Lesson = 2 The Last Lesson

Q 1: How does the theme of the tale related to the subject of language and culture? (Sargodha-2012)
 Ans:
 There is very famous saying in Persian language that goes
                                                         قدر نعمت بعد اززوال نعمت
It means in English that a blessing is (only) Valued when it has been lost. And it is a very true saying. Only  the blind realize that what great blessing eyesight is,  ans so on. A famous American writer, Helen Keller, has written a marvelous essay; "Three Days to see" on the same subjects. Well that is the theme of " The Last Lesson" by Alphonse Daudet, the famous French writer.
Freedom is the great blessing of Allah Almighty but we only value it after its loss. The people of Alsace and Lorraine ( the French territory west of the river Rhine) realized about the value of freedom when their land was occupied in Franco-Prussian war. Soon after the military occupation, orders came from Berlin, the capital of Germany (the ruling country) that " hence forth in the school of Alsace and Lorraine all instruction shall be given in  German tongue only." The people realized the value and importance of French language only after that announcement.
So language and culture of the slave nation become the  sort of guarantee that soon after in future it will be free, Mr. Hamel, the French teacher in the story under discussion, tells his young students that " when a nation become enslaved, she holds a key which shall unlock her prison as long as preserves her native tongue."And culture always goes on hand in hand with language. Just see how little Franz realizes the importance of  French language:
       "On the roof of the schoolhouse  the pigeons  were cooing softly and i thought  to myself as i listened. And must they have also be compelled to sign in German?" The theme of the story has a direct relation with the subject of language and culture!
Q 2: Does this patriotic tale of a French school boy make us conscious about the value of our own native language?
Ans:
" The Last Lesson" by Alphonse Daudet is a patriotic tale of a French school-boy and it makes us conscious about the value of our own native language. A strange tragedy about us Pakistanis is that we honour English language and do not give any importance to  our own native language/mother tongue.
The story of Alphonse Daudet is an eye opener for us.The French teacher in this story, Mr. Hamel, tells his class of young pupils that, "when a nation become enslaved, she holds the key which shall unlock her prison as long as preserves her native tongue.
We, as a nation, are proud to be English and English-medium schools. Every body wants to educate his sons and daughter in English medium schools and Urdu-medium school looked down upon as of inferior quality.
This is not a reasonable attitude. We are loosing our identity. We are losing our language our language. We are loosing our culture. We are losing our music. We are losing our meals and dishes. There is a craze for English or rather Western music! There is a craze of Chinese, Italian and other continental dishes! Burger, Pizza, doughnut, these were unusual word and meaningless words in our society.
The patriotic tale of Franz tells us that one's native language is the life and soul of freedom. So we must try to get the real meaning of the story.
Q 3: The historical background of the story touches on the Franco-Prussian War. What can we infer about the aftermath of the war from the context of the story?
Ans:
 "The Last Lesson" by Alphonse Daudet has been written in the historical background of  Franco-Prussian War of 1879 and it gives a very good picture of the aftermath of the war. In the War, the Germans occupied the area west of the Rhine known as Alsace and Lorraine (which were only freed after the end of the World War I ).
The occupying forces drilled daily up to 12 noon in Ripest Meadow behind the sawmill and at 12 a trumpet would be sounded at which the drill came to an end. Almost daily new notices and orders were displayed on the fence of the town hall. When people went out of their daily routine of life like going on job or business, they would stand there and read these for compliance. There were always bad news for the public which were not slaves of  the German.