André and Julien have been learning important personal life lessons--be clean, be kind, look for ways to be helpful and work hard--and the value of these life lessons is clear when they encounter and win the friendship of the suspicious Madame Gertrude.
But the stops are pulled out in chapter 21. André has picked up work for a locksmith. His job is to maintain the fires of the forge and heat the iron bars until they are red hot. The locksmith takes these and shapes them into keys and locks on the anvil. A big metaphor, this.
One evening, Madame Gertrude speaks to him, "André, you no longer go to school, you are a young worker now, but there is no reason for you to stop learning, is there?" She tells André about an evening class for working adults that teaches them what they didn't learn in school. "Things can be learned at any age if you apply yourself two hours a day."
So Andre begins to attend the class for adults each evening after work.
Meanwhile, young Julien begins to attend regular school, and each day, when his homework is done, he helps Madame Gertrude in any way he can. She calls him "her right arm"! What Julien loves most is listening to the old woman tell stories as they snap beans together. One day, she admits that she has told him all the stories that she knows, and she suggests that he could read stories to her instead.
"Yes," responds Julien, plaintively, "but books are expensive and we have none of them."
Madame Gertrude explains to Julien that he can borrow books from the school library, so the following day Julien visits the library--like a big party for him--and borrows a book of stories. He reads aloud to Madame Gertrude from that book every day thereafter.
Julien, we are told, reads very well aloud. He knows to stop at the periods and pause at the commas, understands that he needs to elide s & t before vowels, and he doesn't mumble like a little boy who doesn't know how to read.
The days pass by happily. Madame Gertrude asks Julien if he knows where the book came from, the book he borrowed from the school library. "Julien, have you thought about this?"
Julien is stumped, "I have never thought about it," he admits.
The voice of Madame Gertrude suddenly morphs into a rather heavy-handed stock speech. "Julien, the school, the evening classes for adults, and the library for scholars are the blessings of your country! France wants all her children to be worthy of her, and every day she increases the number of schools and evening classes, founds new libraries and prepares teachers to educate the children."
"Oh!" cries Julien, "I love France with all my heart! I would like her to be the number one nation in the world."
The stock speech rumbles on: "Then, Julien, think of one thing. the honor of France depends on the worth of her children. Work hard, get educated, be good and generous; if all the children of France did this, our country would be the first in all the nations." The only thing missing is the swelling background music, like some patriotic 40s film or a paid political advertisement.
Still, although the patriotism seems heavy-handed to my modern ear, two things stand out. First, the reminder that the state provides valuable benefits (something too little acknowledged in modern America), and, second, that citizens have an obligation to make an effort in return. What we are accustomed to in contemporary USA is fake patriotism accompanying attacks on our institutions of self-government.
But here we are in chapter 21, and eight words summarize the French national character: "Work hard, get educated, be good and generous."
--Hard-working...today, second only to Germany as the most productive nation in the world
--get educated...consider the famous French intellectual tradition. The brilliant thinkers preceded Le Tour de la France par Deux Enfants, but one goal of this widely read primer was to disseminate the elite tradition to all French citizens and to embed it deep in the French cultural DNA. "Even workers can learn if they spend two hours a day at it."
--be good and generous. Consider how the French responded to the terror attacks of 11/13. Fearful, yes, but not cowed. In America, we see anti-Muslim bigotry and hostility to Syrian refugees. In France, the government agreed to increase the number of Syrian refugees that they are accepting and Parisians returned to the cafe terraces. A planned march in Paris to support action on global climate change was cancelled due to security concerns, but 10,000 pairs of shoes were left to remind us of the absent marchers.
The chapter starts with a description of a forge that heats the iron bars used to create locks & keys. It ends with a reminder that universal education forges the national character that ensures that the French are good citizens. Big metaphor, yes?