4. What does the garden symbolize? from The Last Lesson
Answers
The classroom in which the narrator, Franz, gathers with other pupils and villagers to hear M. Hamel’s last lesson represents the power of education. It is there that the blackboard is located; and the blackboard itself, of course, is a symbol of resistance via education, as reflected in the subversive message that M. Hamel inscribes on it at the end of the story, “Vive La France!” Thus, it is within the space of the classroom that the gathered crowd receives a lesson from M. Hamel not only in the French language, but also in patriotism and resistance. In this way, the classroom in which the lesson takes place symbolizes education’s capacity to shape committed French citizens, citizens who can withstand foreign occupation of their region of Alsace-Lorraine by holding on to their French cultural values and identity.