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Recommended: Transformation of Jean Valjean in Les Misérables

In addition to Les Miserables showing readers how society can bring upon negative changes to its people, there are also positive changes that someone can go through. When first coming out of jail, Jean Valjean traveled to D---- and met with the bishop there. Jean Valjean took his silver and when the police caught him and brought him back to the bishop, the bishop told the officers that he had given Jean Valjean the silver. Once the police left, the bishop spoke to Jean Valjean, “‘Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man” (34). Jean Valjean, as he goes through his life, stays true to the promise to the bishop as he was the first person to treat Jean Valjean as a human upon being thrown in jail. One example of this would be when Jean Valjean was the mayor of M-------- sur m---- and he happened to come across poor Faunchelevent who was trapped under his cart. If Jean Valjean had chosen to save Faunchelevent, then the suspicions that Javert, a police officer in M-------- sur m----, has of Jean Valjean would grow even greater. However, if Jean Valjean chooses not to save Faunchelevent, he would not be an honest man and would be breaking the promise he had made with the bishop and, therefore, God. As Jean Valjean was trying to decide what to do, “he rised his head, met the falcon eyes of Javert still fixed upon him, looked at the unmoving peasants, and smiled sadly” (580). Jean Valjean knew the choice he had to make, and he risked being thrown back into the gallies to save this one man. The corrupt Jean Valjean, would not have cared about this man. Jean Valjean would have thought why should I help this man when nobody had helped me. The old Jean Valjean was a man who was f...

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... that she held closer than anything and turned to prostitution. Jean Valjean, through the help of the bishop, was able to begin to turn his life around and make himself a better person. Fantine is going to travel the same path as Jean Valjean as soon as she was told that Cosette would be brought to her, but she died before she had to chance. Just as death comes with life, change comes. Jean Valjean was forced to change when it came down to starving his family for another night or stealing a simple loaf of bread. Life and change have an unspoken connection. Change is an unexpected but natural part of life, and everyone experiences major changes in their life at least once. Les Miserables showes us, however, that even if change is natural, its not always for the worst. You can make your life better and really prove to the world that you have something to give.

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