Page "belles_lettres" Paragraph 1337

Much more important is to grasp the feelings of the narrator ( whose full name is never given ) as he becomes aware of the disorganized and bewildered mass of French prisoners clustered together in a temporary prison camp in and around the cathedral of Chartres.

For as his companions gradually dissolve back into a state of primitive confrontation with elemental necessity, as they lose all the appanage of their acquired culture, he is overcome by the feeling that he is at last being confronted with the essence of mankind.

`` As a writer, by what have I been obsessed these last ten years, if not by mankind??

Here I am face to face with the primeval stuff ''.