Correction Sujet Bac Blanc

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Correction Sujet Bac Blanc

• The Locked Room
• By Paul Auster

T L
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COMPRÉHENSION COMPÉTENCE LINGUISTIQUE 1.
What title could you give to the passage ?

• A forgotten childhood friend
• A friend's ghost
• A forgotten friend's ghost
• An old friend's ghost coming back.
• Friendship and forgetting are both important
  topics which should inspire your title.

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2. Write a short paragraph about the narrator.
Illustrate with quotations from the text. ABOUT
20 WORDS

• A journalist who has  published articles in
  magazines  and lives in New York, the narrator
  is disturbed at realizing that his  blood
  brother for life  has become  a ghost for him 
  ever since they  drifted apart .

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3. What memories came back to the narrators
mind when he remembered the past ? 40 WORDS

• His memories go back to the times when they were
  babies during their childhood they shared life
  and thoughts so much so that they decided to
  become blood brothers.
• The narrator also has teenage memories of the day
  when Fanshawe's father died, when they were
  seventeen.

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4. 1. Place the following time indicators into
chronological order on the time scale.

• a) (leur prime enfance)
• f) (l'adolescence)
• e) (six mois avant que Sophie écrive la lettre)
• c) (quand le narrateur reçoit la lettre de
  Sophie)
• g) (rendez-vous pris après la lecture de la
  lettre)
• b) (le moment où le narrateur parle)
• d) (novembre prochain)?

A
F
E
C
G
B
D
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How do you explain that the author does not
present the events in chronological order ?

• We follow the narrator's stream of consciousness.
  One event (Sophie's letter) brings back memories
  that flash at random into the narrator's shocked
  mind thus we are made to understand that what
  matters is not his and Fanshawe's history, but
  the discovery that his friend now  belongs to
  the past . He tells us his memories as they come
  to his mind without trying to organise his point
  in a narrative.

Avec le temps with time
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5. Pick out the key sentence indicating the
change in the relationship between Fanshawe and
the narrator and analyse the evolution in their
relationship. 30 WORDS (line )

•  We grew up, went off to different places,
  drifted apart.(l.7).
• Their relationship has declined from blood
  brotherhood to indifference and oblivion ever
  since they were separated, neither of them has
  bothered to get in touch with the other.

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6. Why did the narrator feel hurt just after
receiving the letter? Answer in your own words
and illustrate with quotations from the text. 60
words

• Letting your friends know about such events as
  your marriage is the least you can do, and the
  narrator resented Fanshawe's not doing so ( he
  hadn't bothered to get in touch with me  l.29).
  Besides, he gathered that Fanshawe knew about him
  through his articles and had lived in New York
  too and he thought he might at least have
  arranged something, like  a phone call, a
  postcard or a drink, to catch up on old times 
  (l.30).

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7. How do you interpret the narrators comment
The fact was that I had let go of Fanshawe. ?

• The sentence can be interpreted as a way to show
  he feels guilty as he realises that the fault is
  not all Fanshawe's he admits that he could have
  asked his mother about his address, could have
  inquired about him, but that he did not, which
  shows that he did not really want to find him. So
  in fact he feels responsible for them losing
  contact too as he has not tried to reach him
  either.

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8. The narrator met Sophie Fanshawe on the
following day. Imagine their conversation. 150
words

• Le dialogue anglais se construit différement au
  changement de locuteur.
• Ne pas utiliser  the narrator said !
• Utiliser des commentaires (minimum  I said  et
  des jugements/ ajouts du narrateur)?
• Utiliser le texte de départ elle veut le voir
  pour lui dire quelquechose -gtne pas répéter ce
  qu'elle a dit au téléphone. (en réalité
  Fanshawe fait don de ses livres à son amis.)?
• utiliser les  Gap Fillers 
• Vocabulaire to remember something / to remind sb
  of sth. .. memories/souvenirs.

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Corrigé officiel

• Attention, le narrateur n'est pas l'auteur. Dans
  le texte, la disparition de Fanshawe est évoquée.
  Vous pouvez
• imaginer que Sophie apporte quelques précisions,
  mais attention à ne pas faire de monologue
  chacun questionne l'autre.
• Ils peuvent aussi s'interroger mutuellement sur
  le Fanshawe qu'ils ont connu Sophie ne sait
  rien de Fanshawe jeune, le narrateur ignore tout
  de Fanshawe adulte. Il peut lui dire combien il
  regrette de ne pas avoir cherché à garder le
  contact avec son ancien ami.
• Dans le livre, elle annonce au narrateur que
• Langage utile
• questionnement, regret.
• vocabulaire I haven't got a clue / I haven't
  got the slightest idea, to investigate.

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Paul Auster's  New York Trilogy 

• The first story is called"City of Glass"
• The second story is called "Ghosts".
• The third story, "The Locked Room," is about a
  man who is never given a name, and his childhood
  friend Fanshawe. Fanshawe has disappeared leaving
  his wife, child, and his unpublished work. He
  leaves the task of deciding what to do with the
  unpublished work to his friend. As his friend
  goes about getting the work published he becomes
  closer to Fanshawe's wife and son. The friend and
  Fanshawe's wife finally marry. The friend's
  troubles begin when he is asked to write a book
  about Fanshawe's life. He becomes so absorbed in
  Fanshawe's life he almost loses himself in it.
  Can Fanshawe's friend save himself and his life
  before it becomes lost in Fanshawe's.

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9. Answer one of the following questions. 200
words1. Out of sight, out of mind. Do you
agree with this ? 2. In your opinion, what is a
true friend ?

• Attention à ne pas commencer par  I think 
• Organiser votre pensée
• Illustrer avec des exemples personnels.
• Eviter les banalités et répétitions.
• Penser à enrichir le vocabulaire expressions
  ( To turn your back on someone  ,  A friend in
  need is a friend indeed )?

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TRADUCTION Translate in French from It seems
to from myself (first paragraph).

• Il me semble aujourd'íhui que Fanshawe était
  toujours auprès de moi. C'est par lui que tout a
  commencé pour
• moi, et sans lui je saurais à peine qui je suis.
  Nous nous sommes connus avant de savoir parler,
  alors que, bébés
• en couches-culottes, nous allions à quatre pattes
  dans l'herbe et, à sept ans, en nous piquant le
  doigt avec des
• épingles, nous étions devenus frêres de sang à
  vie. Aujourd'hui, chaque fois que je repense à
  mon enfance, je
• vois Fanshawe. C'était lui qui était à mes côtés,
  lui qui partageait mes pensées, lui que je voyais
  chaque fois que
• je regardais plus haut que moi.