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One of the core messages of Les Chemins de la Liberté is that you are, more than anything, defined by your actions. Often you do things you didn't expect you'd do, and this can force you to reevaluate your self-image.

In the first volume, Mathieu ends up doing something quite extraordinarily despicable. He doesn't have a high opinion of himself (when we get to listen in on his mental sound-track, he's often thinking je suis un salaud), but he'd never expected that he'd steal a large amount of money from a close friend to pay for his mistress's abortion.

So is he just a salaud, then? Here, World War II has started for real, the Germans have broken through, and they're advancing confidently through France. Resistance is futile. So Mathieu is again surprised when he finds that he's picking up a rifle and heading for the top of the church tower. His girlfriend asks him why the hell he wants to be a hero. He has no idea. But he still does it.

I've wondered several times if this scene didn't inspire the rather similar one near the end of Saving Private Ryan.