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The Last Lesson
Write the character sketch of Franz, the little boy.
Or
What feelings and experiences did Franz have on the day of the last lesson.
Franz was a student in one of the schools in the districts of Alsace. Having a poor family set up, the boy was often asked to work in some mill for earning some money. But the family could not pay due attention towards his education, so the boy loved outside environment and wanted to enjoy it. In the school too, he often loved to work in the garden. He became fond of shirking from work and used to put off his learning as well as home task. But he was much scared of his teacher M. Hamel.
In addition to this, the boy had an acute sense of understanding, feeling, recognition and respect. Entering the school, he sensed unusualness and calmness there. He was much surprised at this and was rather troubled to know that his teacher was leaving them because of an order from Berlin had banned the teaching of French. During the writing period, he noticed sad expressions over the face of M. Hamel. When the teacher taught a lesson in grammar, it left an indelible impression on the boy. He felt that the teacher was going to pour everything in their minds. Then the teacher wrote on the blackboard ‘Long Live France’. The boy was deeply moved and he recognised his teacher for his worth. Thus Franz had all the senses of head and heart.
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What did Franz notice that was unusual about the school that day?
What had been put on the bulletin board?
What changes did the order from Berlin cause in school that day?
How did Franz’s feelings about M. Hamel and school change?
The people in this story suddenly realise how precious their language is to them. What shows you this? Why does this happen?
Franz thinks : “Will they make them sing in German, even the pigeons ?” What could this mean ? (There could be more than one answer).
‘When a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to their prison.” Can you think of examples in history where a conquered people had their language taken away from them or had a language imposed on them?
What happens to a linguistic minority in a state ? How do you think they can keep their language alive?
For example:
Punjabis in Bangalore
Tamilians in Mumbai
Kannadigas in Delhi
Gujaratis in Kolkata
Is it possible to carry pride in one’s language too far? Do you know what linguistic chauvinism means?
English is a language that contains words from muny other languages. This inclusiveness is one of the reasons it is now a ‘world language.’
For Example:
petite – French
kindergarten – German
capital – Latin
democracy – Greek
bazaar - Hindi
Find out the origins of the following words.Sponsor Area
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