Les Mis Part V Books 4-6 - Summary from book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo PDF

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Summary from book Les Miserables by Victor Hugo...

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Stephanie Hernandez IPC December 1, 2017 Les Miserables: Jean Valjean Books 4-6 Characters   

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Jean Valjean: In this part of the book, he is known as Fauchelevent. Cosette: Fantine’s daughter who Jean Valjean has adopted and is in love with Marius. Marius: In love with Cosette. The son of Pontmercy, who was said to be saved by Thenardier. He was raised by his grandfather and was kicked out to live on his own and became a lawyer. Father Gillenormand: Marius’s grandfather, who raised him and had kicked him out of his house. Mademoiselle Gillenormand: Marius’s aunt who would send him money, but he would send it back. Javert: Police investigator who is after Jean Valjean.

Book 4   

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The chapter begins with describing Javert waking and reflecting on who he is. He had previously had Jean Valjean and let him go because Valjean had saved his life. “Jean Valjean’s generosity towards him, Javert, overwhelmed him” (Hugo, p. 742). He felt like he did not know who he was anymore because he always thought of himself as a man of the law and someone who arrested criminals. “He felt that he was emptied, useless, broken off from his past life, destitute, dissolved” (Hugo, p. 745). Book four ends with Javert throwing himself into a river.

Book 5   

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Marius has been in bed for several weeks with a fever and wounds in the head. Even though Marius and his grandfather were on bad terms, his grandfather spent every night next to him in an armchair. After the physician cleared Marius out of danger, the first thing that came to his mind was Cosette. He had a will to find Cosette because “To him the idea of life was not distinct from the idea of Cosette” (Hugo, p. 748). The grandfather is upset because Marius has not called him father and they barely speak. One-day Marius tells his grandfather that he wants to get married. His grandfather laughs and tells him that he shall have Cosette. He also explains to him how beautiful she is, that she would visit him every day disguised as an old gentleman and bring him lint for the dressing on his wound. The grandfather tells Marius to be happy and he hugs Marius and they both began to cry. The grandfather is happy because Marius has called him father.

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Marius asks him to see Cosette and the grandfather says he can see him tomorrow. He questions why not today, and the grandfather exclaims that she will be brought to him since he has called him father three times. Cosette arrives with Jean Valjean who is now, Fauchelevent. The porter at the grandfather’s home tells his wife that Fauchelevent looks familiar to him. Marius’s aunt questions the book that Valjean has under his arm because she did not like books. The grandfather takes this opportunity to ask for Cosette’s hand on behalf of Marius and Valjean bows in approval. Cosette and Marius share a moment when the grandfather tells everyone to talk and let them have their time. He then turns to Cosette and exclaims how pretty she is and how it is unfortunate that they will have no money because Marius does not get his money until his grandfather is dead. Valjean then states that Cosette has six hundred thousand francs. He then lays the package he had under his arm that was mistaken for a book and opened it to reveal a bundle of bills. Marius’s aunt counts it and exclaims how the exact amount of Cosette’s money is five hundred and eighty-four francs. The grandfather is happy, and he tells Marius how he has chosen a millionaire to love. This money that Valjean has was hidden for a long time in the forest of Montfermeil and was the money he put together while he was Monsieur Madeleine. Along with the money he also hid the Bishop’s candlesticks he had stolen. It has been confirmed that Javert was found drowned in the river; he committed suicide. It was December and all the preparations for the marriage for February were being made. Valjean did everything to make Cosette happy. Valjean had to fake Cosette’s origin. He stated how Cosette was a daughter of one of the two Fauchelevent’s who has died and is where the money has come from. Valjean was Cosette’s guardian and Gillenormand an overseeing guardian. This is the first time that Cosette hears about Valjean not being her biological father. Normally she would have been heartbroken but because she had Marius she was full of joy. It was arranged for Marius and Cosette to live with his grandfather. He also gave them his room because it was the best in the house. Marius and Valjean barely ever spoke with a common secret about the night Valjean saved Marius’s life. Marius became obsessed with finding Thenardier and the man who saved his life. He did research and found out that Thenardier’s wife has died in prison and Thenardier and his daughter had disappeared. He tried to figure out who was the man who saved him because he felt he owed him his life. He asked the police and the porter, and no one knew who the man was. He told Cosette and Valjean about this and how he owes him because he risked his life multiple times with carrying Marius to his grandfather’s house. He states how if the money Cosette has was his he would give it to that man. Valjean tells him that it is his money.

Book 6  

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Book six begins with the wedding day, Gillenormand takes Valjean’s place for Cosette because his arm is hurt. After the ceremony they head back home in a carriage. A banquet has been prepared in the dining room for Marius and Cosette. Two armchairs were setup on each side of Marius and Cosette. One was where Marius’s grandfather sat, and the other was for Valjean but he had left when no one was noticing with the excuse that he was in pain because of his arm. Cosette is upset because Valjean was not there but the grandfather suggests that Marius take his place on the right side of Cosette which changed Cosette’s sadness to happiness. Valjean had gone home. He went into Cosette’s room and saw everything empty, he was upset and sad because he felt like he has lost Cosette. Valjean takes out clothes of the day he took Cosette with him and lays them out on his bed. He begins to think back on that day and how at that time Cosette only had him. He then falls onto the bed into her old clothing and begins to cry. The chapter ends with Valjean thinking about what he should do now with his life since he does not have Cosette anymore. He is debating on whether to tell Cosette and Marius the truth about everything, his life and his past or continue to be the father he has been to Cosette.

Connection Hyde defines deconstruction as, “a response to a call” and how it, “offers itself to others as a way of helping them to realize that every culture needs an element of self-interrogation and of distance from itself, if it is to transform itself and thereby become something different, something other and perhaps better” (Hyde, p. 83). Deconstruction also “calls into question the truthfulness of whatever human beings create in order to make their lives meaningful” (Hyde, p. 83) which can bring anxiety to some. In the book Les Miserables, Javert is walking and thinking about his life and what had just happened. Jean Valjean has saved his life and he lets Valjean go in return, “and that terrified him--- him, who had never in his life known but one straight line” (Hugo, p. 742). This was something new to Javert because he had always seen himself as a man of the law, who followed the law and put criminals in prison. “There had been a new thing, a revolution, a catastrophe in the depths of his being; and there was matter for self-examination” (Hugo, p. 741). This was Javert’s deconstruction, his response to the call from Valjean. The deconstruction is offering itself to Javert, to hep him realize the need for self-interrogation. “He must henceforth be another man” (Hugo, p. 743). Javert sees his transformation and how he must become something different, but he cannot tell if it is something better, good or bad. All this brought anxiety to Javert and made him question his being and his whole life. “He felt that he was emptied, useless, broken off from his past life, destitute, dissolve. Authority was dead in him. He had no further reason for existence” (Hugo, p. 743). Javert questions the truthfulness in his past life and how him being part of authority and the law was what made his life meaningful. That was his being and it was known called to question and he now does not know who he is or the meaning of his life. He sees no reason to live because he had drawn meaning to his life by

being a police investigator but the deconstruction he faces has taken apart what made his life meaningful and questions his being....