Level: 1st year of the Baccalaureate

Activité : Etude de texte ( Lecture et langue intégrée )

Duration: 1 hour

Support: The BAM, p:178 180, from 'My mother had raised her head up to the doors'
of Hell.

Objectives: - To study and systematically analyze a text from literature

Maghrebian.

Study the role and place of the father in a Moroccan family.

Study the vocabulary related to the emotional shock endured by the narrator.

Course of the session

Reading and discovering the text

Lecture

Individual lecture

Explanation of difficult vocabulary

Situation of the excerpt

Ask to locate the passage.

Maalem Abdeslam, the father of the narrator, announces to Lalla Zoubida (the mother) the
loss of his capital in the chaos of the bidding at the haïks. He is forced to leave
the family to go work as a harvester in the vicinity of Fès in order to
to raise money to recover in his workshop.

Identification and overall understanding

What is the type of the text?

It is a narrative text because the narrator (Sidi Mohamed) recounts to us the

scene of the announcement of the father's departure to go work in the vicinity of
Fez.

What are the characters present?

The narrator-character (Sidi Mohammed), Lalla Zoubida (the mother) and the father
([Link]).
Where and when does the scene take place?

At the narrator's place, in Dar Chouaffa, in the evening, after the father's return.

What is the main event in this excerpt?

The loss of his capital father and the announcement of his departure.

What is the dominant feeling?

Sadness, fear, unhappiness, and anxiety.

What is its tone?

Dramatic, the character is under the influence of the incidents through which they go.
family.
Why is the father going to leave the house?

After the ruin of the father who lost his capital: the money he was carrying on him is
fell somewhere in a market, he will travel to work as
harvester in the vicinity of Fes.

How long will the narrator's father be absent from home?

He will be absent for a month: 'I will leave you alone for a month.'

How did Lalla Zoubida perceive the loss of money? Highlight from the text this.
who proves it. As a punishment (curse): "It is a punishment from God
who burdens us." It's because of the bracelets: "These cursed bracelets
who have brought unhappiness into our home.
First axis: the important role of the father

Ask the students to identify the role of the father within the family.
narrator.

What moral character trait of Maâlem Abdeslam stands out from his
conversation :

a- l'indifférence ? b- l'inquiétude ? c- la responsabilité ? Justifiez votre réponse.

The character trait of Maâlem Abdeslam: c- responsibility: "I will strive to
not spending anything from my salary, it will be possible for me to restore the workshop in
"goes as soon as I return."

What role does the father generally play in the household?

Accept answers that go in this direction: meet vital needs,

represent an occult protection, its moral prestige gives strength, balance... It
represents strength, security, peace, assurance, respectability, support, ...
etc. In short, the image of the father is a positive one.

Second axis: an emotional shock experienced by the narrator

What are the feelings experienced by the narrator after the announcement of the departure of the
father? Sadness, silence, solitude, anxiety, suffering...

Identify the adjectives describing the silence (a symbol of sadness) felt by the
narrator. The adjectives: "A great silence", "a
heavy, damp, oily, and black as soot silence.

How did he experience the silence of his parents? As a: - weakness. The

silence equates to the family's weakness in the face of destiny: the loss of money.

Why does the narrator feel abandoned? The narrator feels abandoned.
because there was no one to help them and because his father represents
a lot for him: 'I felt abandoned at the gates of Hell.'

Relevez le champ lexical de la souffrance et de l'angoisse.

The lexical field of suffering and anguish: 'a moan escaped from my'
["lips","fills with sorrow","the heart that bleeds","scream of my flesh"]
crushed, "...anguish.", "...my throat tightened..." "nightmare characters
A hard ball formed in my chest, from the depths of anguish.

The narrator's sadness is reflected in his heart and breathing. Note what
it proves it. What proves it in the text: "My heart is filled with sorrow. A "
A hard ball formed in my chest, hindering my breathing.

Summary

The role of the father, especially in a Moroccan family, is essential. The presence
the father represents protection, moral prestige, balance and a
insurance for his family. That is why when announcing his father's
departure, the narrator and his mother are in a terrible emotional shock overwhelmed by
feelings of suffering and anxiety.

Reading sheet

Reading activity:
Level: 1st year of the baccalaureate
Subject: Methodical study of an excerpt from the work.
Support: Chapter IX of the work 'The Box of Wonders' by Ahmed SEFRIOUI.
My mother woke up in turn, took the table and headed towards the
cuisine... I will go to work around Fès.
I. Identification and Situation of the passage:
The characters in action: Zoubida and Maalem Abdslam.
A witness character: The narrator.
The subject of their conversation: The father's bankruptcy.
The type of text: Argumentative.
The form: A dialogue.
Situation of the passage:
After Ashura, the father bought bracelets for his wife that she refuses to wear.
put it because she thinks they will bring bad luck to her family.
II. The reading hypotheses:
What is the feeling experienced by the narrator?
What is the cause of the father's ruin?
What does the father decide to do to overcome his difficulties?
financial?
III. The axes of reading:
The father/mother exchange:

The father's arguments The mother's arguments

["to comply with divine requirements","to assert one's honorability"]

not to lower oneself for to borrow
beggar not to abandon his wife and son
to die of hunger sick.
refusing an worker's salary

The attitudes of the characters:

The father The child The mother

calm the sadness sadness
silent the cries Before the - she is relentless on
decides to leave for the countryside news: his face...
to become a harvester astonishment she scratches...

IV. Synthesis:
This excerpt plays the role of the disruptive element in the narrative structure of
the work, for the ruin of the father who has lost his capital has disturbed the joy of the whole
family. To raise the necessary money to recover in his workshop, the
Father decides to work hard in the countryside.

Text extracted from "The Box of Wonders" chapter IX

My mother woke up in turn, took the table and headed towards her kitchen. She
coming back, her hands loaded with the tray and glasses for tea. She found my
father standing, already getting ready to sleep.

Aren't you having tea? my mother asked him.

No, and from now on, you will pay attention not to waste your sugar too much.

Am I a woman who wastes?

Such is not my thought. I just want to tell you that starting tomorrow, it
it will be difficult for us to have sugar and tea every day.

My mother became very pale. I opened my eyes wide to miss nothing of the
scene. She set down the tray, straightened up, looked my father straight in the face.

I sense a great misfortune, she said in a broken voice.

My father remained silent, his eyelids lowered. Suddenly, a snap

the sound made me jump in my bed, let out a groan of pain. My
mother had pressed her two hands onto her cheeks with the force of despair.
She sat down on the floor, was hard on her face, scratched herself, pulled her hair.
without uttering a word. My father rushed to hold his hands.
They struggled for a good while. My mother collapsed face down on the ground.

- 0 woman! Do you no longer fear the anger of God? my father said softly. Have
trust in His mercy. God will not abandon us. What happens to us,
arrives every day to thousands of Muslims. The believer is often
tested. I lost in the hustle of the auctions to the haïks all our meager
capital.

I had put the money in a handkerchief. I must have dropped the handkerchief.
earth, believing I could slip it into my bag.

My mother had lifted her head. She said nothing.

Mon père, de sa voix calme, continuait:

Why lament? We must praise God in all circumstances.

Finally, my mother broke her silence.

What are we going to do?

I am going to work.

How much have you lost?

All my working capital. I don't even have enough to pay my worker who...
I haven't touched anything this week. I also owe a month's rent to the landlord.
the workshop. I was thinking of settling all these debts and buying cotton.

Could the merchants not give you credit? You are well-known.
honorably.

I will never lower myself to beg for cotton from one of these thieves. I will not
I don't want the miserable salary of a worker either. I am a mountain dweller and a
peasant. The harvest season has just begun, they are hiring
harvesters. I will go work around Fez.

Would you dare to abandon me with a sick child?