The Soul of Fraternity and Tolerance - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Les Misérables is an epic of love, grace, and redemption, which may be understood differently by readers, but I think it is accurate because it is a religious work in itself.

The author's earliest creative inspiration came from a farmer named Pierre Mo. In France in 1801, Pierre stole a loaf of bread from hunger and was sentenced to five years of hard labor. After his release from prison, life was difficult, and the yellow ID card that was like a permanently branded Cain's mark isolated him from the whole society.

If the thinking stops here, if it merely condemns judicial injustice and criticizes the social reality that makes people criminal, Les Misérables will be a work that depicts the outside world and indulges in anger. How can suffering be written only for indictment and hatred, and how can it be worthy of the depth of suffering? A broader novel requires more superior strength.

In 1828, Hugo began to collect information on Bishop Miolis and his family. He wanted Pierre in reality, and Bishop Miolis in reality, to meet in the world of his novels. This is the embryo of Les Misérables. It will be a work that begins with suffering and ends at redemption.

The preparation for writing is extremely solid. Hugo refers to the fugitive life of his friend Vidoc in his youth, collects a large amount of material about the black glass manufacturing industry, visits the prisons of hard labor in Toulon and Brest, and witnesses scenes similar to Fantine's humiliation in the streets.

Such solidity is reflected in the details, and Hugo tells every part of society, with the accuracy of a journalist and the details of fieldwork.

For example, the "Big Su" used by the slaves to escape from prison (that is, the coin of a Su is cut vertically, hollowed out, carved out of the thread that bites each other, and then placed into a spring); and another example is the black language between the bandits, the genres, variants, accent characteristics, and user personality of the black language... The narrative is methodical and vivid.

Going back to the novel, Jean Valjean is a hard laborer who spent nineteen years in prison simply for stealing a loaf of bread. While spending the night at Bishop Milière's house, he ghostly stole the bishop's silver tableware, but finally got the bishop's forgiveness and was impressed by the bishop.

The Bishop said to Jean Valjean, "You promise me to be an honest man. I bought your soul. I have redeemed your soul from evil thoughts and given it to a merciful God. ”

This is the starting point of Valjean's redemption and the beginning of Valjean's countless spiritual struggles. After leaving the bishop's house, at the time of the Chamachal Affair, and after Cosette and Marius' marriage, there are several psychological monologues by Jean Valjean in the novel.

This is the competition of different voices in Valjean's heart, and it is also his confusion and struggle about how to choose the path of life after that. At the same time, Bishop Miriam's faith as a good faith has shown Jean Valjean that only salvation is the only way out of his suffering and freedom, and the holiness of love and suffering symbolized by Fantine also supports Valjean to move forward again and again in the darkness.

These psychological depictions not only make Jean Valjean the most successful character in the novel, but also constitute the most wonderful part of the whole text.

Throughout the novel, Jean Valjean rescues Fantine, Cosette, and Marius, who carries others on his back again and again, but under their guidance, he completes his self-redemption again and again.

After rescuing Cosette, the novel reads: "When he has love, he becomes strong again." alas! He was wobbly and not much stronger than Cosette. He protects this child, and this child makes him strong. ”

From the bishop to Cosette, the guidance of Valjean was a succession from religion to love. On Jean Valjean's back is a cross, his self-redemption has reached the height of humanity, he is the Jesus in Hugo's mind, and his atonement for his sins belong to all mankind.

It was Bishop Mirière's inspiration that made Jean Valjean see a self he should have become. Jean Valjean did not start out as a saint, every event made him grow further, and every reflection made him see his destiny more clearly.

The iron-faced, selfless law that encased on him required him to become a slave tamed by the public power, which was Valjean's greatest suffering. He changes his name, just to escape the fate of the hunt, but in the end he finds that he has to face his true identity.

In the court where Chamachal was tried, when confronted by Marius, he loudly proclaimed his identity, his name was Jean Valjean, and he was a slave! And every time he shouted this name, he was closer to that ideal personality, and he repeatedly put the shackles back on himself, but in the redemption he kept getting closer to the freedom of human nature.

If Valjean and Javert are compared as a group, the completion of Valjean's redemption must be marked by Javert's death. Jean Valjean's redemption in the midst of suffering is a constant human quest for freedom for good, while Javert represents stereotypical legal and social stereotypes.

The immutable standards espoused by law and stereotypes deny the possibility of human perfection, and it is with Valjean's martyrdom self-redemption that the entire novel denies this stereotype. Jean Valjean's victory will inevitably lead to the collapse of the world of Javert, and after the collapse of faith, Javert will only have a dead end.

However, in Les Misérables, Javert is also a sympathetic character. He is not a bad guy in the strict sense of the word, he is just a fanatical believer in legal and social stereotypes and takes it as his whole value.

Sometimes we don't. We are all just ordinary people, and it is difficult to transcend the social stereotypes of today. And we often think that we are on the moral high ground, and we can judge the affairs of other people at will. This can easily lead to so-called moral violence, inadvertently causing unnecessary harm to some people.

Jean Valjean's forgiveness upset the balance between these contrasts, and Javert's life was completely weightless as a result. Hugo's denial of Javert also negates the invincibility of law and prejudice. Let Jean Valjean shake Javert, this may be Hugo's ultimate intention.

Few people will ever write a novel in this way again, and few will have the patience to read such a novel. We are more and more accustomed to works that narrate more than describe, and let the classics get farther and farther away from us.

The so-called narrative-based works refer to those novels that stay in the plot explanation and are more like the base of film and television dramas. No matter how twisted and complicated the plot is, it cannot hide the inner poverty and weakness.

Narrative should not only reach the story, but also create a world. The world does not have to have a complete referential relationship with the real world, but at least it should point out to the reader the rationality of its own existence.

A good narrative should be a process of deceptiveness, which at the same time constructs a world, but also allows us to have a new and deeper understanding of the real world, removing the layers of appearances wrapped in reality, and showing us the way to reach the essence.

And reading a novel like Les Misérables, we feel the author's efforts to get closer to a world. This kind of reading may be a challenge, but after withstanding this challenge, we will find that other readings will become easier.

Sometimes reading isn't just about killing time, it teaches us a way of looking at the world, reminding us of some casual consolation or touch at certain special times.