I love Les Miserables (in case you haven’t figured this out…). But it always makes me sad. Which makes sense. It’s about miserable people. But that’s not why it makes me sad. And I have finally figured it out.
I was just telling a friend about Les Mis. She’s never read the book, or seen the movie, and really knows nothing about it. I was trying to explain in a nutshell (yeah, a 1463 page book in a nutshell...), and I finally said I like it so much because it is such a story of redemption. A story of how one person, by listening to God, can help another turn his life around, and in the process, touch hundreds of other lives that he may never know about.
But then I was thinking about Jean Valjean. He is the one who is redeemed at the beginning of the story, but throughout the story, he is constantly trying to redeem himself. He continues to see himself as the ex-con that he was. Even though he has been redeemed, and God sees him as a new man, he does not see himself that way.
There is a quote at the beginning of the book where it says, “Whether true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence on their lives, and particularly on their destinies as what they do.”
Valjean is told so many times that he is an ex-con, and he believes it, even as he is changing his life, and thinking of others. He gives his life to others, while punishing himself for his past wrongs.
At the end though, there is this paragraph:
"Cosette and Marius fell on their knees, overwhelmed, choked with tears, each grasping one of Jean Valjean's hands. Those noble hands moved no more. He had fallen back, the light from the candlesticks fell across him; his white face looked up toward heaven, he let Cosette and Marius cover his hands with kisses; he was dead. The night was starless and very dark. Without any doubt, in the gloom, some mighty angel was standing, with outstretched wings, waiting for the soul."
This sounds like someone who has truly been redeemed; someone who is not the convict who came out of prison, and ran from his identity his whole life.
I love the part where it talks about the mighty angel standing, with outstretched wings, waiting for the soul. I only wish that Valjean had recognized that in himself in the book.
I was just telling a friend about Les Mis. She’s never read the book, or seen the movie, and really knows nothing about it. I was trying to explain in a nutshell (yeah, a 1463 page book in a nutshell...), and I finally said I like it so much because it is such a story of redemption. A story of how one person, by listening to God, can help another turn his life around, and in the process, touch hundreds of other lives that he may never know about.
But then I was thinking about Jean Valjean. He is the one who is redeemed at the beginning of the story, but throughout the story, he is constantly trying to redeem himself. He continues to see himself as the ex-con that he was. Even though he has been redeemed, and God sees him as a new man, he does not see himself that way.
There is a quote at the beginning of the book where it says, “Whether true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence on their lives, and particularly on their destinies as what they do.”
Valjean is told so many times that he is an ex-con, and he believes it, even as he is changing his life, and thinking of others. He gives his life to others, while punishing himself for his past wrongs.
At the end though, there is this paragraph:
"Cosette and Marius fell on their knees, overwhelmed, choked with tears, each grasping one of Jean Valjean's hands. Those noble hands moved no more. He had fallen back, the light from the candlesticks fell across him; his white face looked up toward heaven, he let Cosette and Marius cover his hands with kisses; he was dead. The night was starless and very dark. Without any doubt, in the gloom, some mighty angel was standing, with outstretched wings, waiting for the soul."
This sounds like someone who has truly been redeemed; someone who is not the convict who came out of prison, and ran from his identity his whole life.
I love the part where it talks about the mighty angel standing, with outstretched wings, waiting for the soul. I only wish that Valjean had recognized that in himself in the book.
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