Annie Pitts
Ms. Molyneaux
English D
May 20, 2014
As Jean Valjean watches Fantine pass away, he promises to take care of her daughter, Cosette. As soon as Valjean arrives to take Cosette under his wing he sees a girl wearing "old rags of linen, full of holes." This girl is Fantine's daughter and Valjean desribes this sight of an emaciated young girl as "a heartbreaking thing, to see this poor child, not yet six years old, shivering in the winter." The holes in Cosette's rags for clothes represent the holes in her heart yearning for not only a mother figure that treats her better than her foster mother, but also a new start that doesn't include starvation and a lack of stability in her own "home". This young child does not even know the feeling of love, because her foster parents are so evil to her. They send her to do chores such as "sweeping the street before daylight, with an enormous broom in her tiny red hands, and a tear in her great eyes." This quote shows how poorly Cosette was treated before she was rescued by her new father figure Valjean. Her "tiny red hands" are red because of the brisk cold weather that she is sent to endure chores in and the "tear in her great eyes" shows how miserable she is under these people. Jean Valjean saves her from this heartbreaking misery when he comes to get her to keep his promise to Fantine.
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