Voyages, territoires, frontières, sujet national, mai 2022, sujet 2

Énoncé

Le sujet porte sur la thématique « Voyages, territoires, frontières ».

Partie 1. Synthèse en anglais (16 points)

Prenez connaissance de la thématique ci-dessus et du dossier composé des documents A, B et C et répondez en anglais à la consigne suivante (500 mots environ) :

Paying particular attention to the specificities of the three documents, show how they interact to draw attention to the call of the road in American culture.

Partie 2. Traduction en français (4 points)

Traduisez en français le passage suivant du document B (lignes 20 à 25) :
I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life of a ghost. I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future, and maybe that's why it happened right there and then, the strange red afternoon.

Document A

« US road trips: into the heart of America with Andrew McCARTHY.
There's nothing wrong that a hundred bucks and a full tank of gas can't fix. It's an idea at the core of the American psyche. From the first "road trips" of the pioneers lighting out for the west, to the California gold rush, to the dust bowl refugees of the Great Depression⁽¹⁾ chasing the sun across the continent, sustaining themselves on movement, banking on hope, America has counted on the rewards of the road.
Move forward and don't look back, your past won't follow you out here, the highway promises. The American road trip is a rite of passage; it's a lark⁽²⁾, a last gasp. It is the essence of optimism in action. While we Americans claim no monopoly on the open road, the idea that renewal waits just around the bend, over the rise, or beyond that distant horizon, is deeply embedded in who we are as a people. Someone once said that to understand America, you need to understand baseball. I would argue that to truly understand America a road trip is in order. And the more miles you put between yourself and what you've left behind, the better.
The extended journey by car is a different kind of travel. You call all the shots. You decide when and where, left or right, turn back or forge ahead. The highway beckons⁽³⁾, but it also challenges. […]
That gesture of defiance hints at the secret that rests at the heart of the road trip – arrival is never the true goal. Maybe that's why, after the initial relief, disappointment is often the accompanying feeling upon reaching one's goal. […] What exactly are we looking for with the wheel in our hand?
While still on the road, when still in motion, hope is allowed space and time to play out on its own field of dreams – and hope is something no reality can ever match. Since America is still an idea more than anything else, that hope is indispensable to our national psyche. It's no wonder that the facts of who we are and what we ultimately do, comes often as a shock and disappointment, even to ourselves.
But no matter. The road is there, calling… »

Andrew McCARTHY, www.theguardian.com, April 2013

Document B

« I was in another big high cab, all set to go hundreds of miles across the night, and was I happy! And the new truckdriver was as crazy as the other and yelled just as much, and all I had to do was lean back and roll on. Now I could see Denver looming ahead of me like the Promised Land, way out there beneath the stars, across the prairie of Iowa and the plains of Nebraska, and I could see the greater vision of San Francisco beyond, like jewels in the night. […] He told stories for a couple of hours, then, at a town in Iowa […], he slept a few hours in the seat. I slept too, and took one little walk along the lonely brick walls illuminated by one lamp, with the prairie brooding at the end of each little street and the smell of the corn like dew in the night.
He woke up with a start at dawn. Off we roared, and an hour later the smoke of Des Moines⁽⁴⁾ appeared ahead over the green cornfields. […] Now I wanted to sleep a whole day. […] By instinct I wandered down to the railroad tracks - and there're a lot of them in Des Moines - and wound up in a gloomy old Plains inn of a hotel by the locomotive roundhouse, and spent a long day sleeping on a big clean hard white bed with dirty remarks carved in the wall beside my pillow and the beat yellow windowshades pulled over the smoky scene of the rail-yards. I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn't know who I was - I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I'd never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn't know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn't scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost. I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future, and maybe that's why it happened right here and then, that strange red afternoon. »

Jack KEROUAC, On The Road, 1957

Document C

Dorothea LANGE is an American documentary photographer and photojournalist born in 1895. She is best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration which contributed to humanizing the consequences of the Great Depression.


Dorothea LANGE, Veteran Hobo, 1938

(1)the Great Depression: a severe worldwide economic crisis that started in 1929 in the USA

(2)a lark: an adventure

(3)beckons: attracts

(4)Des Moines is the capital city of the state of lowa (USA).

Corrigé

Partie 1. Synthèse en anglais (16 points)

Understand the terms used in the question. The theme of this question is 'Voyages, territoires, frontières'. You have to write 500 words – give or take 10 % - is usually a good estimate. It is important to analyse each document first to see what they all have in common. In class, you will have learnt about the importance of cars and roads in American culture. But be careful: the question here is on the place of the road in US culture and NOT that of the car (even though the two are inherently linked).
Analyse the documents. These are widely circulated documents that will have reached a large audience: an article from the UK weekly newspaper The Guardian; an extract from a cult classic US novel 'On the Road'; and a photograph taken in 1938.
– Andrew McCarthy's piece has an interesting quote that helps us understand: "Someone once said that to understand America, you need to understand baseball. I would argue that to truly understand America, a road trip is in order". It indicates that he is trying to show the importance of road trips in US culture.
– Jack Kerouac's 1957 novel helped inspire a cultural and literary movement known as 'The Beat Generation'. There is a kind of excitement and ecstasy on discovery and adventure in what he writes.
– According to the description, we learn that Dorothea Lange's photography "contributed to humanizing the consequences of the Great Depression". It is a kind of photo-journalism that seeks to make people aware of certain problems.
Prepare a plan. Before writing, you must first draw up a plan. I recommend that you do not write the essay until you have worked out its plan. The "problématique" of this question is the role or function of 'the road' in US culture, as presented in the three documents. We can plan our essay as follows:
– The road offers a sense of adventure and excitement to those travelling on it, to such an extent that it has inspired many writers to devote their books to this topic. The road is an unknown and potentially dangerous place .
– We can also note a sense of renewal in those who seek the road, like a chance to escape from themselves
But the road doesn't always play a positive road
– Keep in mind also that the teacher will have spent a whole afternoon marking similar answers on the exam papers . While they will be fair with every paper, they will appreciate specific answers, so the way you present the answers could make all difference.

If you wish to begin with a flashy and attention-grabbing first line, you must relate it to the topic at hand. Then you should reword the question to show to the examiner that you understand what is at stake. This is an important skill and here you have the chance to show how well you master the language.

Introduction

It would be difficult imagine the United States of America without cars and naturally, (the) roads. Its entire infrastructure has been built on the idea of a road network, with the longest one running through twelve States. The documents provided show how different people have responded to the call of the road, either through journalism, a novel, or photography. In this essay, I will explore how these three documents present adventure, renewal and poverty as key elements of the road in US culture.

1. The road depicts a sense of adventure and excitement to those travelling on it, to such an extent that writers are inspired to devote entire books to it. A road is an unknown and potentially dangerous place

First of all, a sense of adventure that seems to be essential as a 'rite of passage', emerges from the documents. Andrew McCarthy writes excitedly about the potential there is in a trip across the US in a car. Furthermore, the concept of the road is also historical and can be seen in all the important migrations of US mainland history: pioneers, the gold rush, and the dust bowl. This is mentioned in Kerouac's novel when he writes that he was 'at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future.' It is a personal response, because the book is an autobiographical story of the writer's own trips around the US. However, the road is not without danger, as we can see in the photograph by Dorothea Lange. The 'veteran hobo' must have lived through some tough moments during his time on the road, moments and events that maybe not everyone is willing or able to see.

2. We can also feel a sense of renewal in those who seek the road, like a chance to escape from who they are, i.e., from themselves.

Secondly, the road becomes a symbol of renewal. After living through so many adventures, you grow up and learn from your experiences. Jack Kerouac's interaction with the truck driver he hitch-hiked shows that on the road, you can meet all kinds of people who are ready to tell their stories and transmit the lessons they learnt from life. Kerouac describes a moment of transformation in the hotel room "when I didn't know who I was". This feeling must then be accompanied with a sense of renewal afterwards. But it is in Andrew McCarthy's piece that the sense of renewal is clearly felt when he talks of defiance, control, and hope: "While still on the road… hope is allowed space and time to play out on its own field of dreams". The idea is that anything can happen when we take to the road: and we can also meet unexpected persons, the good, the bad or the ugly.

3. We can also see a sense of renewal in those who seek the road, like a chance to escape from who they are.

However, it is not always an exciting and carefree relationship which is presented in these documents. The road can also be a place where people find themselves when they have no choice. People often have to turn to the road because they no longer have a fixed home. This is clearly the case of the man in Dorothea Lange's photograph. If he is considered to be a 'veteran' hobo, then there must be thousands, if not millions of others just like him who have not been photographed. Furthermore, we know that the Great Depression led to huge migrations within the US, where people went from place to place looking for work. Compared to the exotic nature of Andrew McCarthy's piece or the naivety of Jack Kerouac's confessions, the photograph stands out as a stark reminder that behind the veneer lies a dark underbelly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the three documents present varied responses to the call of the road. Whether it is from a contemporary promotion of US tourism, a countercultural novel that influenced a generation, or the humble photography of 1930s, we can see the road in all its splendour and darkness.

Partie 2. Traduction en français (4 points)

The difficulty in this translation lies in the fact that the text is highly literary. The style is fluid, free, almost wild. There aren't many verb tenses to contend with, but I would suggest the first sentence be in the imperfect tense to convey the description. We have a repetition of the word 'strange' – 'strange seconds' and 'that strange red afternoon'. You will also have to examine the use ofthe expression 'right there and then' and render it effectively in your translation.

Je fixais le haut plafond fêlé et je ne savais vraiment pas qui j'étais pendant une quinzaine d'étranges secondes. Je n'avais pas peur ; j'étais juste quelqu'un d'autre, un inconnu, et toute ma vie était une vie hantée, la vie d'un fantôme. J'étais à mi-chemin à travers l'Amérique, à la ligne de démarcation entre l'Est de ma jeunesse et l'Ouest de mon avenir, et donc c'est peut-être pour ça que cela s'est passé juste là, juste à ce moment, cet étrange après-midi rouge.

Voyages, territoires, frontières, sujet national, mai 2022, sujet 2

Énoncé

Partie 1. Synthèse en anglais (16 points)

Partie 2. Traduction en français (4 points)

Document A

Document B

Document C

Annexes

Corrigé

Partie 1. Synthèse en anglais (16 points)

Introduction

1. The road depicts a sense of adventure and excitement to those travelling on it, to such an extent that writers are inspired to devote entire books to it. A road is an unknown and potentially dangerous place

2. We can also feel a sense of renewal in those who seek the road, like a chance to escape from who they are, i.e., from themselves.

3. We can also see a sense of renewal in those who seek the road, like a chance to escape from who they are.

Conclusion

Partie 2. Traduction en français (4 points)