Lauren Caffarelli~The Barricade

The Barricade

~Blog post #5~

Topic E

May 15, 2015

By: Lauren Caffarelli

Les Miserables is set during the French Revolution.  During this particular scene, the Revolutionary army creates a barricade to fight against the French army.  The barricade represents an obstacle for Jean Valjean, but no matter what obstacle he faces he displays compassion for others.

When Jean Valjean, wearing his National Guard dress first arrives to the barricade, he offers his uniform to a father so this stranger can return to his family without being killed by the army.  By doing this Jean Valjean relinquishes any chance of returning home safely because without his uniform he no longer can prove that he is on the French side.  He sacrifices himself to save someone else. 

At this point, the revolution authorities are holding Javert hostage because they believe he is a spy.  They are worried that the French army will attack so the leader orders Javert's execution.  Jean Valjean volunteers himself to carry out the killing.  However, he cuts the rope and says to Javert' "You are free."  In addition, he gives Javert his address in case Javert wants to arrest him.   He understands why Javert has been hunting him down, but Jean Valjean doesn't want to kill him because he doesn't want the regret of taking anyone’s life.  He has turned his life around from the galleys and doesn't want to go back.  

Jean Valjean saves a third life, Marius.  His initial reason for coming to the barricade is to save Marius for Cosette.  Retrieving Marius after he has been shot,  Jean Valjean carries him through a sewer all the way home.  Even though he has not been a supporter of Cosette and Marius's relationship because he doesn't want to lose Cosette, he saves Marius because he understands how much he means to Cosette.

In all three situations, he puts others before himself.  Jean Valjean is truly a changed man from the beginning of the book.  Instead of taking advantage of others for the benefit of himself, Jean Valjean saves others through personal sacrifice.

The Miserable Ones -Blog Post #5- Topic J May 15, 2015

Colleen Kadowaki

Molyneaux

English-B

15 May 2015

The Miserable Ones

In Victor Hugo’s Les Miseables, the title literally translates to "The Miserable Ones." These miserable people are “very depraved, very corrupt, very vile, [and] very hateful” (205). Each character in this novel has baggage that they are carrying around which makes them fall under this category, and many characters are orphans who are alone and lost. Jean Valjean, the central character to which this book is about, has a hard life in the beginning. He loses his family and walks around towns just trying to find a place to call home for the night. Time and time again, he is rejected until the bishop takes him in and gives him a place for the night. Cosette has a similar situation however she never knows her family. Even though her mother wants a better life for her, she cannot help but feel a sense of abandonment. The Thénardiers certainly never treated her like family for “the dog and cat were her messmates. Cosette ate with them under the table in a wooden dish” (46). Cosette grows up an orphan and the only time she feels she has a family, is with Jean Valjean. Jean takes Cosette in as his daughter and “he [is] the support of this child, and this child [is] his prop and staff” (125). This novel is not about how life has no light at the end of the tunnel, this novel is a story showing that happiness is possible without all the material things in life.

 

Blog Post #5 Topic A Caitlin Cook

Caitlin Cook
Ms. Molyneaux
English Honors-B
15 May 2015

Love

A significant quote in Les Miserables is describes the loving relationship between Cosette and Jean Valjean. After Jean saved Cosette from the Thenardiers their relationship began to grow closer. Jean starts to feel "Something new entering his soul. Jean had never loved anything" before he loved Cosette (123). This quote is important because this is the first time Jean ever loved anyone. He finally learned to love Cosette and eventually she became the most important part of his life. They were each others family when no one else was and they offered each other support. He was willing to do anything for her and grew to be a fatherly figure to Cosette. She gives him something to live for and they need one another in their lives. This is a sign that Jean is a change person. He puts aside his criminal life and works to become and honest man for her.

Blog Post #5 Ali Cepon Les Misérables

Ali Cepon

Ms.Molyneaux

H. English, Per.B

May 14, 2015

Les Misérables

            The title Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables reveals a lot about the novel, one example is the common theme of suffering. “A fatal word, Les Misérables” can be described as one who is “very depraved, very corrupt, very vile, very hateful, but… fall[s] without becoming degraded” (205). The main character Jean Valjean, is a very good example of this word. When Jean is young he loses his mother to “a milk fever” and “his father… was killed by a fall from a tree. Jean Valjean now had but one relative left, his sister, a widow with seven children” (22). He has no money, no food, and is left alone with eight hungry mouths to feed. He suffers to meet this goal, and he steals to in order to accomplish this goal. This puts him in more suffering because he now has to spend “nineteen years in the galleys” (16). Jean Valjean suffers in his life multiple times, but he isn’t the only one. Jean Valjean’s adopted daughter, Cosette, also suffers a lot through out her life. Her mother leaves her with a family that treats her like a charity case, she becomes “The Lark” of the town, and she ends up growing up without ever knowing her mother (47). Through out this book more and more characters are introduced. All of these characters suffer in their own way, but the strong one’s, like Cosette and Jean Valjean, never degrade when they fall. Everyone in the world suffers, even today. We all can be called Misérable, but we have to decide if that will change who we are.

Blog #4 Lauren Caffarelli Death of Love at First Sight

Death of Love at First Sight

Blog post #4

Topic H

May 8, 2015

Lauren Caffarelli

In Les Miserables, Marius and Cosette’s love for one another is similar to Romeo and Juliet’s in Shakespeare’s play.  Both of their loves are based on brief periods of knowing one another.  Both couples are in love before knowing their lover’s name.  Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight at a party, and Marius and Cosette begin to love one another by just seeing each other in a park.  They both develop feelings of love before even talking; Marius and Cosette “lived by gazing upon each other” (254).  Their intense attraction grows before words are spoken.

In addition, neither couple is given approval of their romantic relationship by their parents. In Romeo and Juliet, they marry secretly because Juliet knows her father will never approve of a marriage to a Montague due to family rivalry.  Similarly, Cosette’s father, Jean Valjean does not approve of Marius.  In fact, he “detested this young man” (255).  Jean Valjean loves Cosette exceedingly and does not want anyone coming between them.  He views Marius as an enemy because Jean Valjean knows Marius has the power to gain Cosette’s love.  In both novels, the parents feel that they will lose the love of their treasured child to an unworthy spouse.

Furthermore, Marius promises to Cosette that if she shall “go away, (he) shall die” (271).  He cannot bear the thought of living without her, so he would rather die.  Similarly to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, when Romeo believes that Juliet is dead, he decides to take his own life because he thinks it will be less painful then trying to go on living without Juliet. 

Luxembourg Changes Cosette~ Blog Post #4~ Topic E~ May 8, 2015~ By Ali Cepon

Ali Cepon

Ms.Molyneaux

H. English, Per.B

May 8, 2015

Luxembourg Changes Cosette

            In Hugo’s Les Misérables we get to see Cosette turn from a young hopeless little girl into a beautiful young lady. There is one particular place where this change occurs, “Luxembourg” (267). Cosette is a young girl who only loves one, her father.  While making her and Jean Valjean’s daily walks in Luxembourg something hits her, something that brings her into womanhood, love. Her eyes that “were of deep celestial blue” meet with a man named Marius (191). One day Cosette and her father walk to their usual place in Luxembourg, but this time after sitting on their usual bench they decide to take a little walk to the fountain. Cosette “had taken the arm of” her “father, and they were coming slowly towards the middle of the walk where Marius was” (196). When she passes Marius she says five simple words, “It is I who come,” and from that moment on they were “desperately in love” (196-97). This is really a key place for Cosette. This is when she begins to have feelings for someone other then her father. Soon after this she looks into the Toussaint’s mirror and realizes that “she was beautiful and handsome, [and at this moment] the consciousness of her beauty came to her entire” (250). All of the events that occur after Cosette meets Marius in “Luxembourg” change her into a young lady (253). She gets her first crush, she realizes that she is beautiful, and she reunites with the one she adores. Cosette has changed from a young girl who likes to play in the garden to a young lady who makes eye contact with her love in “Luxembourg, near the Gladiator” (267).

Star-Crossed Lovers -Blog Post #4- Topic H May 8, 2015

Colleen Kadowaki

Molyneaux

English-B

8 May 2015

Star-Crossed Lovers

In Hugo’s Les Miseables, the secret relationship of Cosette and Marius is similar to that of Romeo and Juliet. Both Romeo and Marius and “lost in love,” and are love-struck as soon as they see Cosette and Juliet (267). It is love at first sight. Likewise, “Cosette had fallen back into the profound seraphic love” just as Juliet had been blissfully in love (266). Another comparison that can be made between the two couples is that they are both fairly young and that is a result of the time that they live in.  Romeo and Juliet are star crossed lovers from feuding families. Even though Marius’s family is not feuding with Cosette’s, there is a sense of secrecy. They sneak around and it seems as if their love is forbidden just as Romeo and Juliet’s is. It is clear that Jean is not happy with this relationship as “Nature silently warned him of the presence of Marius” and this causes him to shudder (255). Even though Cosette and Marius think they are keeping their relationship from Jean, he knows and he “cordially detest[s] this young man” (255). A way Marius can be compared to Romeo is how he believe “that it is impossible that God should wish to separate [them]” and he thinks that it is fate that they should be together (271). There are many similarities between Cosette and Marius and Romeo and Juliet. Love is a strong emotion that seems to have overtaken them and now their love is all that matters, even if it means they have a secret relationship.