Les Miserables 1

Abigail Triplett
August 17th, 2010
Les Miserables ( 400 pgs. - Realistic Fiction)

Over the summer I read the book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, it was a story about the life of an ex-convict turned into a well known mayor named Jean Valjean. One of the ongoing themes that was most apparent in Hugo’s book is the change and inspiration of a person used through the character Valjean.   Although he was sent to jail for breaking into a bakery to feed his sister, he met a Bishop in the town of Dijon who condemned him to a life of spiritualism.   By reading this novel, I learned about the time and life of the French Revolution and eighteenth century France. The criminal enforcement was harsh and not honest or reasonable. This is shown through the betrayal of Javert to Valjean during his apprenticeship as the town detective and the accusation of Fantine during her work as a prostitute. Valjean’s true compassion comes to help Fantine at this time, due to his belief in justice to the town. My favorite character in this book would have to be Cosette, Fantine’s daughter. I take an interest in Cosette because of her will to do what she wants, but in a respectful manner. Although her father does not want her involved in the outside world because of the evil that he has seen first hand, she follows direction but raises good conversation about it. That way, she gets to hear her dad’s point about it, but gets her input and makes a truce with him. Even though I side with most of Cosette’s decisions I didn’t agree with her choice to choose her love, Marius over her father. I would have gone to my dad’s defense if I was in the position of choosing over a boy and my family when it came to a life or death situation. It wasn’t a reasonable way to lie about Valjean’s whereabouts either to hide him. Javert could obviously see that she was unknowingly not telling the truth and was naive about Jean’s past. One of the applications I can make to my Christian life is the meaning and power...