Journal d'un soldat Characters: Full List & Analysis

Who drives the story

Main characters

Lucien

A young French soldier from a small northern town who starts a diary in August 1914 to keep himself from disappearing. He survives gas, assaults, and grief, only to fall at the Battle of Loos at twenty-two, leaving a journal his mother never dares open.

Appears in:: Part 1: Bells, a Medal, and a Train Out of Childhood; Part 2: The Wall of Rot, and a Voice in the Dark; Part 3: Over the Top, Gas, and a Harmonica Taken from a Corpse; Part 4: One by One, Until the Last Entry
Themes:: The fear of being forgotten; Lies told with love; The enemy is a man too; The unbridgeable gap between front and home; Numbness as survival

Marcel

A baker from Lyon who joins up joking about army bread and becomes Lucien's closest friend. Trench foot takes his toes; a shell while fetching water takes everything else, leaving Lucien to write the letter his widow will never receive.

Appears in:: Part 1: Bells, a Medal, and a Train Out of Childhood; Part 2: The Wall of Rot, and a Voice in the Dark; Part 3: Over the Top, Gas, and a Harmonica Taken from a Corpse; Part 4: One by One, Until the Last Entry
Themes:: Lies told with love; Numbness as survival

Sergeant Moreau

The drill sergeant who screams that his recruits are raw meat learning to march. He dies in the April 1915 assault near Vimy Ridge, falling without a sound before he hits the mud.

Appears in:: Part 1: Bells, a Medal, and a Train Out of Childhood; Part 3: Over the Top, Gas, and a Harmonica Taken from a Corpse
Themes:: Numbness as survival

Corporal Dupont

A veteran who lives for the photograph of his three children, looking at it every morning. A sniper's bullet passes through the photograph before it reaches his heart.

Appears in:: Part 2: The Wall of Rot, and a Voice in the Dark; Part 4: One by One, Until the Last Entry

Also in the story

Supporting characters

Jean

A young soldier who asks Lucien to play something happy on the harmonica. He receives it in Lucien's final days — and outlives the man who gave it, though the instrument itself is never recovered.

Appears in:: Part 4: One by One, Until the Last Entry

Lucien's mother

She packs his kit in silent tears and writes him letters about roses blooming for him. She keeps his journal in a drawer for forty years without opening it, until her death in 1955.

Themes:: Lies told with love

Lucien's father

A veteran of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War who gives his son a worn Saint Christopher medal. When Lucien comes home on leave, his question about the war goes unanswered.

How they are connected

Key relationships

Marcel Lucien
A baker from Lyon who joins up joking about army bread and becomes Lucien's closest friend.
Jean Lucien
A young soldier who asks Lucien to play something happy on the harmonica.
Lucien's father Lucien
When Lucien comes home on leave, his question about the war goes unanswered.

Go deeper

Journal d'un soldat themes & symbols

The fear of being forgotten · Lies told with love · The enemy is a man too · The unbridgeable gap between front and home

Themes explained

Read the full Journal d'un soldat summary

The full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.

Open the summary