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.