Le luttes de Jean Valjean
Jean Valjean is the protagonists of Victor Hugo's 1862 story called
Les Misérables. Hugo depicts the character's nineteen year long struggle to lead a normal life after serving a prison sentence for stealing bread to feed his starving family during a time of economic depression. Valjean, while on the run, meets a woman named Fantine who became a prostitute to take care of her daughter. She becomes very ill and before she dies he promises her that he will take care of her daughter. Throughout the story a Police Inspector named Javert repeatedly encounters Valjean and attempts to return him to prison. After eight years of being on the run, Valjean becomes a mayor and then changes his name to Monsieur
Madeleine. The story ends with Javert killing himself and Jean Valjean dying as an almost saint. I definitely think Javerts death was influenced by Valjean because Javert could not handle the mercy that Valjean showed to him.
Jean Valjean's overall character overview was that he was a good and a bad character. This is because in the beginning he was a criminal and hated the world because he thought the world owed him something. He then turns into a good character when he is on the run and becomes humble, giving, and sincere. This was a very important thing to notice in the novel because the whole thing is based around how he changed from bad to good.
This is a picture of Javert (left) and JeanValjean (right) when Valjean was on the run and at the time the mayor.
