Les Mis
Les MisThe Variations of Love
How is it that hidden within a story full of hunger, despair, and the fight for freedom that the truest conquest is that of love? Throughout history love has been the one emotion that could create and destroy a life within a breath. It is simply impossible to state that love comes in several forms, for love is emitted from everything. It has been expressed throughout all time and in every form, even those which condemn it. Still, love is the one emotion that can overcome all other misfortunes.
How far should someone go for love? Should they commit a crime, should they steal or kill, and where should they draw the line? With both parents dead and Jean left as the oldest sibling he was faced with numerous responsibilities. One of the hardest was being that of hunger. Should he steal food, some bread, for his family, or let them starve. Unfortunately, for doing wrong for love Jean had changes his life forever.
Where we live the one thing everyone loves yet takes for granted must be freedom. Jean Valjean, being imprisoned twice had but one thing on his mind, regaining this virtue once again. However, in attempting to do this multiple times by escaping from jail he succeeded only in lengthening his sentence without it. You can not learn to appreciate something that you always have had until you lose it. Perhaps this is why Jean was forever thankful of the little things, which everyone had and was happy to have only those once he was out of prison, so long as he had his freedom.
Even stronger then the love of freedom is that of life. Your life is something that once taken for granted is lost, and that once lost can never again be found. Everyone has some form of love for life for without that love they would find no reason to live. In Les Miserables we see that some do not love their life enough.
Two of the strongest cases to support the need for the love of life must be those of Javert and Jean. Javert, seeing how much Jean loved being alive
could not grasp why he had wasted his life taking the love out of others. Realizing that no one had any love for him, he lost all love for himself and his life, so he took it. The opposite side of this coin must be that of Jean Valjean. Throughout the entire book Jean expresses a strong love for his life. He strives to do everything he could to make his life worth the love he felt for it. When he wasn't doing that he was trying to make everyone else's life better and more loveable.
A bond that can never be broken is that of a parent and their child. Fantine held so much love...
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