Explain the figurative language in the following quotation from paragraph 23. What is the purpose of this comparison? “For that day Monsieur Hamel had prepared some entirely new examples, on which was written in a fine, round hand: ‘France, Alsace, France, Alsace.’ They were like little flags, waving all about the class, hanging from the rods of our desks.”
( paragraph 23- "When the lesson was at an end, we passed to writing. For that day Monsieur Hamel had prepared some entirely new examples, on which was written in a fine, round hand: “France, Alsace, France, Alsace.” They were like little flags, waving all about the class, hanging from the rods of our desks. You should have seen how hard we all worked and how silent it was! Nothing could be heard save the grinding of the pens over the paper. At one time some beetles flew in; but no one paid any attention to them, not even the little fellows who were struggling with their straight lines, with a will and conscientious application, as if even the lines were French. On the roof of the schoolhouse, pigeons cooed in low tones, and I said to myself as I listened to them:"