Talk:The Roads to Freedom

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This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 04:30, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Dubious
The overview section is mostly one citation of a single source which is totally incorrect: "The first novel, L’âge de raison (1945; The Age of Reason), centers on philosophy student Mathieu Delarue’s uncertainty over whether to devote himself to his pregnant mistress or to his political party." Mathieu is not a student, he doesn't belong to any party, and has uncertainties of a completely different nature.

This puts under question the entire source.--Icidae (talk) 10:23, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

I have to challenge the view that Mathieu is "brave" Mathieu clearly is not brave he is bored and when his comrade/friend suggests that they go to a church tower to fire on the Germans as they enter the village he decides to go as he has nothing better to do. He is aware that it is suicidal but the alternative, capture and a prison camp does not appeal. So he goes onto the church tower where he finds his freedom in killing germans. Not out of anger but out of exhileration.

The term "brave" is totally subjective and the novels in the Trilogy demonstrate that Mathieu is a "drifter" looking for a reason for existence. The description of the death of Mathieu is the only time that in the novel he expresses any emotion.

I look upon the freedom that Mathieu finds in contrast to the capture of Bruno who in a stream of consciousness in the novel is a POW and he attempts to convert the other prisoners to his communist belief. Bruno does not find his "freedom". 82.25.246.67 (talk) 11:53, 7 September 2019 (UTC)

I agree with user Icidae. The first sentence of the 'Overview' is just wrong - Mathieu is not a philosophy student, he's a philosophy teacher. The sentence also contradicts the (correct) second paragraph at the top of the article. Also the reference to 'his political party' is particularly misleading as one of the central themes of the novel is Mathieu's reluctance to commit to the Communist party or anything else. I'm going to change this if nobody objects in a week or so.

I also think the 'Interpretation' section relies too heavily on one source. Apart from the first sentence, the section consists only of quotes from Gary Cox. I feel that the following quote from Cox, in which he describes the characters in The Age of Reason as "a group of largely pathetic, emotionally immature characters who are too self-absorbed to really notice or care about the gathering clouds of war that will soon change their narrow little lives beyond recognition" is a decidedly disapproving assessment of the characters and one with which other readers might well disagree. For balance, this section needs another voice. The 'Shifting Viewpoints' section by contrast is excellent. TuttiFruttiCherryPie (talk) 01:56, 18 February 2015 (UTC)