Hugo
Questions
1.
The poem presents an argument that is supported by an appeal to
emotions.
1.1
What is the argument? Does it have any general application?
The argument is that wild birds should not be kept in cages. This is
not their natural habitat, and their freedom is a right. Its general
application is that it can be seen as an allegory of the broader
human need for freedom from oppression or exploitation. In
writing about the freedom of wild birds, Hugo was in fact
commenting also on human injustice to humans.
1.2
On what grounds does the poet appeal to the reader’s emotions?
The poet appeals to the reader’s emotions by inviting – indeed,
haranguing – the reader to have pity on the birds, by sharing what
he represents as the caged birds’ sense of imprisonment and
enslavement. The desire for freedom can be a deeply held
emotion.
2.1
What is the principal contrast on which the poem is based?
The poem is based on an extended contrast between ideas of
freedom and imprisonment, an opposition which is neatly
expressed in line 33: ‘Du treillage aux fils d’or naissent les noires
grilles’, drawing an analogy between the gilded cage and prison
bars.
2.2
Identify the explicit references to prisons and prison bars. What is
their purpose? How effectively do you think they contribute to the
poet’s argument?
Following the preceding broader questions, questions 2.2 and 3
are designed to serve as a closer guide to the vocabulary and
meanings of the poem.
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LIBERTÉ
The explicit references to imprisonment are: ‘bagne’ (line 9),
‘réseau de fer’ (19), ‘barreaux’ (24), ‘captif’ (26), ‘cachots’ (32),
‘grilles’ (33), ‘bastilles’ (34), ‘détenu’ (40), ‘forçat’ (46), ‘prison’
(48). The idea of ‘prison’ is of course given prominence by being
placed as the last word in the poem, a sort of pendant to the title,
‘Liberté’. The purpose of the explicit references is to strengthen
the argument by repetition, giving immediacy to the idea of
imprisonment, and therefore to arouse the reader’s pity by the
analogy between the bird’s cage and the prison. Some students
may consider the images to be exaggerated, since they imply that
the birds are like human beings. However, the poem includes
many other terms to support these references more implicitly,
including the references to stealing: ‘volez-vous?’ (4), ‘qu’on
dérobe’ (11), ‘qu’on prend à’ (36), and other words suggesting
oppression and enclosure, such as ‘pour l’accrocher au clou’ (6),
‘servitude’ (13), ‘Nérons’ (14), ‘noirs croisements’ (17),
‘cadenassez’ (19), ‘réseau de fer’ (19), ‘enfermés’ (28), ‘tyrans’
(38).
3.
The birds are described as ‘ces chanteurs’, ‘ces innocents’, whose
freedom has been taken away. Which other terms are used to
describe them, and in the poem as a whole which references do you
think illustrate the idea of their freedom most effectively?
This question is intended to encourage a review of the ‘positive’
argument in the poem, as well as the expression of students’
personal opinions. The birds are also referred to as ‘ces vivants’
(4), ‘ces buveurs d’azur’ (20), ‘ces nageurs charmants’ (21), ‘(les)
doux passants’ (35). Some names of birds are also included,
focusing at first on a single example, ‘le verdier’ (11), but also
contributing to the rhetoric of the poem by the list in line 22 and
the collective ‘passereaux’ (24). There are many associated
references to nature and to freedom, including features of the sky
and countryside listed in lines 2–3 and 35, and also mentioned
elsewhere. Hugo uses the term ‘la clef des champs’ – a set phrase
and something of a cliché, ‘prendre la clef des champs’ meaning to
escape – to lead in to the slogan of line 29: ‘Aux champs les
rossignols, aux champs les hirondelles’, a repetition which some
students may find quite striking, and which also compensates for
the unoriginality of the cliché. It is possible that students will judge
the water / liquid metaphors to be the most expressive: ‘ces
buveurs d’azur faits pour s’enivrer d’air’ (20), ‘ces nageurs
charmants de la lumière bleue’ (21).
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4.1
Show how the poet’s argument is developed on the basis of the idea
of justice.
The poem begins with the repeated reference to rights: ‘De quel
droit...?’ (lines 1 and 2). This idea is continued later in the
references to a ‘sombre équité’ (25), to the idea of expiation (30,
43) and to scales of justice, the ‘balance invisible...’ (31). The force
which will bring this justice into being is obscure: the birds,
representing the right to freedom, are ‘défendu(s) par l’ombre’
(41) and by a ‘destin juste et dur’ (36–7):
Toute la liberté qu’on prend à des oiseaux
Le destin juste et dur la reprend à des hommes.
The oppressors will be punished. There is a somewhat solemn,
mystical dimension to this argument, in which Hugo draws on the
idea of fate (‘le sort’, line 45), of an avenging ‘ombre’ (41) and
‘immensité’ (42), of vague and ominous threats (‘noirs
croisements... au fond du mystère’, line 17) and universal
principles of justice and expiation. The ‘loi du talion’ (an eye for
an eye...), though not referred to directly in the poem, lies behind
the threat: in context, it is implicit in the irony of line 44: ‘Je
t’admire, oppresseur, criant: oppression!’
4.2
What is the relevance of the references to tyrants?
The poem presents justice essentially as ‘poetic justice’. The
oppressors of the birds will themselves be oppressed: they are
tyrants who will themselves be treated as if they were the victims of
tyranny. Whence the reference to Nero in line 14, and the closing
image of the prisoner’s shadow falling in turn onto the oppressor
(line 46). This part of the argument is made explicit in line 38:
‘Nous avons des tyrans parce que nous en sommes’. At this point,
for rhetorical purposes, Hugo appears to include himself, briefly,
in the collective ‘nous’ of mankind. However, his main approach is
to address the oppressors as ‘vous’, as tyrants who are also
individualised as ‘tu’, as in ‘Homme, crois-tu que Dieu...?’ (5) or
‘Tu veux être libre, homme?’ (39).
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5.
Identify the following devices used by the poet to present his
argument: statements, questions and exclamations. Do you
consider that these features of the style are appropriate for the
development of the argument? How would you characterise the
tone of the poem?
This question offers a basis for analysis of these rhetorical devices.
It is their combination which builds up the argument. The first half
of the poem (twenty-four lines) consists entirely of questions,
including the rhetorical repetitions: ‘De quel droit?’ and ‘Qui sait?’.
The rhythm then changes; there is greater variation. For example,
line 25 is an admonition, with the repeated exclamatory order:
‘Prenez garde!’ It is followed by an explanation (26), a further,
reproachful question (27) – a negative question, which may appear
rather condescending. This leads to another exclamatory order
(28–9). There follow two statements, then an order (30–1, 32), in a
pattern which is immediately repeated (33–4, 35). The final
questions (39–40) summarise the dominant argument, also
introducing an element of balance with the reintroduction of the
formula ‘de quel droit...?’:
Tu veux être libre, homme? et de quel droit, ayant
Chez toi le détenu, ce témoin effrayant?
Otherwise, the second part of the poem is characterised by
exclamations and statements. This represents a progression from
the dominant interrogatives in the first half, which are intended to
draw the reader into reflection and argument, before the poet
proceeds explicitly to the conclusions. The approach is
pedagogical: asking questions, inviting answers, proposing
attitudes or information. The tone – that is, the implied attitude of
the writer towards the reader – is didactic. He is seeking to teach a
lesson or draw a moral, initially through questions which are in
some way rhetorical, and then by assertion. Some readers,
especially those who might disagree with the argument, could find
the tone rather hectoring.
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6.
The poem as propaganda.
6.1
In your opinion, does the example of caged birds serve as a
suitable basis for reflections on the general principle of
enslavement? See also for comparative purposes the text by Didier
Daeninckx earlier in the Anthology (page 86).
The question is intended to encourage personal reflection. The
Daeninckx novel draws expressly on the analogy of the caged bird
(see Vivre, c’est lire, page 91, question 6). While the extracts and
poems in the collection are intended for study without the need
for direct reference to literary or historical circumstances, such
references may be particularly useful in some cases. Using this text
as a starting point, students might be invited to find out for
themselves reasons why Hugo wrote so emphatically on this
subject. It is relevant that he was himself exiled, and that he was to
write from direct personal experience about questions of freedom
and enslavement. He was highly sensitive to oppression inflicted by
those who consider themselves to be virtuous. Students may find
the image of caged birds suitable for its purpose, especially
perhaps in relation to wild birds of the kind mentioned in the
poem. However, the way in which the image is developed may
arouse debate. It could be argued that, although the poem is
obviously ‘about’ birds, the real subject is human injustice to
humans and the complacency and delusions of the oppressor, and
that the poet is actually using a relatively easy allegory, with God
on his side (line 5), in order to threaten oppressors with
retribution. In the allegory, the birds could be a pretext, rather
than the subject-matter proper. Does this work well, as
propaganda? Does the poet overstate his case? If so, does he risk
undermining it? Discussion of this aspect of the text could lead also
to consideration of issues of literary quality. No questions are
proposed on the versification (for example, the poem respects the
rules for rhyming and, with few exceptions, the conventional
caesura): the French versification can be awkward to deal with,
especially for students who are still beginners. However, more
general questions on the poem’s tone and effectiveness could
usefully be raised. Is the poem a rant? Is it good poetry? It is verse,
of course, and fairly well-known – the Daeninckx reference could
show this – but that is not necessarily the same thing as ‘poetry’.
‘Liberté’ is a block of rhyming couplets with few visible breaks in
the lay-out: do students feel that it invites attention or could it
repel today’s reader? It could be argued that Hugo’s poem
‘Demain dès l’aube’ (Vivre, c’est lire, page 15) is more ‘poetic’ and
more memorable.
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6.2
Would you consider that the subject of this poem is in any way
relevant to questions of conservation raised at the beginning of the
twenty-first century? If so, on what grounds?
This question seeks a further personal response. A likely answer is
that the subject is relevant, because there is a general belief that,
without the preservation of natural habitats and the protection of
wildlife, the consequences for the planet are expected to be
ultimately disastrous. Old poets may sometimes be thought to
speak surprisingly relevantly to more modern ideas and
preoccupations. Taking the pretext – caged birds – as the subjectmatter, the argument is that it is madness (‘démence’, line 45) to
interfere with nature, because as a result you will yourself suffer. It
is therefore also an appeal to self-interest. The same argument
could no doubt be raised in relation to the preservation of forests.
Would it apply, or not, to game-hunting?
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TEXTE 35
Une vie pour deux
Marie Cardinal
Questions
1.
In the first, very short paragraph, the female narrator suggests an
image of herself as the bride in a typical wedding picture of a
newly married couple.
1.1
What kind of picture is being referred to?
The picture referred to is an ‘image d’Epinal’, a cartoon-like
simplification of a conventional French type. The image is also
qualified as a ‘chromo’, a dismissive term for an imperfect,
inadequate colour-picture. The main point is that, since it
represents a predictable stock image, it does not convey the
subtleties or difficulties of real experience.
1.2
What are the characteristics of this couple, and which ‘gender
stereotypes’ are used to describe them?
The bride wearing a veil and white wedding dress, with flowers at
her head and in her hand, is a stereotype of the virginal bride,
standing beside the bridegroom, who is taller than the bride and
correctly dressed, possibly a model of the dominant husband, his
maleness emphasised by his moustache. They are dressed up in
honour of each other and both are shown to be respecting the
roles assigned to them.
1.3
Note that the second sentence contains no finite verb. Why do
you think the writer has chosen to adopt this style?
The style is a kind of telegraphese: by presenting the description in
the form of quick notes of essential traits, the writer reveals a wish
both to be economical and to appear objective, offering no overt
judgement. The note form also assumes that the reader is familiar
with the stereotype; the writer therefore has no need to labour the
point.
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2.
The second paragraph describes the kind of picture that might
appear in a family album, depicting a gathering of the newly-weds
with their families.
2.1
What kind of pose has the couple adopted for the ‘artist’ –
that is, the photographer – in this picture?
The bride and groom are standing stiffly in the midst of their
families. They are smiling and serious: this is not a contradiction –
they are posing with the polite smiles required by the occasion.
This presents an attractive image: the awkwardness of the couple,
which suggests unpretentiousnness, could be regarded as rather
touching, as is stated at the beginning of the third paragraph.
2.2
How well does the writer suggest the unity and diversity of
the different generations present in the picture?
The old people, the children and the very young are placed
together in the picture. The old are seated and at their feet are
children sitting cross-legged and also the very little ones, infants
and babies. The grown-up generations, between old and young,
are standing, as if framing the married couple, and protecting the
old and the young. There is a unity in this design of the picture,
but within that unity great diversity is suggested. The children, for
example, are distinguished by hair colour, the adults by the variety
of professions and the listed differences between the women:
married, unmarried, fat, thin, etc.
2.3
‘Sourire. Eternité.’ In the photo, they are all smiling, for all
time. In this context, how does the writer express the idea of
the symmetry of birth and death? Is this a disturbing idea or
may it be thought to be in some way consoling or reassuring?
The photograph itself has captured a family moment, as it were, for
eternity. The word eternity carries associations of death, and the
symmetry of birth and death is suggested by the repetition in the
phrases ‘la mort, déjà visible’ and ‘la naissance, encore visible’: the
ideas of birth and death, commonly regarded as fundamental
elements in marriage, are illustrated also in the various people
present in the picture. The sense of symmetry is evident from the
balanced style of the sentence itself. Students may well have varied
responses to the idea of equilibrium between birth and death.
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2.4
What do the newly married couple represent in their place in
the middle of the picture? Discuss the metaphor which refers
to them as ‘(des) galets blancs’ on the ‘chemin interminable’
of the family. Is this an appropriate image? Why ‘white’, and
why ‘never-ending’?
The newly married couple is presented as a pivotal point, the
centre of the picture. In this concept, it is through marriage that
the family is continued, and according to this stereotype the
continuation of the family, symbolised by the wedding, is perceived
as a noble enterprise, an unending movement in time, expressed
through the spatial metaphor of the ‘chemin interminable de la
famille’. In this respect, the newly married couple, central on this
occasion, is shown as merely a stage in the continuing life of the
family. Marie Cardinal renders this by adapting the image of the
pebble on the beach (‘galet’ – a smooth, rounded pebble), which is
sometimes used to suggest anonymity. Here, however, they are
not anonymous: they are ‘(des) galets blancs’ – white, presumably,
because they stand out, virtuously, to represent an innocuous ideal
on which the notion of family continuity depends. They are mortal,
poised here on a significant occasion between birth and death,
contributing essentially to the never-ending story of the family.
2.5
What do the writer’s references to smells and colours add to
meaning of the passage?
The wedding picture suggests the idea of the family’s security and
future well-being. Smells are referred to in order to suggest
domesticity, the immediate human reality behind the posed
picture, the smells of cooking-stock and of sweat, cakes and eau de
Cologne – that is to say, physical and above all reassuring domestic
smells, which represent the honest, simple virtues of domestic life
(see also question 6.4). The colours are related to more abstract
concepts, suggesting simple, stereotyped qualities and feelings:
white for virtue, black for mourning (death), red for blood (life),
pink for the new-born (birth).
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2.6
Describe the dominant attitude expressed at the end of this
paragraph. For example, is it regretful, satirical, confident,
optimistic... – or something else?
[Correction: on page 160 of the anthology, replace the question
mark at the end of the first sentence in question 2.6 by a full stop.]
The last sentence of the paragraph describes the photograph as an
admirable picture of what human happiness can be. If happiness is
possible, it may be this ‘bonheur poignant’, which appeals
movingly to the emotions because it is not unalloyed. The writer
states that human happiness feeds on anxieties faced courageously
and sorrows borne discreetly. The statement that ‘(le) bonheur...
se nourrit... du petit bonheur’ suggests that happiness may be
found in small things, though the sense of the expression ‘au petit
bonheur’ – meaning ‘random’, ‘by chance’ – may also be implied
here. Human happiness cannot be planned; it may come about
accidentally. What is the dominant attitude? The photograph is
described as a fine picture of the stereotype, but the satirical
element is set aside here, replaced by a more subtle summary. The
attitude is neither regretful nor confident. It suggests a qualified
optimism: yes, marriage may produce happiness, but it may be a
happiness which arises from the difficulties. This is far from the
stereotype of ‘living happily ever after’; in this well-constructed
passage, this sentence serves as a transition to the next paragraph.
3.
The third paragraph evokes, from the wife’s point of view, what
happened in their married life.
The questions in this section are designed mainly as
comprehension questions, with some opportunities for literary
interpretation and synthesis.
3.1
After many years of marriage, has she become disillusioned
or has she managed to maintain her original expectations?
After many years, she had retained the ideal image of marriage
which is embodied in the ‘image d’Epinal’. The image had
obviously proved increasingly unrealistic, but the more inaccessible
it became, the more attractive it appeared to her. This sentiment
reveals a sense of hopefulness despite disillusionment.
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3.2
What did she hope for from marriage?
She hoped for a married life of simplicity in which the couple
would act with discretion, in a spirit of harmony and peace.
3.3
What has been her actual experience? Summarise what she
describes as her weaknesses as a wife and her strengths as a
mother.
In the event, she feels that her life had gradually led her away from
this expectation, that as a couple (‘notre ménage’ means both
couple and household) she and her husband were weird, an
unstable couple, unsure of themselves, difficult to control, forever
close to failure. She feels that she fell into all the traps that lie in
wait for a wife. These are listed as jealousy, infidelity (or perhaps:
deceit, the noun ‘tromperie’ is not specific on this point),
sloppiness and ‘wear and tear’, that is: allowing oneself to become
untidy and worn out by the effort. On the other hand, she feels
that she embodied what she calls all the virtues of a mother, listing
these as self-sacrifice, putting others before herself and looking
after the house with care. In summary, as a wife she became
inattentive, perhaps indifferent; as a mother she subordinated
herself to the needs of her family.
3.4
How well does the narrator express her need to cling on to
her family? What simile does she use to evoke her feelings
about herself?
She feels that she came to depend on her family desperately. Her
need for her family is neatly expressed through the nautical simile
of a shipwrecked woman clinging to a buoy, and through the
development of this water reference into the metaphor of sinking
and floating. In her marriage, she had come close to sinking, but
had managed to stay afloat. An idea of physical as well as mental
effort is conveyed by these images.
3.5
What are her expectations for the future?
Having survived, she now thought that for the future, as they grew
old together, things would work out and their life would be more
peaceful. She felt that nothing was lost.
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4.
This particular passage has been mainly about the narrator
herself, with only incidental references to her husband and
children. In the last three short paragraphs, she continues to dwell
primarily on her own situation. Here, she again uses the ‘image
d’Epinal’ – the stereotyped, simplified picture, which she had
accepted and still accepts willingly – as a way of identifying her
own hopes and expectations.
4.1
What are her present hopes?
She thinks that, now that she and her husband were no longer the
newly-weds of the stereotype, they might be able to be solid adults,
to act as the dependable, productive parents who are reassuring
stalwarts of society.
4.2
Do you think she is entirely confident about them?
The answer is: not really. She does not seem entirely convinced
that this is possible. This is shown by the slightly self-critical,
exclamatory phrase ‘Quel acharnement à vouloir ça!’ It is almost as
though she was asking herself: would she never learn?
4.3
For her hopes to be realised, she presumably needs the
support of her husband. What do we learn about his likely
attitude to his wife’s hopes?
She considers that her husband, Jean-François, appeared to have
lost interest in their marriage. She comments, however, that he
had never done anything to frustrate her. It would follow that, if
she really wanted to make the marriage work better, he would
probably not try to hinder her.
5.
The ‘mood’ of a text may be thought of as representing a writer’s
attitude towards himself or herself, as shown in the writing. In this
passage as a whole, how would you characterise the narrator’s
mood? Is she humorous? Self-critical? Confident? Modest? Tender?
Judgemental?
There is an amusedly self-critical element in the ‘image d’Epinal’
picture which is the narrator’s starting point. She states that she
had willingly accepted a simplified image of marriage as symbolised
by a standard, formal, wedding-day photograph. Thereafter, she
dwells, though not exclusively, on her weaknesses, but she also
shows elements of idealism, presented modestly, because of her
failures. She is certainly not confident about this, and if she is
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judgemental, it is in relation to herself. Her final attitude, shown in
the last three short paragraphs, is still self-critical, but open-eyed
and guardedly optimistic. In the passage as a whole, it may be
concluded that her self-analysis is conducted in a reflective mood
tempered by restrained self-criticism.
6.
A recurrent feature of the style of this passage is the writer’s use of
enumeration – that is, setting up lists of three or more words for
rhetorical effect. The lists, here, consist mainly of sequences of
nouns or adjectives or both.
6.1
How many such lists can you identify in the passage?
There are roughly thirteen distinctive lists, depending on how one
defines them:
• sa robe blanche, sa couronne de fleurs d’oranger, son voile, son
bouquet rond
• des blonds, des bruns, des roux, des garçons et des filles, des
bébés et des nourrissons
• des militaires, des fermiers, des employés, des clercs de notaire
• des femmes, des épouses, des mères, des vieilles filles, des
grosses, des maigres, des belles, des laides, des demoiselles
• le pot-au-feu et la transpiration, la pâtisserie et l’eau de Cologne
• le blanc de la vertu, le rouge du sang, le noir du deuil, le rose
des nouveau-nés
• de la brave peine, de la discrète douleur et du petit bonheur
• [cette image d’Epinal] touchante, de plus en plus inaccessible et
d’autant plus attirante
• la simplicité, la discrétion, la concorde, la paix
• [Notre ménage était] baroque, incertain, instable, difficile à
contrôler, toujours au bord de la faillite (Note that the last
item here is a phrase, not a noun or adjective.)
• la jalousie, la tromperie, le laisser-aller, l’usure
• le sacrifice, l’oubli de soi, la permanente attention
• de solides adultes, ces piliers, ces parents productifs
The group of three adjectives in ‘Posant pour l’artiste, le couple un
peu guindé, grave et souriant’ could also be regarded as a ‘list’,
despite the fact that ‘un peu’ qualifies only ‘guindé’, so that,
although there are three adjectives, there is not strictly a uniform
list of three. This is scarcely important, here: the purpose of the
question is to draw students’ attention to the writer’s striking
reliance on the device of listing, whose functions are suggested in
the questions which follow.
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6.2
What do you think the use of such lists might add to the
effects of the passage? Do they produce, for example, an
impression of comprehensiveness, or might they imply that
the items listed are simply examples – or both?
This question invites personal interpretation. Both functions
appear to operate: for example, in the description of the
photograph, the lists, if not necessarily exhaustive, serve to
emphasise the number and variety of the wedding guests. The
nouns clearly represent examples, but they also convey an
impression of completeness. In the lists of adjectives and abstract
nouns, one may sense the writer feeling her way towards
understanding, attempting to be comprehensive, and choosing
words carefully in an effort towards self-understanding.
6.3
Do the extended lists of people in the photograph suggest
realism? Some items in these lists evoke contrasts or
opposites; find at least two such examples.
These lists do suggest the writer’s effort to be realistic: they are
factual in appearance, down-to-earth and largely inclusive, as is
shown precisely by the device of including opposites:
• des garçons et des filles
• des mères, des vieilles filles (the implication is that they have no
children)
• des grosses, des maigres
• des belles, des laides
6.4
The use of repetition may reinforce an idea: in the
exclamation ‘Les années avaient passé, tant d’années!’ the
idea of time passing is reinforced, and the emotion of regret
may also be implied. So also the use of a list may reinforce
an idea. What underlying idea is emphasised by the
following sequences:
• ‘le pot-au-feu et la transpiration, la pâtisserie et l’eau de
Cologne’
• ‘la jalousie, la tromperie, le laisser-aller, l’usure’?
Do you think that any particular emotions are implied by the
use of these lists?
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In the first sequence, the idea conveyed through the examples of
household smells is that of the comforts and intimacy of conjugal
life. The associated emotion is one of satisfaction or pleasure:
these sensuous things are welcome, including the sweat.
The sequence ‘la jalousie, la tromperie, le laisser-aller, l’usure’
emphasises the underlying idea of the personal weaknesses and
the down-side of married life for the woman. The implied emotion
may be regret, perhaps tinged with resignation.
6.5
Identify the alliteration in the following sequence: ‘de solides
adultes, ces piliers, ces parents productifs’. Does this use of
alliteration have any effect on the meaning of the phrase?
There is an alliteration in ‘s’, ‘l’ and ‘p’ – a combination which gives
a poetic quality and unifies the short list, besides reinforcing the
meaning especially of the final words: ‘piliers / parents /
productifs’. (Students’ attention could also be drawn, incidentally,
to the balanced length of the first and third elements: each
resembles an alexandrine hemistich. The words ‘ces parents
productifs, qui rassurent le monde’ actually form an alexandrine.
However, no formal question has been proposed on this feature of
the sentence rhythm.)
7.
Exercices de langue
7.1
Traduisez en anglais:
Les années avaient passé, tant d’années! Mais toujours
restait dans ma tête cette image d’Epinal touchante, de plus
en plus inaccessible et d’autant plus attirante. Je désirais la
simplicité, la discrétion, la concorde, la paix de ce couple et
cependant je ne faisais que m’en éloigner.
A direct rendering could be:
The years had gone by, so many years! But this endearing, cartoonlike image always remained in my head, becoming increasingly
unattainable and all the more attractive. I wanted that couple’s lack
of pretension, their discretion, harmony and peace and yet all I did
was move away from it.
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7.2
Composez trois phrases en français, y incorporant les
expressions qui suivent, pour montrer que vous en avez bien
compris la signification. Chaque phrase doit comporter au
moins douze mots.
de plus en plus
d’autant plus
je ne faisais que
7.3
Prenez note de la phrase: ‘peut-être pourrions-nous être...’.
Ecrivez en français deux phrases, d’au moins douze mots
dans chaque phrase et qui commencent de la même façon:
‘Peut-être...’, mais, au lieu du verbe ‘pouvoir’, utilisez les
verbes suivants:
donner, aller
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7.4
Composition (120 mots). Décrivez un mariage auquel vous
avez assisté, ou auquel vous voudriez assister. Votre
description servira d’annonce dans le journal de la localité
où vous habitez. Dans votre article, annoncez le nom des
jeunes mariés et décrivez les vêtements que portent la mariée
et les demoiselles d’honneur. Notez la joie évidente du jeune
couple. Faites un résumé de la cérémonie, religieuse ou
civile, une petite liste de quelques-uns des participants et une
description générale des autres invités qui y assistent. En
guise de conclusion, indiquez que pour leur lune de miel le
couple est parti le soir même pour une destination inconnue.
7.5
Vous enverrez à un(e) ami(e) une copie de l’article que vous
venez de rédigez. Pour accompagner votre article vous
composerez une courte lettre (30 à 40 mots). Dans cette lettre
vous expliquerez à votre ami(e) que le jeune homme
paraissait, en effet, véritablement heureux. Cependant,
malgré ce que vous avez écrit dans votre article, vous croyez
que la jeune fille cachait quelques doutes, et vous en
expliquerez les raisons probables.
À QUOI SERVENT LES PUNITIONS?
TEXTE 36
La Clé sur la porte
Marie Cardinal
Questions
1.1
Which class is Dorothée in at the lycée and what information did
the parents want to be given by the teachers?
Dorothée is in the French fourth form. ‘Quatrième’ corresponds
roughly to second year of secondary education. Information is
sought mainly in the form of reassurance – of a change in policy on
discipline. The parents consider that the school itself is responsible
for instilling discipline in students and they wanted to be informed
that there would be a change of policy and a return to an earlier
system.
1.2
What exactly is the ‘bon système d’antan’ which is being referred
to? Are the other parents in favour of the former system?
As presented here, the ‘good old-fashioned system’ used testing
and punishments as a means of student discipline. All the parents,
with the exception of the narrator, Dorothée’s mother, favour this
former system, hoping for the reintroduction of discipline and
disciplined learning in the form of end-of-term tests, graded results
and traditional punishments: lines and detentions. The example is
given of a punishment consisting of making a student write out all
the tenses of the verb ‘avoir’ a hundred times.
2.1
Do you think that Dorothée’s mother approves of this ‘system’? Why
did she leave the meeting?
Her rather mocking comment: ‘Le «bon système d’antan» quoi’,
shows her disapproval. Her distaste has already been hinted at in
the opening sentence of the extract, according to which the
students are left out of the discussions, mere spectators on the
touchline, while the parents and the school argue about
responsibility. Dorothée’s mother rejects such a method of
discipline and punishment, saying that she has lived through it
herself. She left the meeting before the end, feeling that there was
too much of a difference between herself and the other parents.
225
2.2
Who did she meet outside the room, and why did she regret what
she said to the girl?
In the corridor outside the room she met a boy and a girl who had
obviously been trying to eavesdrop on the meeting. At first they
wanted to run away, but the girl recognised her, smiled and asked
how the meeting was going. The narrator states that her reply was
malicious: the parents, she said, are fools. She then regretted
saying this, feeling that she would not solve problems by building
walls between people. She seems ashamed of her sharp,
uninformative reply
3.
What does Dorothée’s mother think of the way the other parents
regard their children? Would you have expected her to have this
attitude?
Dorothée’s mother has a very unpleasant memory of the meeting.
She shows deep disapproval of the way in which she thinks other
parents regard their children, using learning as a means of control.
She considers that they treat their offspring as if they were
merchandise on which labels can be stuck to show where they
came in their lessons: no. 1, no. 2..., etc. The purpose of this
classifying, she says, is to enable parents to use their children’s
grading: if it is low (the example is: twenty-fourth out of twentyseven), to use it as a weapon to discipline them and make them
obedient, and if it is high (e.g. third out of thirty-two), as a way of
concealing their own mediocrity and a justification for parental
showing-off. Without punishments at school, they think, the
children are getting out of control – ‘nous ne les tenons plus’; and
without grades, they cannot check their children’s work.
This represents a stereotype of certain parents’ attitudes. In that
context, the view taken by Dorothée’s mother – against testing,
grading, punishments – may perhaps seem unexpected. Readers’
views will no doubt reflect varieties of personal experience.
4.
When, as a punishment at school, Dorothée’s mother had been
given ‘lines’ to write, what trick had she used? What did she learn
from this experience?
When she had been given punishment lines to write out,
Dorothée’s mother had written them with four pens tied together
by elastic bands. By reducing the required effort in this way, she
had focused on making the trick work rather than on thinking
226
about the meaning of the words she was obliged to write out. To
these she paid no attention whatsoever, thus undermining one of
the objectives of the punishment. The only thing she learned from
this experience, she says, was how to hide things more efficiently:
the punishment taught her deception. As she spent lovely holiday
afternoons writing out punishment garbage, she thought angrily
about subverting the system. Instead of reflecting that she would
not repeat the offence for which she was being punished, she
thought about ways of repeating the offence without being caught.
The experience, she concludes, taught her how to be secretive and
hypocritical.
5.1
What does the passage tell us about the system of discipline in the
school?
The system used in the school is not specified, but some of its
characteristics may be inferred. Since the other parents want to
return to the old system, it follows that the current system is one
that avoids the kind of testing and punishments which almost all
the parents prefer. To judge by the parents’ comments, the school
does not use ranking or teaching and learning as a means of
restraining behaviour; it does not use academic learning
(conjugate the verb ‘avoir’...) as a form of punishment; it does not
use marks to enable parents to check that the children are
working. What does emerge from the passage is that, whatever the
details of the ‘system’, the children in the school, as represented
by the eavesdroppers, are, like Dorothée’s mother, very concerned
that there may be a return to the punitive system. The school’s
system therefore appears to be more liberal, avoiding punishments
such as detentions and the imposition of lines, though the parents’
concerns no doubt suggest that the ‘liberal’ approach is
accompanied by discipline problems.
5.2
Do the approaches to discipline in your own school resemble those
of Dorothée’s school? What is your own opinion of different
methods of school discipline?
...
227
6.
Language practice
6.1
Notez les adverbes suivants qui paraissent dans ce passage:
anxieusement
sûrement
méchamment
Beaucoup d’adverbes se reconnaissent au suffixe -ment.
Étudiez la formation des adverbes qui se terminent en -ment.
Voici quelques principes:
Formé sur le féminin de l’adjectif:
anxieux, anxieuse – anxieusement
vif, vive – vivement
Formé sur le masculin qui finit en -ent, ou -ant:
méchant – méchamment
prudent – prudemment
Formé sur le masculin terminé par une voyelle:
vrai – vraiment
aisé – aisément
Quelques exceptions:
lent – lentement
précis – précisément
assidu – assidûment
gentil – gentiment
Quelle est la forme adverbiale des adjectifs suivants?
pauvre
heureux
certain
plein
excessif
premier
indépendant
énorme
228
confus
continu
Pauvrement, heureusement, certainement, pleinement,
excessivement, premièrement, indépendamment, énormément,
confusément, continûment
6.2
Composez en français une phrase qui contient trois des
adjectifs précédents et un adverbe qui se termine en -ment.
6.3
Organisez en classe un débat en français sur le thème
suivant:
‘Nous croyons que, pour maintenir la discipline parmi les
élèves dans les écoles et les lycées, il faut rétablir un système
de colles, de lignes et d’autres punitions’.
Quels seraient les avantages et les désavantages d’un tel
système?
229

Education Scotland

Transcription

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