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Discussion: What is meant by the term “the straw that broke the camel’s back”?


Instructions: Read the story below and then answer the questions.

Alphonse the Camel

Once upon a timethere was a camel called Alphonse. For various reasons, relating to an unfortunate accident during birth, the camel had severe back problems. This was not the end of his misfortune, however, because hehad an evil, exploitative owner, called Frank (the camel killer).
Frank hated camels ever since a nasty accident in his childhood involving a camel’s foot and his rear end. He was very bitterand had never trusted camels since. Frank regularly overloaded his camels prior to taking them on gruelling and totally unnecessary trips up and down mountains on his way to deliver goods to hiscustomers. These customers, shockingly, were completely indifferent to these frequent and gross abuses of the rights of camels and found Frank and his antics at least vaguely amusing. On top of all this,Alphonse was sometimes his own worse enemy. Camels are very proud creatures and he would act tough to his camel friends. On his rare breaks he would show off how much he could carry.
Plenty ofcamels had died doing similar work to Alphonse and his friends. After a particularly costly few weeks, when camels were keeling over right, left and centre, the camels decided to form a union to defendtheir right and protect them from evil owners. However, when it comes down to it, camels are selfish creatures who don’t trust each other. They were more worried about looking after themselves thanabout working together and so the trade union fizzled out.
Well, one Friday, Frank had just finished loading up Alphonse and his poor exploited fellow creatures for yet another pointless roundtrip up and down the mountains. He had piled and piled and piled the goods onto Alphonse’s back and was taking a break, reflecting smugly on his handiwork, chewing a straw. On a whim he decided to...