Bonsoir à tous, je passe mon oral de littérature anglaise dans une semaine, j'ai fait mes synthèses, mais je sais pas si il y'a encore des fautes ou non. Pourriez vous m'aider s'il vous plait? Merci d'avance
Thématique: Encounter with other, love and friendship
My presentation will deal with the theme of “Encounter with the other, love and friendship”. To put the notion into perspective, we’re going to speak about “The odd couple”. I would first begin by defining what an odd couple is. That notion refers to two people with a special connection or relationship but who are very different from each other. The word “Odd” means weird and strange and the word “Couple” means 2 men, 2 women, or 1 man & 1 woman but mismatched. Their mood, their social status are opposite: there are normally several distinct differences between the two partners to have the term "odd couple" used to describe a specific relationship. I will present this notion with 2 documents that we saw in class and another personal document.
We will start with a funny and most ironical short story by Charlie Fish: Death by scrabble. Charlie Fish is American, but currently lives in England. He is a contemporary writer. He also writes scenarios. The short story was published in 2000. The main subject is the odd couple. The story pinpoints the ups and downs of an odd couple. This odd couple is like chalk and cheese. They are mismatched, as different as possible they are playing scrabble but the game is distorted. It is a very original story. There is no real murder, and no culprit. The objects in the room are highly symbolic and the words predict what will happen next. There are a lot of foreshadowing as well. The crafty writer uses suspense techniques as in a murder play. Violence is expressed not physically but verbally the story is the perfect illustration of: she has the last word!
Then, I will speak about the first extract « Boon Companions » by Paul Auster published in 1999 (nineteen ninety nine). Paul Benjamin Auster is an American writer and director. The novel tells the story of a funny couple, a friendship between a dog and a man. The 2 protagonists are an unexpected couple. Thus, two characters are present in this extract: Willy G, a failed poet, and Mr. Bones, a dog who feels like a stranger in the world of men. Mr Bones is a hodgepodge of genetic strains. He is dirty, unhealthy. Two completely different characters by their kind and yet very strong friendship develops between them. The extract highlights the strange personality of the master and the almost human personality of the dog. The dog is personified and he depends as much on Willy as Willy on him. They complement each other, which makes the extract both realistic and moving. They could be nicknamed: the perfect couple.
Finally, we will talk about my personal document, which is an illustration. It is probably a painting. This illustration shows a young man and a young woman. We don’t know who the painter is. The scene probably takes place on a porch. It is difficult to date the painting: it may have been painted in the nineties, because of the young man’s look and hairstyle. The woman is very formally dressed in Victorian style whereas the man looks very casual. The woman must feel very proud of her Victorian dress, her sophisticated hairstyle. This painting seems to be a stereotyped vision of 2 opposing social classes. One the one hand, a young woman, maybe from the upper class, on the other hand a man, who certainly comes from the working class. These 2 characters are as different as can be! They seem to have nothing in common, their love story is very unlikely. They are poles apart and there is a huge gap between them. They come from a different class but they also come from a different era: she looks Victorian, he could come from the 21st century. However, we must not judge by appearances.
To sum up, I would like to say that these documents truly represent the notion of "meeting with other" and “odd couple”. Despite the fact that they characters seems highly opposite through their social status or their mood, they try to bridge the gap between them. These documents correspond to this notion. Personally, I enjoy this notion because we discovered that love and friendship have no border. My favourite document is the picture of an odd couple, because it perfectly represents the definition of the odd couple.
