In the Penal Colony Lesson Plan

Why might the officer and the explorer be speaking in French? What does the language barrier between them, the condemned man, and the soldier contribute to the broader themes of the story?

The obvious answer here would be that the explorer is from France and this is a French penal colony. But this isn't the only possible explanation: the officer respects the status and background of the explorer, and so it might be the case that he is speaking in Fench to seem equally well educated. He may also believe that it is important for the condemned man to not be told the function of the machine: he may believe that the machine can only successfully function as an instrument of...