"A soul for a piece of bread. Misery makes the offer; society accepts."
I just finished Les Miserables. It has always been my favorite story. It is now my favorite book.
"So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilisation, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age--the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night--are not yet solved; as long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless." -Victor Hugo
"So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilisation, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age--the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night--are not yet solved; as long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless." -Victor Hugo
The heartache and trial portrayed in this book is extensive and all-encompassing. Basically, Victor Hugo forces his reader to watch and take part in the suffering of people from every age group: young, old, man, women and worst of all child.
It was a genius way to show les miserables (the miserables). This books shows that in the end politics, money, and position in society can never replace the worth of a human being. Its cheesy, but I really feel like my level of compassion for others is increased signifigantly from reading this book.
As much as I loved all of the characters in this book I had two favorites, which I will focus on in this post, Gavroche and Jean Valjean.
Gavoroch is a child hero. The entire book he demonstrates innocence and goodness, though he has never been taught right from wrong by his terrible parents or environment.
The poor child is abandoned and forgotten in the streets of Paris early on and must look out for himself but still finds time to take in two newly abandoned children. He sacrifices everything without a second thought and with a joyful song.
At one point (after he has been on his own for quite awhile) he saves his fathers life. Someone tells his wretched father that it was his son that just saved him. The father walks off. He leaves when his son is sitting right there waiting for just a glance, an acknowledgement of his existence. To this sad situation Gavoroch just shrugs and continues on, singing--without the slightest sign of resentment or sorrow.
As for Jean Valjean he is just amazing. He suffers every injustice and feels every form of pain, but just keeps going anyway. I can't explain how awesome he is, and I won't try. Just know that I want to be like him if I grow up.
This book is so big I can't begin to describe how much I love it without making this even longer, so I will leave it at this. If you have a bunch of time on your hands don't miss this book. I think everyone should read it at least once in there life, but that is just me I suppose.
1 comment:
i wish to say this publicly and to see if i might be remanded in the future. i think this is the 'atlas shrugged' that ayn rand wishes she would have written. shame it was written by a socialist.
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