The Battle with the Cannon by Victor Hugo is a Paideia Unit Plan. http://www.online-literature.com/victor_hugo/3067/ a copy of this work with line numbers, ready to print out for student use is stored on the school moodle in the Reading & Writing IB course in the week of March 28, 2012, and in the curriculum folder on sharepoint. This work is in the public domain. It is several chapters from Hugo's Novel, Ninety-Three. (Book 2, Chapters III-conclusion, IV, V, and VI. This is early in the novel, as Book 1 is fairly short.) carronades a cannon used to attack from the deck of the ship. A "twenty four pounder" means it shot 24 pound cannon balls. The cannon itself probably weighed between 800 and 1000 pounds. Carronades were shorter guns, used because they weighed considerably less than a long gun. The disadvantage of the carronade is the ship had to be at point blank range to hit the target. :  :  :  :  What happens next? http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ninety-three/1.2.7 Erudition refers to all manner of background information assumed by or necessary to understanding or fully appreciating the text. Most corvettes and sloops of the 17th century were around 40 to 60 feet (12 to 18 m) in length and measured 40 to 70 tons burthen. They carried four to eight smaller guns on a single deck. Over time, vessels of increasing size and capability were called corvettes; by 1800 they reached lengths of over 100 feet (30 m) and measured from 400 to 600 tons burthen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo http://www.online-literature.com/victor_hugo/  Cross of the Order of Saint-Louis Awarded for exceptional merit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Saint_Louis Conditions to obtain the award did not include nobility; however, Catholic faith was mandatory, as well as at least ten years' service as a commissioned officer in the Army or the Navy. Members of the Order received a pension. Until the death of Louis XIV, the medal was awarded to outstanding officers only, but it gradually came to be an award that most officers would receive during their career. On 1 January 1791, during the French Revolution, a decree changed the name to décoration militaire ("military decoration"). It was subsequently withdrawn on 15 October 1792. See maps below. The Channel Islands include Jersey and Gurnsey--as you can see, although the islands are British possessions, they lie much closer to France than to the British mainland. The significance of the location of the ship is that they are engaged in a civil war with the French revolutionaries, and are drifting into enemy territory. Although the British are in favor of one side over the other in the conflict, they are not at open war with anyone at this time. In 1793, the time in which this story is set,the French Revolution is in full swing. The guillotine is executing "enemies of the state" at an unnerving pace, and a monarchist counter-revolution threatens the revolutionary government. The ship on which the story takes place is allied with the counter revolutionary forces. Circulating counterfeit money to undermine the value of a government's currency, and thus hurt the economy, is a time-honored practice of war. The British did it in the colonies during the Revolutionary War in the United States. Battle with the Cannon Seminar 4/13/12 Victor Hugo’s story of The Battle with the Cannon, set in the time of the French Revolution, takes place aboard a French naval vessel in the English Channel at a time when the French are engaged in a civil war, with one side backed by the English. Suppose that as a final project for this work, you are going to create a filmed version of this story. After deciding what sets to build and special effects you will need to create, and how, you will need to cast actors. 1. Who are the characters in this story that you will need to cast? Are there groups or crowds we will need? Do we have every one who is vital to telling the story? 2. Most stories center around a conflict. Conflict can be external, or internal. The commonest types of external conflict are: Man against man Man against nature Man against machine Internal conflict is usually described as: Man against himself In “The Battle with the Cannon” what is the primary conflict? Why did you choose that one? Give examples from the text. 3. Let’s look at the Chief Gunner—we don’t even know his name, and we hardly even hear him speak. In terms of assessing him as a character for our pretend movie, how will you portray him? What do his actions tell us about him? Give examples from the text to demonstrate his flaws: Give examples from the text to demonstrate his strenths: What do we hear him say? To the cannon? To the other characters? To the peasant/general? Does this dialogue increase your understanding of the Gunner? 4. Now let’s look briefly at the captain. What adjectives would you use to describe the captain? Why? Why might the captain have handed over his authority about the gunner’s fate to the general? 5. At the time of this story, The Cross of Saint Louis was awarded for exceptional officers to acknowledge outstanding actions in the line of duty. Why did the general take the cross from the captain’s uniform and fasten it on the gunner’s jacket? Is the general saying something about both the captain and the gunner, or only one of them? What is he saying? 6. Why is the gunner bewildered during his sentencing? Do you think he was expecting a death sentence? If he knew he was going to die, does this make his fight with the cannon less heroic? Why? Who was he going against the cannon for? How did the sailors and marines respond to the general’s sentence of the gunner? 7. With respect to the chief gunner, does he receive what he deserves at the end of the story? Does he deserve the Cross of Saint Louis? Does he deserve to be shot? What kind of shape was the ship in at the end of the story? What will happen to the rest of the crew? If you were in charge, what would you have done with him? Do you think the outcome would have been different is the gunner had had a trial? 8. In our society, even when a person takes the life of another person, the courts give sentences designed to both punish and rehabilitate. Imagine an accident caused by a drunk driver. All of the members of the family in the other car are killed except for one. The drunk driver doesn’t run away, but calls 911 and stays and gives the survivor first aid until the ambulance arrives, and saves the vicitm’s life. Does what the driver does to save the survivor make up at all for causing the accident? Does the drunk driver deserve a more lenient sentence because of his later actions? Does the drunk driver deserve a the death penalty? 9. Can a person’s good deeds ever make up for the bad things they do? This was too long, there wasn't enough time for the last 2 questions--next time omit the discussion of the captain's character, perhaps. 2
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