April 28th Discussion Notes-
Why does Mayor Madeline go to court and confess he is Jean Valjean? How does this express his “transformation” as described on page 72? Morgan: There was another guy that was accused of being him and he was a convict. He made a new name for himself, then went to confess to save the other guy. Louisa: Due to his newfound moral values, he believes that this isn’t a just act for the other man to suffer through.
Explain the symbolism behind Fantine suddenly dying when she finds out Mayor Madeline is Jean Valjean (pg.104). Annie: He’s someone that he trusted and he turned out to be someone else. Him turning out to be Jean Valjean is not the point, the point is that he isn’t Mayor Madeline which was a strange shock for her. Deandra: She is so saddened because she remains in a deep depression and he looked up to the Mayor as a friend. When she found out he was not who he said he was, it shocked her so much.
Victor Hugo uses the color white to describe Cosette (pg.41), Fantine (pg.96), and Valjean (pg.90). WHat symbolic value does this color bring to the characters? Annie: All three have the same poor and sickly values. White is a sick color that is mentioned with all three of them. It also shows they are miserable. Louisa: They all have been drained of life at certain times in their life that could resemble the paleness in the color white.
Deandra: How could even become Mayor if he was a criminal? Morgan: After moving towns and changing his ways, it landed him with his own business that made him wealthy. He did really nice things for everybody and donated to the poor that earned him respect of the citizens.
What does Valjean do after he escapes and fakes his death? Morgan: Javert arrests him and then takes him to the prison, escapes from the prison and fake-drowns in the harbor to go and save Cosette (Morgan re-caps for Deandra). Deandra: Because he knew that Fantine had died? Morgan: Yes, because he had promised her that he would take care of Cosette for her. Annie: He takes Cosette away from the scene of the abusive family.
After the questions, we discussed the book more because it was a “meaty point” (Annie) in the book.
Morgan: I was confused at the part when there was some old man stuck under a cart? Javert said someone needs to save him. When Jean Valjean was mayor, he said someone need to save him! And then Javert confesses that he claims to only know one man that is capable of helping the man. I didn’t understand what was going on because it Javert hates Jean Valjean? Annie: That’s in the movie. After being in the French Jail, they had to do a lot for the military because of the French Revolution. They had to have a lot of strength in order to carry out the tasks of building things. So due to their simultaneous imprisonment, Javert knew of the strength that Jean Valjean had.
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