This Thursday, June 16, 2022, first year students also passed their baccalaureate: with the famous written French test.
Find below the answer key for the two subjects (general and techno) and the comments of our French teachers.
As a reminder: consult here the subject of the French baccalaureate 2022
French baccalaureate answer key - general
1- Comment (20 points)
Object of study: The novel and the narrative from the Middle Ages to the 21st century
You will comment on the following text: Sylvie GERMAIN (born in 1954), Days of anger, Songs, "The brothers", 1989
Introduction :
Sylvie Germain, contemporary writer, Goncourt prize for high school students for Magnus (2005), published Jours de Colère in 1989, Femina prize.
The story unfolds in the Morvan and presents monstrous figures with extreme attitudes.
The proposed text presents the sons of the family of Ephraïm Mauperthuis and Reinette-la-Grasse, brought up by the harshness of the climate, silence, nature and anger.
The text develops in 3 parts: the first paragraph presents the sons as “men of the forests”, tough, with brutal singing;
the second paragraph as sons of wrath that grew up in nature;
finally the last paragraph makes the link with their human family.
We will wonder how the sons are presented as quasi-inhuman creatures.
I Almost inhuman sons
1. inhuman children: far from men (no precise reference to humanity in the extract. The living environment is the forest, the stars, the fauna (foxes, wild cats, deer, wild boars, beasts, etc.)
2. inhuman children: tough, heartless.
Lexical field of hardness (hardness l. 2, granite l.3, anger l. 10, ).
They are one with a dangerous nature, tormented (hole l.4, salient l.4, brambles l.4, rock l 6, struck like the seasons l. 6, crushing l.7, petrified.7) wild (“ fed since childhood on fruits, vegetables and wild berries, …, flesh of animals… l. 12-13)
3. children whose only horizon is the forest, and whose life is that of the changing climate, who only know “the beasts… the stars” l.
23
II.
fairy tale characters
1. They live outside of human time, that of tales, of "once upon a time", that of a thousand-year-old nature ("granite... millions of centuries old" l. 3) of the cycles of nature: imperfect of repetition, repetitive turns (summers… winters l. 7, centuries-old passages l. 20), that of the song of nature (“a song that chanted their joys as much as their anger” l.8-9).
2. They are sylvans: mythological creatures of nature among the Greeks (men of the forests, in their image, l.1);
see
the metaphor “men of the forests” (“raised among the trees”, “the same song dwelt in them” l. 5)
3. See the brothers of Tom Thumb (§3) (many children, poor, living in nature, the little house…), as indicated by the last sentence of the text
Conclusion: opening on Le Petit Poucet for the harshness of the living conditions which marks, or that of Germinal de Zola for the harshness of the conditions of the mine.
2- Essay (20 points)
Object of study: Poetry from the 19th century to the 21st century
The candidate deals with the choice, taking into account the work and the course studied during the year, one of the following three subjects:
Subject A Work: Victor Hugo, Les Contemplations, books I to IV Journey: the memories of a soul.
Are books I to IV of the Contemplations only an intimate song?
You will answer this question in an organized development based on books 1 to 4 of the Contemplations, on the texts you have studied as part of the associated course, and on your personal culture.
Introduction :
Reminder of what intimacy is: "Which is deep within someone, something, which constitutes the essence of something and generally remains hidden, secret" (Larousse)
The song is that of Hugo, but also of the poet who addresses men.
I. Books I to IV of the Contemplations are an intimate song…
1. A private and personal song
A song about the family (“My two daughters”, “To my daughter”, “Charles Vacquerie”), about his loves (“To Madame DG de G.”, “Lise”, “La Coccinelle”), his memories ( "About Horace", "Listening to the Birds", "Thing Seen on a Spring Day"
2. A song by a poet who puts himself on stage
“One day I saw, standing at the edge of the moving waves”, “The poet goes into the fields;
he admires", "To Madame DG de G.", "Life in the fields", "Three years later", "Response to an indictment", "The tearful poem laments...
II.
But this intimate song dialogues with the public
1. An intimate but committed song
“Melancholia”, “Thing seen in the spring”, I like the spider and I like the nettle...”
2. A prophetic song to announce a better future
“Three years later”: “You who speak to me, you tell me / That it is necessary, recalling my reason, / To guide the decrepit crowds / Towards the gleams of the horizon;
/ That at the hour when peoples rise, / Every thinker follows a deep goal;
/ That it is due to all those who dream, / That it is due to all those who go!
» ;
"The poet must...", Hugo is the one "Who walks in front of everyone, enlightening those who doubt".
III An intimate song which is the mirror of men
1. An individual collection that mirrors the lives of men
Preface: “[this] book contains, we repeat, as much the individuality of the reader as that of the author.
Homo sum.
Go through the tumult, the rumor, the dream, the struggle, the pleasure, the work, the pain, the silence”.
Universality of emotions (mourning, love, joy)
2. an intimate song that converts to God
“You have to think, dream, search.
God blesses man, / Not for having found, but for having sought” (“Life in the fields”);
“You who weep, come to this God, for he weeps.
/ You who suffer, come to him, for he heals.
/ You who tremble, come to him, for he smiles.
/ You who pass, come to him, for he remains” (“Written at the bottom of a crucifix”).
Subject B Work: Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil Background: poetic alchemy: mud and gold.
In Romantic Art (“Théophile Gautier”, 1869), Baudelaire wrote: “It is one of the prodigious privileges of Art that the horrible, artistically expressed, becomes beauty […]”.
Does this statement reflect your reading of Les Fleurs du Mal?
You will answer this question in an organized development based on Les Fleurs du Mal, on the texts you have studied as part of the associated course, and on your personal culture.
In Romantic Art (“Théophile Gautier”, 1869), Baudelaire writes: “It is one of the prodigious privileges of Art that the horrible, artistically expressed, becomes beauty”.
Does this statement reflect your reading of Les Fleurs du Mal?
I. The horrible, artistically expressed, becomes beauty
1. the horror of the street and the city expressed by Art becomes beautiful:
-> prostitutes: "To a red-haired beggar", "Afternoon song", "I don't have an illustrious lioness as a mistress", "Poison", "You would put the whole universe in your alley"
->poor: “The wine of the ragpickers” “The death of the poor”
-> ugly: “The little old women”, “The blind people”
2. the horror and disgust of death becomes beautiful
"A Carrion", "Love and the Skull"
II But, Art can also transmute the traditional beautiful into ugly
1. Destroy the beautiful classic
“To the one who is too cheerful”: sadism that destroys classical beauty;
"The Ideal"
2 Smearing the classic muse
“The sick muse”: destruction of the traditional muse
III.
Finally the Fleurs du mal beyond their provocation are also a poetry of classical beauty
1. Beauty of nature
"Exotic perfume", "Invitation to travel"
2. Women's beauty
"To a Creole Lady", "The Hair", "The Dancing Serpent", "The Giant"
Subject C Work: Guillaume Apollinaire, Alcools Journey: poetic modernity?
Is Apollinaire's poetry a celebration of modernity?
You will answer this question in an organized development based on Alcohols, on the texts you have studied as part of the associated course, and on your personal culture.
Is Apollinaire's poetry a celebration of modernity?
Introduction: defining modernity as a current of the early 20th century, as the rejection of tradition (theme, form, etc.)
I. Apollinaire's poetry is a celebration of modernity
1. by its innovative shape
-> free verse
->Lack of punctuation
-> modern rhythm: "La Loreley" in couplet, three quatrains for "Les Colchiques"
2. By its modern themes
-> the modern and marginal poet: "The door", ""Saltimbanques", "The thief", ""To Health" I...
->the contemporary city (Paris) “Zone”, “Le Pont Mirabeau”
3. By its modern writing
->use of modern and technical language: cf.
Zone, plane, Eiffel, cans, flyers
-> opposition of several registers: cows and flower in "Les Colchiques", the opposite of the classical bucolic
II.
However, it also draws on a poetic tradition
1. The fund of traditional subjects
-> love: "Les Colchiques" is based on the love tradition of the 16th century with the metaphor of the flower (Ronsard "Mignonne, let's see if the rose...")
-> classical and medieval poetic topoï: flight of time (“Le Pont Mirabeau” already present at Villon), melancholy, journey “Le voyageur”, exalted lyricism “Poem read at the wedding of André Salomon”, mystery of the woman “Annie”, “Rosmonde”
2. A metric close to traditional poetry
-> free verse close to the alexandrine in "Les Colchiques"
-> medieval taste for identically rhyming stanzas “The Snow White”
-> medieval taste on the game of the heady return of rhymes: two rhymes in "L'Adieu"
III.
the collection offers a syncretism of tradition and modernity
1. syncretism between modernity and ancient oral tradition
-> Rhenish legends: cf.
"Rhenish" section
2. modernization of medieval poetry references
"Aubade sung in Laetare", the frogs sing here instead of the traditional birds
3. Modernization of ancient mythology
->myth of Icarus: "Zone"
->Orpheus in "The Song of the Unloved"
->Hercules in the "Inferno"
Corrected French baccalaureate - techno series
The candidate had to choose one of the following 2 subjects: the text commentary, or the contraction and the essay.
1- Text commentary (20 points)
Object of study: The novel and the story from the Middle Ages to the 21st century.
Text by Émile Zola, “Germinal”, 1885
The proposed excerpt comes from a novel familiar to the general public and probably to students: Germinal, by the naturalist author Emile Zola.
This well-known author since college should not destabilize candidates.
If the proposed excerpt may seem a bit long at first glance, it does not present any particular difficulties of meaning and should not pose any problems of understanding.
Students are guided by two reading tracks:
-Horses: two moving characters
-A gradual descent into hell
In the introduction, care must be taken to recall the literary movement of the author, leader of the naturalists.
We also think of recalling at least two major works by the author, such as L'Assommoir or La Bête Humaine.
Zola's project is to tell "the natural and social history of a family under the Second Empire", it may be useful to recall it if we know it.
If the Germinal novel is known to the candidate, he can summarize it in a few lines, but this is not compulsory.
The candidate then necessarily proposes a summary of the extract presented to him.
A possible reading project: How does the inhuman treatment of animals reflect the dehumanization of society?
Implicitly, through the horror of the condition of these animals, the question arises of the responsibility of those who organize such a system.
There is also the question of the treatment of workers.
Plan proposal:
I Horses: two moving characters
A/ Denounced working conditions
We can rely on the realistic description of the world of mining proposed by the author.
The working conditions are denounced in a very factual way: “for ten years”.
We learn that the horses are somehow buried during their lifetime to work and only see the surface of the day after their death.
The terms are technical and attest to a truthful testimony on the part of the author: we evoke "black galleries", "the maneuvers", the "well", "the ventilation doors" or even the very precise stages of the descent of a horse.
B/ Characters with human qualities, which move the reader more
The humanity of animals is repeatedly emphasized.
Do they have a name, "Battle" and "Trumpet", sadly evocative of this battle to be waged, unto death, or to the "trumpets" of death?
Bataille is also referred to as a "prisoner".
The age of the first horse, the "dean", presented as an old man "trembling on his old feet" evokes an elderly person who is forced to work.
Bataille's intelligence is underlined: “malignity”;
he manages to understand the path he has been given to travel, and to count the number of turns.
The animals' emotions are underlined several times, with terms that would traditionally be attributed to humans: "melancholy", "his dark daydreams".
We can speak of personification.
C/ Access to the emotions of the characters
Access to emotions makes it possible to create empathy on the part of the reader who sympathizes and is indignant at the fate reserved for the animal.
To signify that one is well in the thoughts of the animal, the author sometimes uses periphrases like “an enormous lamp” to mean “the sun” and thus evoke the raw perception of an animal.
The emotions evoked are presented in a gradual and terrifying way: from “melancholy” to “dread”, a dread such that it can kill.
The animals, meeting each other, seem more human than the humans, the workers who laugh at Bataille's interest in Trompette: indeed the old horse is moved, and in a personification, he neighs evoking "the tenderness of a sob”.
II A gradual descent into hell
The descent into hell is called "catabase", but knowing this process will surely only be considered a bonus.
A/ The torture of the descent
The descent of the horse in particular is evoked as a session of torture;
the animal is tied up to be lowered into darkness, with no support under its hooves.
The adverb "madly", the adjectives "petrified" or even "dilated with terror" evoke a very violent operation for the horse.
We find the lexical field of fear.
The inhumanity of such treatment is also found with the evocation of the "fixed" eye, which is repeated twice, and also of the "stony immobility", an image which suggests the terror of the animal and his possible death.
In fact, the comparison "like a mass" that describes Trumpet's lying position after his descent suggests his terrible state.
B/ An opposition between the outside and the inside, the top and the bottom, life and death
The underground life of the mine seems all the more terrifying as the exterior and the top seem presented as sources of life and joy.
If the narrator concedes that he is “sheltered from the misfortunes from up there”, he especially emphasizes the nostalgia of his earthly life.
Thus the description of the birthplace of Bataille gives rise to a bucolic evocation: "a mill planted on the edge of the Scarpe, surrounded by large greenery, always fanned by the wind".
The smell of Trumpet also gives rise to this ameliorative image: “the good smell of the open air, the forgotten smell of the sun in the grass”.
In contrast, the mine is a place of “darkness”, “in places too low”.
These two universes are built in antithesis.
C/ The infernal world of the underground: a real hell underground.
So we can say that this underground world, by the treatment reserved for living beings, is a real hell underground.
To descend into the well is to descend towards death, and this is what the Trompette horse has understood, "hanging in the dark".
The image of Bataille's "cat's eyes" evokes this infernal universe where animals see in the dark.
We can also underline the metaphor of the mine with the following images: “The nightmare of this dark, infinite hole, of this deep room, resounding with din”.
The idea of the absence of light but also of infinity evokes a hellish place.
Finally, the multiple occurrences of the term "death", which concludes this passage, confirm this reading.
En conclusion, il convient de rappeler la problématique et de proposer une ouverture personnelle et en lien avec l’extrait étudié.
1. Contraction de texte et essai
A. Rabelais, Gargantua, chapitres XI à XXIV. Parcours : la bonne éducation
Contraction de texte :
Quelques pistes :
Paragraphe 1 : Pour mieux comprendre un événement, il faut prendre du recul, comme lors d’une promenade lorsque l’on recourt à une carte pour voir l’ensemble de surplomb.
Paragraphe 2 : Pour mieux comprendre notre société qui est complexe, il faut passer par l’apprentissage du grec et du latin, c’est-à-dire, des enseignements atemporels. Il faut prendre du recul pour comprendre le présent.
Paragraphe 3 : Notre monde a connu des changements rapides. L’autrice prend pour exemple sa maison en Provence.
Paragraphe 4 : Lorsque tout change, nous avons besoin de nous raccrocher à quelque chose de tangible et d’éternel.
Paragraphe 5 : Chacun doit trouver sa voie mais nous pouvons aider la jeunesse en transmettant des enseignements atemporels.
Essai :
Dans un monde qui change, a-t-on forcément besoin d’une éducation nouvelle ?
I Une éducation nouvelle pour se défaire des mauvais apprentissages
A/ Aller vers une éducation idéale, qui place l’humain au centre
Exemple : Gargantua de François Rabelais
B/ Se défaire des mauvaises pratiques
Exemple : L’Emile, Rousseau
C/Se rapprocher des valeurs de son époque, s’adapter à son temps
Exemple : Gargantua de François Rabelais
II Un modèle d’éducation atemporel
A/ Parler de l’ancien pour parler du présent
Exemple : Ecrits sur l’enseignement de Jacqueline de Romilly
B/ S’adapter à chacun pour parler à tous
Exemple : Les Essais, Montaigne
C/ L’atemporel comme point de repère
Exemple : suivre la « nature » de tous les enfants : Fénelon, Traité de l’Education des filles
B. La Bruyère, Les Caractères, livre XI « De l’Homme ». Parcours : peindre les Hommes, examiner la nature humaine.
Contraction de texte :
Quelques pistes :
Paragraphe 1 : Le portrait photographique est celui qui fige un instant, un moment du réel pour l’éternité.
Paragraphe 2 : Le portrait plastique permet au contraire d’enlever les éléments qui se rapportent au présent et de mettre en lumière ce qui est atemporel. A travers une personne, on peut parler d’une époque.
Paragraphe 3 : Le portrait littéraire procède aussi d’une déformation du réel et rend compte d’une forme d’éternité.
Paragraphe 4 : Le portrait littéraire peut être une caricature, mue par la haine de l’auteur pour quelqu’un.
Paragraphe 5 : L’objectif des artistes est de dire le vrai, même et surtout en passant par une déformation du réel.
Essai :
Peindre les Hommes, est-ce toujours avoir le souci d’être vrai ?
I Peindre les Hommes, c’est dire le monde tel qu’on le perçoit
A/ Témoigner d’une réalité vécue
Exemple : Le portrait du photographe dans le texte de Henri Amer
B/ Dénoncer les travers de la société
Exemple : Les pamphlets, les essais
Le discours sur la misère à l’Assemblée nationale de Victor Hugo
C/ Rendre compte de ce qui est intemporel en l’Homme
Exemple : Les Caractères de La Bruyère
II On peut dire le monde sans passer par le vrai
A/ Faire rire par l’exagération et ainsi dénoncer de façon plus efficace
Exemple : Tartuffe de Molière
B/ Indigner et choquer par le biais d’une histoire
Exemple : Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
C/ L’image comme support à la compréhension du monde
Exemple : Les Fables de La Fontaine
C. Olympe de Gouges, Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne. Parcours ; écrire et combattre pour l’égalité.
Contraction de texte :
Quelques pistes :
Paragraphe 1 : George Sand a toujours été concernée par les luttes autour de la condition des femmes.
Paragraphe 2 : Elle s’intéresse particulièrement aux droits privés des femmes, aux droits civils, et plus particulièrement au droit de divorcer. Elle pense qu’il est trop tôt pour revendiquer des droits politiques.
Paragraphe 3 : Toutefois, ces réclamations sur le divorce sont modérées. George Sand ne valorise pas le célibat. Selon elle la cause de la femme se rapproche de celle du peuple.
Paragraphe 4 : Si George Sand milite pour des idées socialistes, elle ne se présente pas pour autant pour être députée.
Paragraphe 5 : Le « féminisme » de Sand est mesuré et modeste.
Paragraphe 6 : Son manque d’audace la rend paradoxalement plus efficace et elle diffuse ses idées plus largement. Elle milite aussi à travers ses écrits et son art de manière générale.
Essai :
Martine Reid écrit : « George Sand milite sans relâche pour l’égalité, « beau rêve, dit-elle, dont je ne verrai pas la réalisation ».
Selon vous, écrire et combattre pour l’égalité, est-ce viser forcément une efficacité immédiate ?
I Ecrire et combattre pour l’égalité, c’est espérer l’efficacité de son discours dans le réel
A/ Agir immédiatement pour une cause urgente
Les journaux, support d’une communication efficace et rapide
Ex : J’accuse de Emile Zola
B/Faire écho à l’actualité du public auquel on s’adresse
Ex : La Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne, connivence avec le titre.
C/Oratorical strategies, tactical writing
Rewriting, a writing strategy.
II It is sometimes a temporary failure, we hope that posterity will hear us
A/ The risk of not being heard
Ex: texts against slavery.
(Slavery abolished in 1848)
B/ Bad interpretation or bad reception of a text
Despite the revolutionary period, Olympe de Gouges struggled to be heard.
Real equality seems unachievable.
C/ We can hope for measured progress, hoping for future success
Ex: the relative feminism of George Sand, which thus manages to reach more people.
See also
Bac results
French baccalaureate: the oral - guide and method
French baccalaureate: the oral - advice from a teacher to pass the oral, pitfalls to avoid...
French baccalaureate: writing - guide and method for passing the 4-hour exam