Eight Times Up When the novel by Victor Hugo is titled Les Misérables, flags must go up in the reader’s mind that this is not going to be a happy or ‘fluffy’ story; it is translated as The Misérables/ Wretched/Victims after all. Les Misérables is not just a story about the human condition and its relation to misery, but also provides models on how to deal with said situation, both good and bad. Hugo expresses misery not simply by saying, ‘life is hard,’ but by showing misery through the experiences of men, women, and children and effectively transports the reader into the world Hugo has created. The first way Hugo shows misery is through the men of his story, and more specifically, the misery in Jean Valjean, and Thénardier. Jean Valjean has every reason to be a miserable man; society has thrown every possible tragedy at him, and as a result “Jean Valjean had this peculiarity, that he might be said to carry two knapsacks; in one he had the thoughts of a saint, in the other the formidable talents of a convict. He helped himself from one or the other as occasion required” (413). Valjean is forced to carry the burden of leading two lives and the hardship and misery that goes along with that. …show more content…
Les Misérables is a story about hope, it is a story about looking for the good times in life so that they can overexpose the dark times, it is a story that epitomizes the saying “Life is a rollercoaster…it has its ups and downs, 8 times up and 7 times down, but there are always more ups than downs.” Even though the three groups of people handle misery in different ways, Hugo tries to provide various slices of humanity so that nearly all of his audience has something they can relate to. This effort to include all readers contributes to the success of this story over 150 years
In the novel Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston and the novel Maus by Art Spiegelman the theme of suffering has a damaging effect on the human spirit. Suffering in both these stories come in different forms such as emotional, physical, and mental. No matter the form, it is still suffering.
Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Damn is an animated film based upon Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name. The main characters Quasimodo, the hunchback who lives in the bell tower of Notre Damn, Esmeralda, the gypsie girl, Claude Frollo, the cruel Archdeacon of Notre Damn, and Captain Phoebus, the antagonist who defies Frollos’ orders, are all representative of the social classes and turmoil that occurred throughout the early 19th century in France. The original novel was written during the July 1830 Revolution, with strong influences from Hugo’s personal beliefs in social and political equality for all people as well as his opposition to the monarchy that begun after Napoleon Bonaparte’s defeat at Waterloo. This film is accurate in the sense that it shows the class struggle of the time in a way that both honors the novel and its historical context but is also appropriate for its younger
Thinkers and philosophers have been pondering misery since the dawn of civilization. At the dawn of humanity, humans existed to survive and reproduce; every day was a struggle. However, with the advent of civilization, humanity has moved further and further away from its original evolutionary drives, and it can be argued by secular thinkers that humans exist now to find happiness. Therefore, misery can be seen as the biggest obstacle to human happiness, yet misery itself is a mystery to many. Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto and Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents put forth the authors’ opinions on the origins of mortal misery, and suggest methods to solve the problem of misery. Although the two have differing views, both see
Mother Theresa once said, "Loneliness is a man's worst poverty." Without friends and companions, people begin to suffer from loneliness and solitude (Dusenbury 38). Loneliness is an inevitable fact of life and cannot be avoided, as shown prevalent through each of the characters in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Each and every character in this novel exhibits loneliness. Lennie was isolated for being mentally handicapped, Candy was isolated for being old and disabled, Crooks was for being black, Curley's wife for being a woman, and George for having to care for Lennie and being unable to socialize with others because of Lennie's consistency of getting into trouble from town to town.
Throughout the novel, Of Mice and Men (by John Steinbeck), loneliness is the major underlying theme of the novel. You could almost say that the book has hormonal' up's and down's. Most of the characters are very lonely because they have no family. However, George and Lennie are the contradiction to this. George and Lennie's bond towards each other are so- strong that you can almost see it as you are reading the book. Candy the old crippled man wants to be part of George and Lennie's dream to own a farm and "live off the fatta the land". Curley and his dog are like the metaphor in the book for George and Lennie. Candy has to take care of his dog and George of Lennie. The other two characters in the novel that are apart of the overall theme of loneliness are crooks the crippled stable buck and Curley's wife the flirtatious city girl. Crook's fits in to the loneliness theme because he is black. During this time in history, there was very little racial empathy. So being black means that he is isolated from everyone else at the ranch. Speaking of isolation, curley's wife feels very isolated because her husband, Curley, doesn't trust her at all, however, because Curley is so strict and concerned about her flirting with other guys it almost fuels her desire to cause trouble.
...her temptation had accomplished this; therefore her cruel effect must have been fate. As she awaited death, one character noticed the incidence of destiny when she remarked that “‘God has it all written down in His book'” (182). One aspect of Victor Hugo's work, his revelations of themes, philosophies, and morals through humorous characters, seems reminiscent of Sir Walter Scott's usage of a comparable pretext. Through the philosopher/poet, Gringoire, Hugo presents a moral that “‘the temptations of the flesh are pernicious and malignant'” (276). Certainly there exists some truth to this supposition on a central idea of the novel, the animosity stirred by mortal sensitivity, that during man's eternal search for affection--even when he possesses it, he still craves more.
Despite its prevalence, suffering is always seen an intrusion, a personal attack on its victims. However, without its presence, there would never be anyway to differentiate between happiness and sadness, nor good and evil. It is encoded into the daily lives people lead, and cannot be avoided, much like the prophecies described in Antigone. Upon finding out that he’d murdered his father and married his mother,
It is funny and yet tragic to see that no matter where an individual’s geographical location is or for the most part when in history the duration of their lifetime occurred, that they still can share with other tormented individuals the same pain, as a result of the same malignancies plaguing humanity for what seems to have been from the beginning. Emily Dickinson’s poetry, Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, and Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman” all exhibit disgust for their societies, what is particularly interesting however, is that the subject of their complaints are almost identical in nature. This demonstrates how literature really does reflect the attitudes and tribulations the society and or culture endures from which it was written. The grievances that they feel to be of such importance as to base their literary works on are that of traditionalism and, the carnivorous nature of society. Different societies will inevitably produce different restrictive and consuming faces to these problems.
Les Misérables (1862), a novel set in early nineteenth century France, presents a story of obsessions in honor, love, and duty, and through it redemption and salvation. It is the story of the poor Jean Valjean, condemned to an unfair amount of time in prison and a life on the run for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving family. The kind act of forgiveness from a Bishop with whom Jean Valjean stays one night, changes the course in which he chooses to live his life. Under a different identity, he becomes wealthy from a business he starts and later is elected mayor of the small town of Montreuil. He falls madly in love with Fantine, one of the workers in his factory. Because Fantine, one of the very poorest and most pitiful residents of Montreuil, has a child born out of wedlock, Jean Valjean as the respected mayor must keep his love for her a secret. When Fantine dies unexpectedly, Jean Valjean vows he will raise her daughter Cosette, and shield her from all the evils in the world. Through all of this, Jean Valjean is being pursued by Javert, a policeman whose entire life has been dedicated to finding Jean Valjean. While running from Javert, Jean Valjean and Cosette find themselves in Paris in the middle of the 1832 Revolution. As Cosette matures, she falls in love with Marius, a young revolutionist. Despite the objections of Jean Valjean, Cosette continues to secretly visit Marius at night. During the revolution, Marius is injured badly and Jean Valjean, after finding a love note from Marius to Cosette, quickly comes to the rescue of the wounded gentleman. Eventually Jean Valjean and Marius' Grandfather consent to the wedding of Cosette and Marius. In this novel, "there is a point at which...
Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu peacemaker, once stated, "To deprive a man of his natural liberty and to deny to him the ordinary amenities of life is worse than starving the body; it is starvation of the soul, the dweller of the body." Being "starved" does not only mean physically not eating, but it also means a count for being deprived from what is needed to continue in a healthy lifestyle. In the preface of Victor Hugo's novel, Les Misérables, he explains that as long as "social asphyxia", and the three great problem of the age remain on Earth, his book is useful. Understanding the existing condition of the ruin of women through starvation is useful because it helps one see the world more cautiously and be sure not to fall into society’s trap. Fantine was destroyed when she was fired and could no longer support herself. The female Thénardiers are broken when they lose Cosette and have no one to do work for them. Equally as important, Cosette is spoiled when she is treated like a slave by the Thénardiers.
Suffering is apart of life, just like joy and love is. We can never choose how life treats us but we can always choose how we react and get back up again. Through Fever 1793 we see up close and personal how suffering can affect us, and how sometimes it can affect us in positive ways. How suffering can help turn the page to the next chapter in our lives. How suffering doesn’t always mean losing but also gaining.
In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, many characters must adjust to the face of adversity to better their
Popular characteristics that today's reader admires coincides with the characteristics of the characters in Les Miserables. Readers look for a hero that they relate with, so the hero who possesses admirable qualities as well as demeaning faults appeals to most people. The heroes of Les Miserables, Jean Valjean and Marius, both portray average men with flaws in their character. Jean Valjean, the main character, steals from a bishop who treated Valjean decently when other people only saw him as a convict. This single act makes Valjean appear ruthless, but later in the novel, his eagerness to help people and his willingness to accept punishment makes Valjean's error seem trivial. Valjean's mistake secures his r...
To live is to experience the good and bad. For our characters in Candide, their experiences are largely negative. As the novel progresses we see through the eyes of Candide that everyone suffers, as noted by the old woman, "Just for fun, why not get each passenger to tell you the story of his life, and if there is one single one of them who hasn’t often cursed the day he was born and hasn’t often said to the himself that he was the most unfortunate man alive, then you can throw me into the sea head first." As Candide goes on his journey throughout the novel in search of Cunegonde the words of the old woman are confirmed by the tales of the injured slave outside of Surinam, the crowd of applicants within the city, Martin, the man of learning in France, Paquette, Brother Biroflee and the six kings. The words of the old woman to Candide directly show the connection between suffering and how it is unique to life. "This ridiculous weakness for living is perhaps one of our most fatal tendencies. For can anything be sillier than to insist on carrying a burden one would continually much rather throw to the ground? Sillier than to feel disgust at one’s own existence and yet cling to it? Sillier, in short, than to clasp to our bosom the serpent that devours us until it has gnawed away our heart?" Bearing and holding on to that suffering is holding on to that which makes us human.
“It is precisely of him that I wished to speak. Dispose of me as you please; but help me first to carry him home. I only ask that of you.” Upon examination of Les Miserables, it is clearly evident that the elements of Forgiveness, Self – Sacrifice, and Courage are only a few of the main themes Hugo wanted to develop.