Read the following extract from Alphonse Daudet's short story, 'The Last Lesson' and answer the questions that follow: "My children, this is the last lesson I shall give you. The order has come from Berlin to teach only German in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine. The new master comes tomorrow. This is your last French lesson. I want you to be very attentive." What a thunder-clap these words were to me! Oh the wretches; that was what they had put up at the town-hall!
What thoughts filled the narrator’s head when he heard the above announcement?
Topic: Franz's reaction
Answer
Franz was thunderstruck and filled with regret. He thought of how little French he knew and that now he would never learn any more — his lessons, which had seemed such a nuisance and so hard to carry, suddenly seemed like old friends he could not give up. He was sorry for the mornings he had wasted hunting birds’ nests and sliding on the Saar instead of studying. He felt ashamed that he could not say his participles, and his anger against M. Hamel vanished; even the ruler and the master’s crossness were forgotten in his pity for the poor man who was leaving after forty years.
The answer must track a change of feeling, not just report shock. Move through: disbelief, regret for wasted time, shame at his ignorance, and finally sympathy for M. Hamel. The theme to name is that we value what we have only when it is taken from us — the story’s central idea and always worth stating.