21 juli 2021
In this book, the French author, describes the whereabouts of seven young people who leave their native ground of Lorraine for Paris, after receiving a training from professor Bouteiller, a Kantian professor of filosophy.
We follow how they live and survive in the French capital. Two of them, Racadot and Mouchefrin, become marginalised and commit a murder for money. While Racadot is easily connected with the crime by the French justice system and will beheaded, Mouchefrin escapes prosecution. He is not denounced by his “friends” from Lorraine, though one of them, Sturel, was to a certain degree a witness of the crime.
The question Barres wants to raise is who is to blame for the failure of Racadot and Mouchefrin to live according to the socially accepted practices. Sturel and Roemerspacher answer in his place. According to Sturel (and probably Barres) France has failed to accompany the seven youngsters when they deracinated them from the soil in Lorraine and planted them in the chaos of Paris without proper guidance. That two of them got derailed is no surprise and only the French leaders are to blame. And one of the choices these leaders have to make is whether they want to transform the youth of Lorraine in French citizens or in universal citizens. It is this assessment which is the reason why Sturel does not denounce Mouchefrin.