Bonjour !
Dans cette séquence de langues, littératures et cultures étrangères (anglais), tu vas chercher à répondre à la grande question écrite en haut de la page. Elle se fait en 2 séances. Pour chaque séance : lis la consigne, étudie les documents, réponds aux questions sur ta feuille ou sur l'ENT, puis recopie l'essentiel dans ton cahier. Tu peux imprimer cette page avec le bouton « Imprimer ».
À la fin, je serai capable de :
- Analyser une scène fondatrice du roman d'apprentissage victorien (cité par le programme)
- Étudier le dilemme moral de Huck, sommet de l'initiation dans le roman de Mark Twain
- S'entraîner à la synthèse et à la traduction d'une langue familière (dialecte)
Les mots importants
Ressources de la séquence
Les notions, les repères et les pistes pour aller plus loin, utiles pour toutes les séances.
Les notions à maîtriser
- Bildungsroman
- Novel of education following the moral and psychological growth of a young hero.
- Workhouse
- Institution where the poor were lodged and made to work; the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 made them deliberately harsh.
- Vernacular
- Ordinary spoken language of a region or class: Huck's « I knowed », « they was said ».
- Moral dilemma
- Choice between two duties: obeying the law and religion of his society, or being loyal to his friend.
- Dramatic irony
- Huck thinks he chooses hell, the reader sees he chooses good.
- Abolition
- Movement to end slavery; abolished in the United States by the 13th Amendment (1865).
Repères
| Date | Événement |
|---|---|
| 1834 | Poor Law Amendment Act in England. |
| 1837-1839 | Oliver Twist serialised in Bentley's Miscellany. |
| 1840s | Setting of Huckleberry Finn: the Mississippi before the Civil War. |
| 1865 | End of the Civil War; 13th Amendment. |
| 1884-1885 | Adventures of Huckleberry Finn published (London, then New York). |
Pour aller plus loin
- Read · Oliver Twist, volume 1, chapter 2 (full text on Wikisource).
- Read · Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, chapter 31 (full text on Wikisource).
Sources et bibliographie
- Franco Moretti, The Way of the World: The Bildungsroman in European Culture, Verso, 1987.
- Leo Marx, « Mr. Eliot, Mr. Trilling, and Huckleberry Finn », The American Scholar, 1953.
- Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices, Oxford University Press, 1993.
Mon parcours : je choisis mon rythme
- Pour les élèves qui ont besoin de plus de temps : texte annoté (glossaire anglais-français, contexte en français), questions guidées, plan de synthèse fourni avec amorces de phrases.
- Pour les élèves qui avancent vite : lecture du texte intégral (lien Wikisource), synthèse supplémentaire en temps limité, préparation d'un document pour le dossier personnel de l'oral.
Séance 1 · Please, sir, I want some more: a small rebel
65 minSéance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.
La question du jour
Why is asking for more food a revolutionary act?
Mon plan de travail
- 10 min → Lancement en classe virtuelle : Je suis le lancement (ou j'écoute la capsule) et je recopie la problématique.
- 12 min → Travail autonome : Je fais l'activité 1 ; j'utilise les coups de pouce seulement si je bloque.
- 18 min → Travail autonome : Je fais l'activité 2 ; j'utilise les coups de pouce seulement si je bloque.
- 15 min → Travail à rendre : Je fais l'activité 3 et je la dépose sur l'ENT (ou j'envoie une photo) dans les trois jours.
- 10 min → Mise en commun : Je corrige avec une autre couleur et je complète la trace écrite.
Le cours à lire · Dickens's satire of the workhouse
Oliver Twist (1838) follows an orphan born in a workhouse. In chapter 2 the boys are slowly starved with thin gruel. They draw lots, and Oliver must ask for more. The scene is told by an ironic narrator: euphemisms (« The bowls never wanted washing »), comic exaggeration (eating « the very bricks »), and the contrast between the hungry boys and the « fat, healthy » master. Oliver's simple request, « Please, sir, I want some more », is treated as a crime: he is a « small rebel ». Dickens attacks the Poor Law of 1834, which made relief deliberately harsh. The child's innocence reveals the cruelty of adults.
Document 1 · Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist (1838), volume 1, chapter 2
Novel, first book edition 1838 (public domain).
The bowls never wanted washing—the boys polished them with their spoons till they shone again; and when they had performed this operation, (which never took very long, the spoons being nearly as large as the bowls,) they would sit staring at the copper with such eager eyes as if they could devour the very bricks of which it was composed […] Oliver Twist and his companions suffered the tortures of slow starvation for three months […] A council was held; lots were cast who should walk up to the master after supper that evening, and ask for more; and it fell to Oliver Twist. […] He rose from the table, and advancing basin and spoon in hand, to the master, said, somewhat alarmed at his own temerity— "Please, sir, I want some more." The master was a fat, healthy man, but he turned very pale. He gazed in stupified astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds, and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder, and the boys with fear.
Source : C. Dickens, Oliver Twist, vol. 1, ch. 2, 1838 (full text on Wikisource).
copper: chaudron ; starvation: famine, privation de nourriture ; lots were cast: on tira au sort ; temerity: audace ; stupified: stupéfait.
Activité 1 · Understand
12 minSupports : Document 1
Read the extract and answer in English.
- Why did « the bowls never want washing »?
- How was Oliver chosen to ask for more?
- How do the master and the others react?
Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Comprehension
Activité 2 · Analyse
18 minSupports : Document 1, lesson
Analyse the narrator's irony.
- Find an euphemism and explain its effect.
- What contrast does the narrator build?
- Why is « the small rebel » ironic?
Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Analysis
Activité 3 · Speak
15 minSupports : Document and lesson
Record 2 minutes as a journalist in 1838 reporting on the « scandal » in the workhouse, with a critical point of view.
Ce qui est attendu (7 pts) : Oral production
Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)
Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.
In the _________, the starving boys draw lots and Oliver asks: « Please, sir, I want some ______ ». The ______ narrator calls him « the small ______ »: Dickens attacks the Poor Law.
Séance 2 · All right, then, I'll go to hell: Huck's choice
65 minSéance approfondie : cours développé, documents sourcés, activités exigeantes avec coups de pouce.
La question du jour
What does Huck learn that his society cannot teach him?
Mon plan de travail
- 10 min → Lancement en classe virtuelle : Je suis le lancement (ou j'écoute la capsule) et je recopie la problématique.
- 12 min → Travail autonome : Je fais l'activité 1 ; j'utilise les coups de pouce seulement si je bloque.
- 18 min → Travail autonome : Je fais l'activité 2 ; j'utilise les coups de pouce seulement si je bloque.
- 15 min → Travail à rendre : Je fais l'activité 3 et je la dépose sur l'ENT (ou j'envoie une photo) dans les trois jours.
- 10 min → Mise en commun : Je corrige avec une autre couleur et je complète la trace écrite.
Le cours à lire · Conscience and experience
Huck Finn, a poor white boy, has run away down the Mississippi on a raft with Jim, an enslaved man escaping to freedom. In chapter 31 Jim has been captured. Huck's conscience, shaped by a slave-owning society and its religion, tells him that helping Jim is a sin: he writes a letter to Jim's owner, Miss Watson, and feels « washed clean of sin ». But memories of the journey come back: Jim's kindness, their friendship. Huck tears up the letter: « All right, then, I'll go to hell ». Twain uses dramatic irony: Huck believes he chooses evil; the reader sees that he chooses humanity. The vernacular first-person voice (« I knowed », « they was said ») makes the moral growth both comic and moving.
Document 1 · Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), chapter 31
Novel, 1885 (public domain). Just before this extract, Huck has written a letter to Miss Watson to tell her where Jim is held.
I felt good and all washed clean of sin for the first time I had ever felt so in my life, and I knowed I could pray now. But I didn't do it straight off, but laid the paper down and set there thinking—thinking how good it was all this happened so, and how near I come to being lost and going to hell. And went on thinking. And got to thinking over our trip down the river; and I see Jim before me, all the time, in the day, and in the nighttime, sometimes moonlight, sometimes storms, and we a floating along, talking, and singing, and laughing. […] and then I happened to look around, and see that paper. It was a close place. I took it up, and held it in my hand. I was a trembling, because I'd got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it. I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: "All right, then, I'll go to hell"—and tore it up. It was awful thoughts, and awful words, but they was said.
Source : M. Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, ch. 31, 1885 (full text on Wikisource).
knowed: knew ; set: sat ; a floating: floating ; a close place: une situation difficile ; betwixt: between ; they was said: they were said.
Activité 1 · Understand
12 minSupports : Document 1
Read the extract and answer in English.
- How does Huck feel after writing the letter?
- What memories come back to him?
- What does he decide?
Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Comprehension
Activité 2 · Interpret
18 minSupports : Documents of the two lessons
Write a paragraph (about 180 words): « Huck's initiation consists in trusting experience against the moral lessons of his society. »
Ce qui est attendu (8 pts) : Written production
Activité 3 · Translate
15 minSupports : Document 1
Translate into French « I studied a minute, sort of holding my breath, and then says to myself: "All right, then, I'll go to hell", and tore it up. »
Ce qui est attendu (6 pts) : Translation
Trace écrite · document à compléter (papier ou ENT)
Complète la trace écrite avec les mots de la banque, puis recopie-la dans ton cahier.
Huck's __________, shaped by a slave-owning society, tells him to denounce ______. He tears up the letter: « All right, then, I'll go to ______ ». Twain uses ______________ and a vernacular narrator.
Fiche à trous · je complète
Complète le texte avec les mots de la banque (sur papier ou dans le document de l'ENT).
In the workhouse, the boys draw lots and Oliver must ask: « Please, sir, I want some ______. »
The master looks at « the small ______ » with astonishment.
Huck decides not to send the letter: « All right, then, I'll go to ______ »; he will help ______ escape.
Ce que j'ai appris
- Analyser une scène fondatrice du roman d'apprentissage victorien (cité par le programme)
- Étudier le dilemme moral de Huck, sommet de l'initiation dans le roman de Mark Twain
- S'entraîner à la synthèse et à la traduction d'une langue familière (dialecte)