The Last Lesson

Metaphors and Similes

What a Thunderclap (Metaphor)
After Hamel announces to the class that the
French language will no longer be taught in
Alsace-Lorraine, Franz comments on the shock of
receiving the news, calling Hamel's words "a
thunderclap." With this metaphor, Daudet's
narrator emphasizes the suddenness of the
announcement by equating it with the loud,
disrupting sound of thunder.
Looked Like Little Flags (Simile)
During the cursive lesson, Franz comments on how the slips of paper
that say "Alsace, France" which Hamel distributes for the students to
copy look "like little flags floating everywhere in the school-room,
hung from the rod at the top of our desks." In this simile, Franz sees
the common sight of cursive copy slips anew; under the
circumstance of his native language being removed from his lessons,
Franz interprets the slips as flags planted in the territory of the
students' desks. Hamel would like to remind his students that the
desks belong to Alsace-Lorraine and not the Prussian invaders.
As If They Had the Key to Their Prison (Simile)
Before beginning the grammar lesson, Hamel digresses to remind his
students about the importance of learning and protecting their
native language. With their language and culture under immanent
threat from the invading Prussians, Hamel instructs his students to
guard the French language "because when people are enslaved, as
long as they hold fast to their language it is as if they had the key to
their prison." In this passage, Daudet uses simile to liken knowledge
of one's native language to a key that lets them escape the prison
that is the forces seeking to oppress and control them.
The Last Lesson
Irony
Unnecessary Dread (Situational Irony)
The story begins with Franz dreading school because he is
running late and has not prepared for the grammar lesson
on participles. His unease even tempts him to skip school,
but in an instance of situational irony, Hamel doesn't scold
Franz under the somber circumstances of this being
Hamel's last French lesson. Franz's concern turns out to be
misplaced given the significance of the life-changing
impositions of the Prussian occupying forces.
Books Become Old Friends (Situational Irony)
Although Franz spends much of his time at school skipping
class and putting off learning, his burdensome French
textbooks come to seem like old friends after he learns
that he will no longer have the opportunity to learn his
native language and history. In this instance of situational
irony, Franz's resentment toward school suddenly
transforms into a profound appreciation for the now-
forbidden acquisition of knowledge.
The Last Lesson
Imagery
Benches Worn Smooth (Visual Imagery)
During the cursive lesson, Franz reflects on how little has
changed in the schoolroom Hamel has spent the last forty years
teaching in. Daudet writes: "Only the desks and benches had
been worn smooth; the walnut-trees in the garden were taller,
and the hopvine he had planted himself twined about the
windows to the roof." In this example of visual imagery, Daudet
conveys the passage of time by detailing the incremental growth
and wearing of the objects that fill out the setting.
Sound of Pens Scratching Paper (Auditory Imagery)
Given the exceptional and mournful circumstances of their final
French lessons, Franz and the other students focus on their
work like never before. During the writing lesson, Franz
comments that "you ought to have seen how everyone set to
work, and how quiet it was! The only sound was the scratching
of the pens over the paper." In this example of auditory
imagery, Daudet conveys the silence of the room by
emphasizing the quiet and precise sound of the students' pens
on paper.
My Mother at Sixty
Six
1. Personification – Trees sprinting
2. Simile – Pale as a late winter’s
moon
3. Imagery – young children , trees
sprinting backwards
4. Metaphor – Merry children
spilling out of their homes
5. Repetition – smile and smile and
smile
An Elementary School Classroom in a Slum
1. Simile – windows shut like catacombs, hair like
rootless weeds, like bottle bits on stones
2. Metaphor – language is the sun, lead sky
3. Imagery – children weighed down by poverty
4. Repetition – break o break
5. Symbolism – sun (enlightenment), green
fields (regeneration), windows (opportunities)
Keeping Quiet
1. Repetition – Let’s – to create a bond
between listeners
2. Simile – earth can teach us as when
…
3. Symbolism – brothers (show
harmony), clean clothes (no enmity)
The Enemy Metaphors and
Similes
Simile: Half-Starved Fowl
On the beach that fateful day, the doctor and his wife see
a strange black shape in the water that turns out to be a
white man who is badly wounded. They decide they must
turn the man over to authorities as a prisoner of war
despite the fact that he is in such bad shape that ”He was
very light, like a fowl that has been half starved for a long
time until it is only feathers and skeleton.” This
description helps the reader see just how poorly off the
man is, recognizing that it a wonder he is not dead
already. His condition increases the doctor's pity for the
man and leads him to his decision to operate.
Simile: Animalistic Terror
The decision to turn Tom over is put off so that Sadao, compelled by
duty, can tend to Tom's wounds; this leads to a developing
relationship that is still grounded in suspicion and distrust. Tom thanks
Sadao for saving his life, but Sadao's reply is a cold admonition to not
be premature. This unexpectedly terse reply in turn produces an
unexpected emotional response by Tom: Sadao “saw the flicker of
terror again in the boy’s eyes—terror as unmistakable as an animal’s.”
Tom feels a primitive horror, like a preyed-upon animal in the wild, as
he considers that he still might die.
The Enemy
Irony
Dramatic Irony: The Factors Limiting Japan
One of the most strikingly ironic elements of the story was not
even discernible until years after its initial publication. In the
opening flashback, the story’s protagonist recalls words spoken
by his father as he stared out to the horizon, beyond which lay
all the islands of the South Seas. He refers to these islands as
the “stepping-stones to the future of Japan” before rhetorically
contemplating, “Who can limit our future?” Ironically, of course,
history would prove that it was none other than Japan’s
wartime enemy—the United States—that could, did, and has
limited Japan’s future.
Verbal Irony: Killing as Kindness
When Sadao says the "kindest thing would be to
put him back in the sea," there is a degree of
irony there, whether he intends it or not. It is
hard to see how it would be "kind" to let the
main drown or die of his nasty wounds; in
contrast, the truly kind thing is Sadao taking the
man into his home to save his life.
Situational Irony: An American in a Japanese
Room
There is tremendous irony in the fact that the
room where the American—the foreigner, the
enemy—is taken for his operation and to recover is
Sadao's father's room, a room where "everything
here had been Japanese to please the old man,
who would never in his own home sit on a chair or
sleep in a foreign bed."
The Enemy
Imagery
Medicine and Health
Medicine appears as a kind of imagery throughout the novel.
Sadao's choice to take care of the American puts the whole
estate in a state of anxiety because they are committing a crime
by helping him. Their decision to look after his health is a
commentary on their shared human nature, and his slow
recovery is well documented in the story. There are doctors and
medical attendants who both help and harm their cause because
they cannot help but become paranoid that someone will report
them. Medical imagery is held in tension with their emotional
disgust with the American.
The Man
Sadao and his wife see "something black come out of the
mists. It was a man. He was flung out of the ocean—
flung, it seems, to his feet by a breaker." In this creepy
and jarring image, we see the ocean seemingly throwing
the man out to Sadao, forever changing both of their
lives. That the man is "black" gives an impression of
darkness and danger, and that so much of him is
obscured alludes to the coming confusion and
obfuscation of Sadao's true feelings.
The Cook
The cook "splits a fowl's neck skillfully and held the fluttering
bird and let its blood flow into the roots of a wisteria vine."
This violent image suggests what she and the other servants
wish would happen to the man, as well as what traditionally
happens to men during a state of war. The blood coursing
down from the bird is mirrored in the blood of the injured
man, but Sadao does not want the man to die: rather, he
wants the blood to be stanched and the man to be saved. It is
an interesting contrast between the more enlightened doctor
and his more stubborn and simple-minded servants.
Lost Spring
 Irony
Saheb-e- Alam, which means Lord of the universe,
is directly in contrast to what Saheb is in reality.
Metaphor
Seemapuri, a place on the periphery of Delhi yet
miles away from it, metaphorically.
Antithesis
For the children it is wrapped in wonder; for the
elders it is a means of survival.
Metaphor
Scrounging for gold
Hyperbole
And survival in Seemapuri means rag picking.
Through the years, it has acquired the proportions of
a fine art.
Hyperbole
The steel canister seems heavier than the plastic bag
he would carry so lightly over his shoulders.
Metaphor
Garbage to them is gold
Simile
As your hands move mechanically like the terms of a
machine, I wonder if she knows the sanctity of the
bangles she helps make.
Irony
Few aeroplanes fly over Firozabad.
The Third
Level
The thrill of an exciting story depends upon the literary devices the
writer selects to tell his tale. The story, The Third Level includes
literary devices such as metaphors and imageries to describe the
psychology of the main character, Charley. His passion for stamp
collection as a hobby is a crucial metaphor which tells us about his
habits and personality. The symbolic representation of Time plays
an important role in the story as continuous parallels have been
made between the past and the present and it represents the
human yearning for familiarity and peace. The author employs the
imagery of a tree and its branches to help the readers visualise the
secret channels and mysterious doorways leading onto other
places through the underground tunnels of the Grand Central
Station.