La solitude

Énoncé

Évaluation de fin de première
Épreuve écrite
Durée : 2 heures

Le sujet porte sur la thématique « Rencontres ».
Prenez connaissance des documents A, B et C et traitez le sujet suivant en anglais :
Write a short commentary on the three documents (minimum 300 words): taking into account the specificities of each document, analyse how the three artists explore the theme of loneliness and use it as a source of inspiration.

Document A

In New York City, when he first went there to live and before he became confused and disconcerted by the facts of life, Enoch went about a good deal with young men. He got into a group of other young artists, both men and women, and in the evenings they sometimes came to visit him in his room. Once he got drunk and was taken to a police station where a police magistrate frightened him horribly, and once he tried to have an affair with a woman of the 5 town met on the sidewalk before his lodging house. The woman and Enoch walked together three blocks and then the young man grew afraid and ran away. The woman had been drinking and the incident amused her. She leaned against the wall of a building and laughed so heartily that another man stopped and laughed with her. The two went away together, still laughing, and Enoch 10 crept off to his room trembling and vexed.
The room in which young Robinson lived in New York faced Washington Square and was long and narrow like a hallway. It is important to get that fixed in your mind. The story of Enoch is in fact the story of a room almost more than it is the story of a man.
15 And so into the room in the evening came young Enoch's friends. There was nothing particularly striking about them except that they were artists of the kind that talk. Everyone knows of the talking artists. Throughout all of the known history of the world they have gathered in rooms and talked. They talk of art and are passionately, almost feverishly, in earnest about it. They think it 20 matters much more than it does.
And so these people gathered and smoked cigarettes and talked and Enoch Robinson, the boy from the farm near Winesburg, was there. He stayed in a corner and for the most part said nothing. How his big blue childlike eyes stared about! On the walls were pictures he had made, crude things, half finished. His friends talked of these. Leaning back in their chairs, they talked and talked with their heads rocking from side to side. Words were said about line and values and composition, lots of words, such as are always being said.
Enoch wanted to talk too but he didn't know how. He was too excited to talk coherently. When he tried he sputtered and stammered and his voice sounded strange and squeaky to him. That made him stop talking. He knew what he wanted to say, but he knew also that he could never by any possibility say it.
Sherwood Anderson, "Loneliness", Winesburg, Ohio, 1919

Document B

Oil on canvas, 71.4 cm x 91.4 cm
Edward Hopper, Automat, 1927

Document C

About me young careless feet
Linger along the garish⁽¹⁾ street;
Above, a hundred shouting signs
Shed down their bright fantastic glow
Upon the merry crowd and lines
Of moving carriages below.
Oh wonderful is Broadway — only
My heart, my heart is lonely.
Desire naked, linked with Passion,
Goes strutting⁽²⁾ by in brazen⁽³⁾ fashion;
From playhouse, cabaret and inn
The rainbow lights of Broadway blaze
All gay without, all glad within;
As in a dream I stand and gaze
At Broadway, shining Broadway — only
My heart, my heart is lonely.

Claude McKay, "On Broadway", Harlem Shadows, 1922

(1)garish (l. 2) : offensively or distressingly bright.

(2)to strut (l. 11) : to walk with a proud gait.

(3)brazen (l. 11) : impudent, effronté.

Commentaire méthodologique

L'analyse du sujet : vous devez vous intéresser à la manière dont chaque artiste explore le thème de la solitude et l'utilise comme source d'inspiration sans écarter une prise en compte de la spécificité de chaque document.
Une première lecture / observation de chaque document pour identifier sa spécificité et le comprendre à un premier niveau pour vous familiariser avec le contenu, tout en repérant des éléments pertinents au traitement du thème de la solitude.
Une analyse approfondie de chaque document crayon à la main. Surlignez les phrases ou éléments graphiques qui vous semblent particulièrement pertinents. Mettez en évidence les répétitions ou redondance de champs lexicaux. Notez tout ce qui vous vient à l'esprit par rapport à la solitude. NB : Prenez l'habitude de faire cette étape directement en anglais : cela vous fera gagner du temps et facilitera la rédaction du commentaire (et évitera tout risque de calque sur le français).
Document A = extract from a short story 1919 USA
Protagonist = Enoch Robinson "the boy from the farm near Winesburg"
§1 confused and concerted by the facts of life … crept off to his room trembling and vexed $\Rightarrow$ focus on emotional state; unsuccessful interaction with others; difficulty to communicate + lack of confidence
Place = New York City
People = artists of the kind that talk … talking artists $\Rightarrow$ excessive repetition of talk
Opposition with Enoch §4 He stayed in a corner and for the most part said nothing §5 Enoch wanted to talk too but he didn't know how $\Rightarrow$ silence
Document B = oil on canvas 1927 (Automat = self-service cafeteria in USA)
Woman alone at a table not far from door holding cup and saucer. Eyes downcast, barely visible below her hat. Seems to be lost in her thoughts. Empty chair opposite her. No sign of anyone else in automat.
Lines of force = reflection of ceiling lights in window.
Opposition: light = ceiling lights + woman's hat (= warm colours)
Dark = woman's eyes + clothes + chair + outside
Effect: we wonder who she is, why she is there, what she is thinking, why she is alone
Document C = poem (Harlem 1920's $\Rightarrow$ Harlem Renaissance $\Rightarrow$ author is probably Black)
Place = Broadway (theatres, cabarets in NYC): hive of activity crowd, lines of carriages, rainbow lights
Speaker: about me $\Rightarrow$ is surrounded by activity on Broadway $\Rightarrow$ lonely only My heart, my heart is lonely. As in a dream I stand and gaze At Broadway, shining Broadway $\Rightarrow$ the speaker is an observer $\neq$ actor / participant
Oppositions: careless; merry; gay; glad $\neq$ lonely
Young careless feet linger …; lines of moving carriages $\neq$ I stand
Colours / lights: bright fantastic glow; rainbow lights of Broadway blaze
Confidence: Desire naked, linked with Passion Goes strutting by in brazen fashion $\Rightarrow$ we understand that the speaker feels the opposite.
Organisation de vos notes : passer en revue l'ensemble des documents et vos notes à la recherche de points convergents ou divergents. Vous êtes limité(e) dans le temps et vous n'aurez pas la possibilité de reprendre chacune de vos idées (sauf si votre analyse voire compréhension des documents reste superficielle). Choisissez trois ou quatre points qui vous permettent de parler des trois documents à chaque fois.
Introduction : présentation des trois documents en mettant en évidence leur spécificité et d'éventuels points communs (époque, nationalité). Annonce du sujet du commentaire.
1^er point : similitudes et différences de traitement dans les 3 documents
2^e
3^e
Conclusion : prenez de la hauteur pour démontrer une prise en compte du sens ultime des documents en lien avec la thématique de la solitude.
Rédaction de votre commentaire suivie d'une relecture attentive pour contrôler la qualité de votre expression.

Corrigé

The three documents in this dossier date from the beginning of the nineteenth century in the USA and all three deal with the theme of loneliness albeit in three different media. Document A is an extract from a short story « Loneliness » published in Sherwood Anderson's collection Winesburg, Ohio. Document B entitled "Automat" is an oil on canvas painting by realist painter Edward Hopper, while document C is a poem "On Broadway" by Claude McKay published in his anthology Harlem Shadows.
All three documents focus on the loneliness of their protagonist. This is explicit in the title of Document A, and in the final line of each verse of the poem "only my heart, my heart is lonely". The woman in Hopper's painting is the only human figure present and her attitude, eyes fixed on the cup and saucer in her hands, suggests that she is unhappy. Her physical isolation reinforces the sense of loneliness.
Each of the three artists plays with the spatial dimension of their work to underline the sense of loneliness. The woman in the painting is in an automat: a self-service cafeteria in which people buy food and drink from slot machines. Not only is she alone with her cup of coffee, she had to serve herself as well. Both the short story and the poem are set in New York. Anderson describes Enoch as "the boy from the farm" who finds the city confusing. As the title suggests, McKay's poem focuses on Broadway, with its crowds, flashing lights, and traffic. In the painting, the chair opposite the woman is unoccupied and she is surrounded by empty space. The reflection of the double row of identical ceiling lights in the plate-glass window is indicative of the size of the cafeteria and the viewer cannot fail to remark the absence of reflections showing the presence of other people.
Contrary to the painting, in the short story, Anderson depicts Enoch in interaction with other people, but each time he stresses his character's inability to communicate satisfactorily and his lack of confidence: "He stayed in the corner and for the most part said nothing." Likewise, the speaker in McKay's poem observes the bustle of Broadway but remains isolated.
All three artists employ opposites to reinforce the sense of alienation between their protagonists and other people. Anderson opposes Enoch's inability to communicate to the effusiveness of the "talking artists" and uses repetition to further emphasise the distance between them. In the poem, the speaker's loneliness contrasts sharply with the light-heartedness of the theatre-goers. Once again, the artist uses repetition and synonymy as a means of emphasis: the adjectives "careless", "merry", "gay" and "glad" are in stark opposition to the abrupt "lonely". This opposition is apparent in the lines of force in the painting: the converging lines of the ceiling lights draw the viewer's eyes upwards and outwards, whereas the woman's face is shadowed by her hat with her eyes cast down, isolated from the bright lights of the world around her.
In all three documents, the sense of loneliness evokes a certain alienation between the protagonists and the modernity of their age as if everything is happening so quickly that certain members of the population feel out of place: the woman in the automat, the farmer's son amidst the talking artists of the Jazz Age, and the lost soul on Broadway during the Harlem Renaissance.