Compréhension du texte Barbara Kingsolver

Sujet du devoir

Bonjour j'ai un exercice à faire à partir d'un texte pouvez vous me dire si c'est juste ? merci :)Compréhension de texte Barbara Kingsolver "The trail of Tears"

Le texte :

" Have you ever read about the Trail of Tears?"
" I have heard of it. I don't know the story though.'
" It happened in 1838. We were forced out of our homelands in the southern Appalachians, North Carolina, Tennessee, around there. All our stories are set in those mountains, because we'd lived there since the beginning, until European immigrants decided our prior claim to the land was interfering with their farming. So the army knocked on our doors one morning, stole the crockery and the food supply and then burned down the houses and took everybody into detention camps. Families were split up, nobody knew what was going on. The idea was to march everybody west to a worthless piece of land nobody else would ever want."
" They walked?" Alice asks. "I'd have thought at least they would take them on a train."
Annawake laughs, through her nose. " No, they walked. Old people, babies, everybody. It was just a wall of people walking and dying. The camps had filthy blankets and slit trenches for bathrooms, covered with flies. The diet was nothing that forest people had ever eaten before, maggoty meal and salted pork, so everybody had diarrhea, and malaria from mosquitoes along the river, because it was summer. The tribal elders begged the gorvernment to wait a few months until fall, so more people might survive the trip, but they wouldn't wait. There was smallpox and just exhaustion. The old people and the nursing babies died first. Mothers would go carrying dead babies for days, out of delirium and loneliness, and because of the wolves following behind."
Alice uncrosses and crosses her arms over her chest, understanding more than she wants to ; she knows she is hearing the story Annawake has carried around er whole life. A speedboat whines past, far away on the other side of the river. Long after the boat and its noise gone, they are rocked by the gash it cut into the water.
' They figure out two thousand died in the detention camps." Annawake says quietly. " And a lot more on the trail. Nobody knows."

Où j'en suis dans mon devoir

a) Comprehension generale.

1- What is the nature of the text?

The text is an extract from Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver.

2- Fill in the blanks to complete the summary of the text.

Il y a des mots que je n'ai pas trouvé ici.

The episode described in " The Trail of Tears" refers to the history of immigrants. The two characters are related :Alice is [.....] Annawake relates the enforced march of the Indians from. [....] towards the west in 1838. It was a proper genocide with so many deaths in the concentration camps and a lot more on the trail.

3) From whose point of view is this historical inciden given? Justify your answer.

This historical incident is given in terms of Annawake.

b) Frome line 3 to 9.

1- Why were "those mountains" so important for Annawake's people? (quote to justify you answer)"
All our stories are set in those mountains, because we'd lived there since the beginning"

2- What was the white settlers' good excuse for deporting the Indians?
"European immigrants decided our prior claim to the land was interfering with their farming."

3- How did the army behave?

The army stole the crockery and the food supply and then burned down the houses and took everybody into detention camps.

c) From line 10 to 18

1- Give two examples which prove the lack of good sanitary conditions.

*The camps had filthy blankets and slit trenches for bathrooms, covered with flies.

*The diet was nothing that forest people had ever eaten before, maggoty meal and salted pork, so everybody had diarrhea, and malaria from mosquitoes.

2- Explain why the food was dangerous.

The food was dangerous because it was summer. And so many flies are on the meat. It was maggoty meal .

3- Find the four diseases or bad medical conditions mentioned.

* so everybody had diarrhea.

*and malaria from mosquitoes .

*There was smallpox .

* slit trenches for bathrooms, covered with flies.

d) Read again carefully the end of the text from line 16 onwards.

1- What Alice's reaction to this story? Explain the first image of the passing speedboat and then how Annawake's memory is turned into a second image. Quote if necessary. Write up to 60 words.

Faced with this story, Alice did not know how to react. She just crossed her arms over her chest. At the beginning Annawake is considered a star, she has survived something horrible. It will keep it all his life in it. But besides that, life is destroyed Annawake. She can never forget what she saw.