“‘I wanted the ideal animal to hunt,’ explained the general. ‘So I said, `What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?' And the answer was, of course, `It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason.’ ‘But no animal can reason,’ objected Rainsford.
‘My dear fellow,’ said the general, ‘there is one that can’” (Connell).

what's the topic of this whole thing and the theme of it

The topic of the paragraph is wartime and the theme is that those who choose to participate in war are selfish people who show very little compassion for human life.

Explanation:

The general starts the paragraph by saying he wanted an ideal animal to hunt, and upon further questioning by the speaker, reveals that the parameters he believes are ideal are that it is an animal that has courage, is cunning, and must be able to reason. As humans are the only animal that can reason, the general is basically stating that he treats human life just as a hunter treats its prey, to be killed for no reason other than sport. The author wants the reader to understand that those who make a conscious decision to become involved in wartime affairs functionally do so simply to kill others for enjoyment, as is shown by the general's reasoning for becoming a general.

question:

it's when i'm weary of considerations, and life is too much like a pathless wood where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs broken across it, and one eye is weeping from a twig's having lashed across it open

answer to question #1: the simile that occurs in the text given (lines 43-47) is: ''life is too much like a pathless ''

explanation: a simile is a comparison of one thing with another thing and it is used to make a vivid description. it uses like or as. in the text, we can understand that the person is feeling weary of considerations and because of this, the person compares ''life'' to ''a pathless wood''.

answer to question #2: in this text we can understand that the word frost could mean anger, annoyance and bitterness, due to the fact that the person is stating that he/she is feeling weary of considerations and compares life to a pathless wood.

explanation: the word frost means coldness and something covered by ice crystals but looking at the comparison made in this text, we can understand that the word frost could mean anger, annoyance and bitterness, due to the fact that the person is stating that he/she is feeling weary of considerations therefore he/she compares life to a pathless wood.

excerpt from "the   daffodils" by william wordsworth