Eng Lit Question
Niket Basu
2025-26
Contents
1 The Last Lesson by Alphonse Daudet (prose) 2
2 My Mother at 66 by Kamala Das(poetry) 4
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1 The Last Lesson by Alphonse Daudet (prose)
1. Character of Franz?
Franz is a young boy, a school student who is not interested in studies .
He plays turant; does not learn his lessons; is afraid of his teacher and
like most boys of his age, enjoys going to the woods on a bright, sunny
day, listening to the chirping of birds and taking a swim in the [Link]
comes from a humble background and is often sent But we notice in him a
complete change when he is told that it is the last lesson [Link] will be
conducting. Suddenly, he becomes repentant for having wasted his time,
for not taking his lessons seriously. He empathises with [Link] and
even regards him with more [Link] is sensitive and feels [Link]’s
pain at being uprooted from an environment he has spent forty years of
his life in. When faced with crisis, Franz discovers a love for his mother
tongue and begins to take pride in his French identity. He focuses on his
lessons and finds them, strangely, easy. Perhaps, it is significant that the
author has chosen, for the narrator, a name which echoes the name of the
nation.
2. What does the Franz’s apprenhension about the pigeon being
taught to coo in German imply ? WHat franz apprehends re-
garding future of the pigeon is not unique to Alsace?
After Germany’s occupy Alsace and Lorrien they imposed German and
ordered that French would no loonger be taught in the schls of Alsace. It
was the indeed a ploy to ron the ppl of their culturl identity. Franz, a little
boy from Alsace , who had have been much interest in his lessons was in
M hamels’s class when he heard his teacher say that it was going to be his
last lesson . That was when the severity of the German oppression struck
him. He wondered if the Germans would make the pigeons coo in German.
The thought implied how ruthless and undemocratic the Prussian author-
ities were. It was as if the Govt. decided to take away from the ppl what
came most naturally to them and impose an allien way of [Link] would be
as bizzare as the pigeons cooing in German. It suggests Franz’s sense of
wonder when he thought of the extent to which the Germans could go in
order to excerssive control over and oppressed the ppl of Alsace. They had
decided to rob the ppl of their fundamental rights the teaching and the use
of their mother tongue.
Such an instance was not unique to Alsace counting similar happened in
Bangladesh(East Pakistan). Pakishtan was decided to impose urdu as the
sole state language and exclusive medium of instructions in schls and col-
leges. There was a widespread protest and on 21st April in 1952 students
gathered in University of Dhaka. The protest became intense and police
broke up fire when a grp of students into the fire.
3. PROCRASTINATION IS THE THIEF OF TIME, A PURPOSE-
FUL CHOICE TO PUT OFF A TASK FOR A LATER [Link]
DID THIS PRACTICE OF PROCRASTINATION AFFECT FRANZ
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AND THE ELDERLY PEOPLE OF ALSACE?
On reaching school, Franz was surprised to see the elderly people of the
village, sitting at the back of M Hamel’s classroom.M Hamel’s declaration
that it was going to be their last French lesson, shocked Franz. He saw
old Hauser, holding a primer open in his [Link] realised that elderly
people of the village, many of whom must have been M Hamel’s students in
their youth, had come not only to show their gratitude towards a dedicated
teacher but out of a sense of remorse at having wasted precious [Link]
had neglected the study of their mother tongue, when they had time. A
similar feeling was aroused in Franz after M Hamel’s announcement, as
he realised, with pain, that he was largely ignorant of the nuances of the
French language.
M Hamel was repentant that he did not utilise time [Link] often sent
his students to water the plants in his garden or declared a holiday when he
wished to go fishing.M Hamel was also critical of the attitude of the adults
in general, who put off learning for ”tomorrow.”He refused to blame little
Franz alone, for his ignorance since his parents often sent him to work in
a farm or at the [Link] we see how the habit of procrastination can
steal time. We allow ourselves to be robbed of time only to be overwhelmed
by a sense of loss, regret and guilt, since we have only ourselves to blame.
4. DO YOU THINK THE STORY TOUCHES UPON THE BRUTAL-
ITIES OF WAR? COMMENT.
The story ’The Last Lesson ’ is set in the backdrop of the Franco-Prussian
war and it narrates a situation when a part of France, the districts of Al-
sace and Lorraine, were occupied by the [Link] people of Alsace
lost their freedom, their sovereignty but , most importantly, they stood on
the threshold of losing their cultural identity. Order had come from Berlin
that French would no longer be taught in the schools of Alsace. German
would be taught, instead. M Hamel, a French teacher in Alsace, who had
spent forty years teaching French to the people of Alsace, was asked to leave
the country. So, Prussian brutality was not just limited to the occupation
of land and taking over political [Link] tried to impose a system which
would slowly but surely, take away from the people of Alsace, their French
[Link] would create a generation that would not know how to read and
write French, well. They would remain ignorant of the wealth of French
literature. There can be nothing more brutal than taking away from the
people their cultural identity, their freedom to learn and teach their mother
tongue. M Hamel was the victim of another brutality – he was uprooted
from a place where he had lived for forty [Link] was ordered to leave
the [Link] often results in such severance from one’s social milieu;
from what one calls ’home.’
5. WHAT MESSAGE IS CONVEYED BY THE STORY? HOW IS
IT RELEVANT TODAY?
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The story, ’The Last Lesson ’ conveys some powerful [Link] urges us
to value something while we have it. We often take things for granted and
remain blissfully ignorant of their significance. Only when we stand on
the threshold of losing them, that we realise their value. Similarly the peo-
ple of Alsace had taken their French lessons, rather casually. Franz even
believed that M Hamel was ’cranky.’ It was only on the day of the last
lesson that he listened to m Hamel with attention and found his lessons
rather [Link] perspective of M Hamel changed and he even regarded his
master with more respect than before.
The story also conveys the message that one must be proud of one’s own
identity as a part of a community and one’s mother tongue is an insepara-
ble aspect of that identity. We must learn our mother tongue and immerse
ourselves in the study of its literature so that we get to know our roots and
learn about our culture.
In today’s society, such a message is highly relevant. Today, the prospect
of economic prosperity drives human actions and we often aim our stud-
ies with economic success in mind. In the Indian society, the knowledge
of English promises professional success. The craze to study English has
overshadowed regional languages and their practice. People do not take
pride in studying their mother tongue , thereby gradually alienating them-
selves from their roots, their culture.
2 My Mother at 66 by Kamala Das(poetry)
1. Analysis:-
Kamala Das’ poetry often have autobiographical elements. In spite of being
an Indian writer writing in the 1960s, Kamala Das was able to break free
from conservatism and middle class morality. She has a strong voice which
is uninhibited and is not afraid to express the perspectives of a woman,
which often did not find expression in her time, in the male dominated
genre of Indian writers writing in English.
’My Mother at Sixty Six’ is a poem triggered by a moment of epiphany –
a moment when the poet realised that her mother was old and perhaps her
end was [Link] poem is about how the poet reacts to the thought of her
mother’s approaching end.
The poet was driving from her parent’s home to the Cochin airport on
Friday morning, her mother beside her, dozing with her mouth [Link]
was sixty six years old, looked as pale as a corpse and a sudden realisation
dawned upon the poet that her mother was ”as old as she looked.”The ex-
pression suggests that the Mother’s age was not merely apparent. Senility
had set [Link] suggests that the poet’s mother was old, senile, her health,
fragile and perhaps she was approaching her end. This thought of losing
her mother was unbearable and the poet could feel the pain gnawing within
her.
To distract herself from such painful thoughts, the poet looked outside and
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saw the ”Young Trees sprinting” and the merry children ”spilling out of
their homes.”The trees were ”young”, in contrast to her aged mother and
so were the children – young and full of life. In contrast to the immobility
of the poet’s mother; in contrast to her lack of energy and vitality, we have
the image of the trees ”sprinting” and the children ”spilling” out of their
homes, to play. The poet believed that the scenes outside would help her to
distract herself from the very painful thoughts of her mother’s impending
[Link] could the images really help in distracting her? Perhaps the very
contrasting images reminded the poet, more emphatically, of her mother’s
senility and her approaching [Link] can say so because, even after the
security check at the airport, the poet’s melancholy thoughts sustained.
After the poet reached the airport and completed the security check, she
looked at her mother once again and saw her ”wan, pale” [Link] looked
like the ”late winter’s moon”— an appropriate comparison, which suggests
her age, her frailty and her senility, reflected in her pale, ashen [Link]
is the last season in the cycle, marked by desolation. It is often associ-
ated with old age and [Link], the poet’s mother was in the
’winter of her life.’ Moreover, the moon, seen through the haze and mist
of winter appears dull, pale and lack [Link], it is an apt analogy for
the poet’s aged mother.
The poet remembered that when she was a child, like any other child, she
also shuddered at the thought of losing her mother.A similar fear gripped
her after all these years, because, as she said farewell to her mother, at
the airport, she doubted if she would ever see her mother [Link] she
hid her fears behind a smile. Unlike a child who cannot hide her fears and
insecurities, the poet did not let the Mother know how she was feeling then,
and tried her best to remain [Link] she did was tell her mother that
she would meet her again, [Link] she smiled and kept on smiling as
long as she could see her mother, trying to convince herself that her fear
was unfounded.