Sance 3 : Texte Who is next ?

Theyre in the girls room when they hear the first dot-dot-dot of semi-automatic gunfire. It sounds phony and
far away, and they keep doing what theyre doing brushing their hair looking at their reflections on the
mirror

Dot-dot-dot []

Dot-dot-dot.

What is that?

The blond stuffs her hairbrush, which is now spun with gold and black silk (a miniature angels nest) back into
her backpack next to her anthology of English literature. The pages of that anthology are so thin, theyre like
dead girls dreams, translucent skin. On them it seems that everything that has ever been thought has been
written.

Knock, knock, knock.

This time its followed by a soft and gurgling scream. The scream of someone slipping suddenly into a warm
bath.

Shit, one of the girls says.

What the hell

One of the girls starts towards the door, but the other grabs her elbow. Dont go, she says. What if?

What?

I dont know. She drops her friends elbow.

Its just a prank. Its probably Ryan Asswipe

Dot, dot.

So loud this time close and mechanically bright that both girls scream. Their screams are followed by a
silence that sounds foolish, cold and hard as the tile on the girls room walls. One says in a whisper, Its
Michael Patrick. Yesterday, in trig, he told me he was going to bring a gun to school, that he was going to kill

Who? Kill who?

Everybody.

What?

All you fuckheads, he said. I thought he was joking, you know what a freak

Why didnt you tell anybody?

On the other side of the door to the girls room, theres another scream. It sounds desperate and pointless as
music, and its followed by a man asking for help.

Help, is all he says.

Mr. McCleod?

Then silence, except that one of the girls is wearing seven silver bangles on her right wrist, and both girls gasp
when they jangle. The other grabs the bangles on her friends wrist and holds them still with her hand.

Then he opens the door slowly, and steps in. Hes holding a big blue-black gun with both hands, pointing it in
front of him aiming at nothing.

When he sees them, Michael Patrick laughs. Hey he says.

One of the girls, trying not to sob, swallows, then says, Michael.

Hes wearing a skinny shirt a clean and pale white shirt, but they are large ugly sweat stains under his arms.
Theres an angry rash under his chin, where he must have shaved to fast that morning.

Michael Patrick smiles. Hes breathing hard. He takes one of his hands off the grip of the gun and puts the hand
in the pocket of his jeans. Hes wearing white shoes with blue lightning bolt on the sides, laces untied.

So, he says too loudly in the quiet softness of the girls room, and both girls flinch.

So, he says more softly, as if sorry to have startled them.

Which one of you girls should I kill?

Laura Kasischke, The Life Before Her Eyes, 2002.

A DEUX REPRISES DURANT LE COURS, DEMANDER A UN ELEVE DE RESUMER LES DIFFERENTES

INFORMATIONS DITES JUSQUE LA AFIN DE FACILITER LA TRACE ECRITE.

Premire tape: Reprages (Wh- questions). Faire un tableau avec les personnages et les
informations que lon peut trouver dessus. Demander aux lves de faire diffrentes catgories.

The two girls Michael Patrick Everybody

Places In the girls room In the school In the school

Nickname Fuckheads Fuckheads

Physical One is blond. One is Hes wearing a skinny

appearance wearing seven silver shirt.Hes wearing
bangles. Translucent white shoes with blue
skin. lightning bolt on the
sides.

Action They freshen up in Hes holding a gun,

the bathroom he wants to kill
everybody.

Thanks to the information you got, can you say what is happening in this extract? There is
a shooting in a high school/ there is a young man who plans a shooting in his high school.

Deuxime tape: Focus on the repetitions, deduce the lexical field. We can find the lexical
field of the sound. What is the nature of those words? Onomatopoeia. Where does those
sounds come from? The first noises come from the semi-automatic gun that the young man has,
and the other noise is when this boy is at the door and knock the door so that to enter the room. Pick
other words which can fit in this category. See words highlighted. What can you conclude
about the atmosphere? A terrifying atmosphere, fearful, frightening, scary, anguish.

Troisime tape: Pick out the words which show the different step of the two girls
reactions and actions. No reaction at first (keep doing, l. 4); then the girls are surprised / puzzled
(Shit, one of the girls says, l. 23); one of the girls is panic-stricken (One of the girls starts towards
the door, l. 25) but the other one stops her and does not want to move (but the other grabs her
elbow. Dont go, she says., l. 25-26).

Quatrime tape: What does the killer do at the end of the passage. He asks the girls which
one of them is going to be the next victim. Why do you think he decided to do this bloodbath?
Faire des hypothses avec des modaux, donc demander aux lves de reformuler leurs rponses,
surtout que l il sagit des hypothses dans le pass.
Elments pour la trace crite: Faire les mmes tapes que pour les secondes demander
comment on peut lorganiser selon les diffrents lments que lon a vu en cours. UTILISER DES
MOTS DE LIAISONS POUR PARLER DES DIFFERENTS ELEMENTS.

At the beginning two teenage girls, probably best friends, are in the toilets of their High School and,
as they are brushing their hair and refreshing themselves, they start hearing some strange noises.
Eventually they recognize the burst of gunfire (and then, scream). Little by little they become aware
of the danger and get panic-stricken. All of a sudden, a boy from the school / a male classmate,
known as Michael Patrick, enters the room and corners them. He is holding / waving a machine-gun
and finally / lastly asks the girls which one of them he should kill. At first we are under the impression
that the two girls do not pay attention to the first shootings, since they keep on brushing their hair.
But the repetition of this peculiar sound makes them realize that something is going wrong outside
the restrooms. They are quite in disbelief when they become aware that somebody is probably
slaughtering people in the High School. One of the girls seems to be more eager to move and flee or
do something while the other one prefers to stay still and tries not to move, speak or make any noise.

Michael Patrick may have wanted to take his revenge because he was neglected and rejected /
ostracized by the others in the school. Or / And he may have been bullied. He may have wanted to be
in the limelight because he was excluded by the others / felt very lonely / lonesome. He may have
been a misfit, somebody who didnt belong to any group. He may have held a grudge against people
or the school system and he was cold-blooded and crazy enough to go and kill his peers and his
teachers. He is cynical and vicious in his demand to make the girls decide who is going to die. He
likes tormenting people before killing. Thats the way he can feel powerful / almighty.

Rflexion sur la langue: Partir des hypothses qui sont mises au pass pour parler de la faon
dutiliser les modaux au pass. Donner la structure aux lves et noter au tableau. Puis, demander
de faire des phrases en lien avec le texte mais qui utilisent les modaux : SHOULD, COULD, CANT,
WOULD, MUST

The girl should have called the police when she heard what the man said.

He could have killed them without talking.

He cant have done this anywhere else.

They would have left earlier if they knew.