Hey guys,

today we first worked on how to create an atmosphere starting just from your senses and impressions and our little experiments... ;)  Creepy, wasn't it?

Here is what we finally said:

Narrating starting from your sensations and feelings


The desert island:
 

Arriving/landing: by boat, by airplane.

I came to the desert island by plane but it crashed into the ocean. I felt cold and wet.
 

Reaching the beach: I managed to reach the beach walking in the sand. It felt like biscuits under my feet.

 
Getting into the forest: I felt lost and exhausted. I was injured/hurt/wounded. My eyes hurt. I felt as if I were blind, but I knew I was in the forest. It felt dry and like twigs under my feet.

 
In the forest, first meeting with the natives: I was taken by people to their camp. They fed me soup with mysterious ingredients. It felt as if I were eating human eye balls and a warm beating heart.





Structure: Exprimer une émotion/sensation
    

The 5 senses:
Touch -> to feel
Smell -> to smell
Taste -> to taste
Hearing -> to sound
Sight -> to look … + adj
                               + like + nom
                               + as if + phrase (prétérit modal)

Ex: It feels strange and mysterious
       It smells like vinegar
       It tastes as if it were dead fish

  
Then, after revealing the real objects from the bag, we continued the lesson with a recap of your homework about Joseph Conrad and we began to study an extract from one of his biggest success: "Heart of Darkness". 

Here is what we have begun to say about it:

Heart of Darkness:

 
Type of narrative: 1st person narrative. The point of view is Marlow’s. It’s an internal focalization.
 

Who: Marlow and his men (pilgrims) + the natives.
Where: On a river, into the forest, in the wild/wilderness (a wild dense jungle)
When: At night
 

What: Marlow is looking for a friend (Kurtz) who may be lost/ may have been kidnapped. As he sails up the river, he feels as if someone were watching and following him. In this imagination, it sounds as if the natives were preparing a ceremony/sacrifice. Because of the heavy foliage and the dark, he feels as if he were blind.
    Cf. : « bodies swaying »      Sense of sight
            « eyes rolling »            Sense of sight
            « feet stomping »        Sense of hearing


Additonal vocabulary:

A steamer
A steam-ship
A roof
(to) sail = to go by boat
(to) manage to = (to) succeed in ...

HW:

- pour mercredi, vous devez répondre aux questions 2 à 5 de la fiche guide de compréhension du texte.

- faites-vous des fiches de lexique par thème. Je vais bientôt ramasser des classeurs pour vérifier que le travail est fait correctement.

Documents:

- Téléchargez le texte ici.

- Téléchargez la fiche de compréhension ici.