Correction bac oral

Sujet du devoir

Bonjour, je suis en Terminale et je viens de finir de rédiger mon oral d'anglais pour le bac sur la notions "Myths and Heroes" et j'aurais aimé avoir une correction ainsi que des avis si cela est possible. Merci pour vos réponses.

Où j'en suis dans mon devoir

I am going to talk about the notion of Myths and heroes. First of all, I would like to give a quick definition of that notion. So, a myth is a story that may or may not be true. There are popular belief on which society ideals and values are based. These stories are usually embodied by a hero defined as a person with heroic qualities who is admired for his courage and outstanding achievements. He can be the hero of a film, a modern-day hero, or a person who has performed a heroic act. He is a role model, because he’s looked up.In order to illustrate this notion, we can talk about some documents I studied in class and related to feminism.Therefore, we can wonder to what extent did women like Emmeline Pankhurst or Emily Davison contribute to the improvement of women’s rights?In a first part, we will be concerned with women’s struggle for the right to vote and then we will look at their fighting for an equal pay with men. 

The first document is in fact some extracts of a movie entitled « Suffragette » which focuses on women who decided to fight to get the vote in England, in the early 20th century. Indeed, in the 19th century, men over 21 years oldwere allowed to vote but women didn't have the right to vote at all. The common thinking was that women were inferior to men and that they were unable to take important decisions. Consequently, they funded a movement named « Suffragette » which seeks to give to women the chance to prove themselves, get a better education and then get the right to vote. These women had seen peaceful protest achieve nothing because the British government refused to support them. In response to this, a committed suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst decided in 1903, to defy the government violently so as to be heard. Indeed, with the film the director wants to underline that suffragettes were prepared to go to extreme lengths to have their voices heard: They organized riots, chained themselves to railings, put fire to buildings… Many were sent to prison for the participation in such demonstrations but they continue to fight by embarking on a hunger strike. It was also a failure because they were force fed. They were also willing to lose everything in their fight for equality, even life and  the first martyr of this movement was Emily Davidson, who ran in front of a horse race and died in 1913, in order to put aware the world of this injustice. This shocking event marked a turning point in the struggle in so far as mentalities started to evolve, added to the fact that during the First World War, women had to do men’s jobs. Thus, in 1918, an Act of parliament allowed women over 30 the right to vote. It would take a further 10 years to abolish the age qualification.

This movie perfectly illustrates the idea of myths and heroes because it sets a good example of how iconic figures, such as Emily Davidson or Emmeline Pankhurst were willing to sacrifice their lives to prove their demands were not foolish, and I admire the courage of these women. It also shows how deeply-rooted some myths or beliefs are, which makes them even more difficult to debunk.

Then, extracts from the movie « Made in Dagenham », based on a rue story, shows us that women were discriminated in the second half of the 20th century because, they were less paid than men for an equivalent job. Indeed, it depicts the first labor strike of sewing machinists of the auto plant Ford in London and negotiations that their leaders led to get equal pay for men and women. Frustrated, the factory owners tried to pressure the women into going back to work but they refused. In this extract, we can see Rita O’Grady, their spokeswoman and the leader of the strike who reveals her ability of holding a position when she meets Mrs Castle, the secretary of State for Employment  for the first time. Mrs Castle tries to make her understand the importance of the investments of the Ford Company in the country and, in order to pacify the Lords and factory owners, Castle promises them to be on their side, however they have to be patient but Mrs O’Grady does not succumb against the government pressure and the power of the industry and  demanded concrete measures before accepting to return to work. She’s ready to change attitudes towards women’s work.At the result of meeting, the Secretary seems ready to negotiate and the strikers finally got the guarantee they would now be paid 92% of the male’s rate. We’ll have to wait 1970 so that the Equal Pay Act was voted. 

This document help us to understand that during the decade, women have never stopped fighting, thus, they took an important place to the evolution of the society and decided to assert themselves but it’s important not to forget that it took much determination to make mentalities evolve and to obtain official and legal recognition.

But even nowadays, there ate still prejudices and discrimination against women. We can mention a campaign which was created by the United Nations named HeForShe for which Emma Watson delivered a speech to involve men in the struggle against gender inequality and became a model for people particularly for feminists. Actually, she uses her fame and popularity to mobilises people to stand up for gender equality, change women’s lives and thanks to that, her message is particularly striking because people identify with her. But, she’s not the only one to try to make things happen. We may also mention the speech of Chimamanda NgoziAdichie, a Nigerian writer, in which she says that in our modern society, women are turned into an art formed, prejudiced and dehumanized. To her, if we want to make a difference, men need to be feminist too. 

Both documents make us realize that our today’s society still suffers from gender inequality  but modern heroes and models are fighting against this scourge, by speaking and involving everybody in this struggle. But I have to disagree with the fact that a modern hero has to be famous, we can take the example of Malala, a Pakistani activist who shows that fight for ideas could make you a model. 

 To conclude, we saw, through the examples of the Suffragettes and of industry workers, that women suffered from preconceived ideas and thanks to their will, some of them gradually made mentalities evolve to be given the chance to live in a more egalitarian society. These women may be considered as heroes even though they were often despised at their times.