Background and Context
Set during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) in which France was defeated by Prussia led by Bismarck. The French districts of Alsace and Lorraine passed into Prussian hands, and an order was issued from Berlin that only German would be taught in the schools of Alsace and Lorraine.
Narrative Synopsis:
- Franz, a young French schoolboy, arrives late at school fearing a scolding from his teacher M. Hamel on participles.
- He finds the school unusually quiet and solemn, with village elders sitting quietly on the back benches.
- M. Hamel announces that this is their last French lesson. The news strikes Franz like a thunderclap, filled with regret for neglecting his mother tongue.
- M. Hamel eloquently praises French as "the most beautiful, clearest, and most logical language in the world", asserting that when a people are enslaved, as long as they hold fast to their language, it is as if they had the key to their prison.
- At the stroke of noon, as Prussian trumpets sound, M. Hamel writes in gigantic letters on the blackboard: "Vive La France!" (Long Live France!).
