Les Miserables Importance of Love and Compassion, and Social Injustice

Page One The theme of this book is the importance of love and compassion, and social injustice. Three genres that affect the theme in Les Miserables are: Historical Research, Literary Analysis and Creative Element. The historical research gave you knowledge of the author, and what was going on when Victor Hugo was writing this book. The literary analysis allowed you to get content from the book and provided examples of the theme. The creative element allowed you to present it as how you pictured it. While doing the historical research I found out about Victor Hugo’s love life.

It revealed that he had had an affair with a girl named Juliette while being married to Adele. He chooses to spend his life with Juliette instead Adele. In Victor’s life he was involved in politics and he had shared his views by being mayor in the book. The literary analysis provided examples from the book to show that the book had romanticism through tragedy. In the book Eponine dies for Marius by blocking the bullet that was headed towards him because she loved him. Jean Valjean dies because Cosette is taken away from him, because she has found another male figure in her life.

The creative element had me put the facts I learned from the historical analysis of the author and the examples from the book from the literary analysis and put it in my own view. The genre that interested me the most was the Historical research because I found out about Hugo’s life that had me understand his views on topics. The most challenging genre was literary analysis because I had to provide 4 pages of evidence. Historical Research Paper Victor Hugo is a famous worldwide literary, that gained his fame through two of his major works The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables.

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Victor was born in Besancon in 1802. Since he was young he had a calling for literary. At age 13 he had won numerous awards for his poems. During the 1820’s he was claimed as one of the leading figures of the French Romantic movement. Later his rank was greater due to his play “Hernani”. During the 1830’s Hugo focused in theatre. In this time he was having problems with his wife, Adele, so he began a relationship with an actress in one of his plays, Juliette Drouet. This relationship lasted fifty years. In 1841 he turned his focus on public and political issues, by becoming a Peer of France.

Hugo started out as a monarchist, troubled about order being maintained. At first, Hugo welcomed and supported Louis Bonaparte. He later realized that his moral and political goals were not the same as his political associates. In 1851, after trying in vain to oppose the coup d’etat of the 2nd December, he and Juliette escaped the country to avoid arrest, and fled to Brussels. In his time there he published the mainstream of the works he is known for: Les Miserables, La Legende des siecles, William Shakespeare, L’Homme qui rit, and many others.

One book very well known today is Les Miserables, which shows some of Hugo’s beliefs on the social and moral issues of the time. Victor Hugo had accomplished many things in his lifetime. Starting out as studying in law to becoming known as the heart of French Romanticism for being a poet, playwright, and novelist. Literary Analysis Victor Hugo once wrote “To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live” (p. 345). The tragic elements in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables enhance the plot, with many deaths and tragic scenes through the book.

Most of these encounters happen to be for their loved ones and others are just heroic moves. These examples come from Fantine, Eponine, Javert, Fauchelevent, Cosette, and Valjean. In the beginning of the story, the first tragic part is Fantine having to leave her daughter behind in order for her to survive. She had turned to prostitution to survive at first, and this showed the damage that nineteenth-century French society cruelly affects the less fortunate. After Jean Valjean idea factory is set she decides to work there but they do not allow kids.

She has to suffer and leave he daughter behind with strangers who to her seemed friendly and caring, to make sure Cosette has a good life. Fantine though gets very sick through malnutrition because all her money was going toward Cosette, but the shock of Jean Valjean being a criminal had killed her (p. 103). Then we find out that Cosette is being mistreated by the Thenardiers, She is treated worse that their dog, the dog is given more attention and care. The money that Fantine was sending the Thernadier is used for their own purposes. As Cosette get older, she becomes their slave and maid, doing whatever they command.

It was sad seeing how badly a little innocent girl was being treated, because she did not deserve it, and couldn’t do anything about it being so young. As the treatment escalates overtime, Jean Valjean takes her away from the family and rescues her. “He expects you no longer” (p 165). This line has Marius in tears knowing he was to late. His father was expecting him, but he couldn’t hold on any longer and died. Marius has mix emotions at first, he started out mad because his father left him, but then he finds out that he didn’t leave him by choice.

He left him because he was forced to and becomes devastated for not coming any sooner and for being angry with his father. “Did you see a musket aimed at you? ” “Yes, and a hand which stopped it. ” “ That was mine. ” (p. 288) These lines represent the amount of love Eponine had for Marius, she would even risk her life for him. When the bullet was directed towards Marius, Eponine stood in front of it. Its tragic for someone to take a bullet to save someone else life, but even worse, when the guy you risked your life for doesn’t feel the same way towards you.

The only thing that she asked of him was a kiss on her forehead. There was also a point when Cosette was near death. When she and Jean were running away from Javert, she becomes so cold and weak. If it weren’t for Fauchelevant she would have died then and there. Because Jean had saved his life he felt he had to return the favor and help him hide out in convent. After sometime Fauchelevant dies of old age and leaves his position as gardener to Jean. Javert is so preoccupied with enforcing society’s law and morals that he doesn’t notice he is living by mistaken beliefs.

Though when Valjean finally gives Javert proof that a man is not essentially bad because the law says he is, Javert is unable to turn Jean in. When Javert couldn’t turn in Jean, he commits suicide, because he couldn’t live with himself. Javert could not live because he felt like he would live a dishonorable man by not turning in Jean, but Jean gave him a different point of view on criminals, which change his beliefs. One of Jean biggest fears was losing Cosette, and his fear shortly became reality. Cosette at first views herself as ugly but as she grows older her beauty starts to show, and she and others notice it as well.

When Cosette stumbles across a young man named Marius, upon seeing each other they both can feel a connection. When Jean sees them looking at each other he starts to go out alone and has Cosette stay home. Then shortly he relocates them somewhere else, but their love is inseparable, and they both find each other again. When Cosette and Marius got together Jean delighted Marius, but when they get married Jean told him the truth about being an ex-convict. This had changed Marius view on Jean and he did not want his self or Cosette engaged in any activity with Jean.

Jean’s fear had come true and he had lost Cosette to another man. This caused him to be very depressed with his self and unhappy in life because she was the one who taught him how to love and was the only one who had loved him and stood by his side throughout his life. Through this moment in time, Valjean became very depressed and lonely, that caused him to give up on life. He felt that no one cared for him anymore, but he was wrong. After Marius found out that he received all his money lawfully, he figured out that Jean was never really a bad guy, but misunderstood for the actions he had made long ago.

When they go to his house they see how old he looks and sick and knew he was dead. “His white face looked up towards heaven, he let Cosette and Marius cover his hands with kisses; he was dead”. Javert, Fantine, and Eponine die, when they have finally realized that their dreams are not going to come true. Jean Valjean had died of old age and being lonely which caused him to not have the will to live. But then Cosette returns and he is happily ready to go. Though their deaths, other characters had changed their ways for the better. JEAN VALJEAN Creative Element: Journal Entry April 28, 1833- My last journal.

I have had an incredible journey by always living on the run. Looking back at my life I could have had a normal life but I choose a different path. Although I look back and notice some stupid decisions I have made I wouldn’t have changed any of them. No one understands my life story. I started out as an innocent typical man, going to prison for stealing bread in order for my nieces and nephews to survive and have food. But then my time in prison affected me by changing my opinions on society. The criminals in prison had gotten to me and convinced me to hate society for what it has done to me.

I had been committing action that I wasn’t proud of, but then I met Myriel who changed me forever, because she was the first person that loved me, so I promised her that I would become an honest man, and this was my turning point. My life was finally headed in the right direction. I managed to transform a town into a manufacturing center, which has taught me how to have compassion and generosity towards people. In my lifetime I have taken care of my own family, spent nineteen years in prison, then spent time recreating myself, then raising an incredible girl Cosette.

After losing Cosette I had given up hope in living, but as soon as she came back I felt content with the adventurous life I have lived. I am a very old man and think my time is due and all I have left to say is “To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live”. Works Cited " Victor Hugo. " 2012. Biography. com 28 Apr 2012, 03:34 http://www. biography. com/people/victor-hugo-9346557 "Victor Hugo. " Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss. Web. 28 Apr. 2012. <http://www. online-literature. com/victor_hugo/>. "World Biography. " Victor Hugo Biography. Web. 28 Apr. 012. <http://www. notablebiographies. com/Ho-Jo/Hugo-Victor. html> Self-Review Page This was a very time consuming project due to its length and requirements. Throughout this essay I had strengths and weaknesses. I also had to make many decision on the topics that I choose to write about, because I choose each topic for a reason. My strengths in this project were providing evidence in the literary analysis. Another strength of mine was I sympathizing and understanding Jean Valjean and being able to express that by writing a journal entry in his perspective for the creative element.

Some of my weaknesses were providing enough information throughout the essay without repeating myself, and following all the instruction by tying them altogether. I have explanations to each of the topics I have chosen. I choose to write about Victor Hugo for the historical research because I believe that you need to know the background of the author to know where his points of views are coming from. As for the literary analysis I chose to write about tragedy because throughout the book there are very sad instances and some of those moments include death.

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