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readingraebow · 6 years

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Les Misérables Section Six

Part Three: Books 6-8

1. What happens that brings about a great change in Marius? He sees a ~girl. So he used to go walking in this garden and he would see a father and daughter. And he didn't really pay attention to them but then he stopped going for a while and when he went back, the daughter literally ~blossomed. She had been a little girl when he'd seen her before but in the short time between when he stopped going and then when he went back, she grew into a woman. Even though he thinks she's only about fifteen. But apparently she hit puberty, haha. So he starts going back every day, wearing his nicest suit, and just walking close to them or sitting on a bench near them. And always staring. Like a stalker. So you can imagine that went over well.

2. What are the three blunders that Marius makes regarding “Ursula”? So the father starts to notice Marius (how could you not???) and starts changing their routine to try to shake him. But, uh, Marius is unshakable. So his blunders are: 1) continuing to haunt them after they changed benches, 2) leaving the garden when the father came by himself, leaving Ursula at home and 3) following "Ursula" home. He followed them and found out where they lived and then tried to talk to the porter about them. All of this did not go well and they literally just ended up moving because Marius was literally stalking them. So good job, Marius. *slow clap*

3. When discussing the lower strata of society, Hugo writes, “Destroy the cavern Ignorance and you destroy the lair Crime.” Do you agree with this statement? So Hugo is saying that the real threat to society is darkness because under the cover of darkness, crime is committed. But the original quote in question can be seen two different ways: either the criminals are ignorant or everyone else is. If he's saying that the criminals are ignorant and by getting rid of ignorance, we can discontinue their crimes, I don't agree with that. I think in his time criminals were the very lowest, poorest of the citizens. But that's not at all true today. Sometimes they're the smartest. So they are not committing crimes through ignorance today. Sometimes (ie, very, very often) they know exactly what they're doing and do it anyway for whatever reason. So if he's saying we need to abolish the ignorance of criminals, I don't really agree with that. But. If he's saying the rest of us are ignorant (particularly of the crimes of others), that I fully agree with. Because most crimes are committed and gotten away with because no one sees them committed. And people are usually pretty wrapped up in themselves and in their own lives and sometimes we don't want to know when crimes are being committed and don't want to help. (Ie, that story about that woman who was murdered in New York (??) below a building that was full of people, all of whom heard her scream and none of which called the cops or tried to help her.) So sometimes the real problem with crime is that no one reports it?? (Not saying that's the standard problem but it is a very large one.) And in that case, I would agree with Hugo. That by stopping us from being ignorant of crime or of looking the other way when we see it committed, we could maybe destroy it and change our society for the better.

4. What does Marius find in the package that the girls dropped? How does Marius discover the truth behind its contents? He finds four letters from four "different" people. They're all appealing to someone rich about some misfortune they're having and asking for monetary help from them. But, all of the letters have the same handwriting and they all have the same strong smell of tobacco. Seen separately, this might not be as noticeable. But since Marius finds them all together, he deduces that they were all written by the same person. The next day, a girl comes to see him and produces a new letter. This one is from the tenant who was about to be evicted but whose back rent Marius paid to stop the eviction. The letter thanks Marius for his kindness and appeals to him for help, again, because there are five of them and they don't have food and they're starving. It's written in the same handwriting as the other four and was delivered by one of the girls who dropped the package of other letters (who Marius didn't even recognized when she produced the new letter). This letter is signed Jondrette. So either this letter is real (and the neighbor's name really is Jondrette) and these are the real circumstances or "Jondrette" is a terrible swindler who is now also trying to get money from Marius since he was kind enough to help before.

5. Marius’ conversation with his young neighbor opens his eyes to his own blessings. Have you ever had a personal encounter that opened your eyes to your own privilege? Well, yes and no, I have met others who are less fortunate and who make me realize how fortunate I have been. But I have also had my own circumstances change and that is so completely eye opening. When you have been used to a certain standard of living and that changes so much that you can't always afford to eat, that completely changes your outlook. Because I never thought of myself as rich but I didn't realize that I was doing pretty well before. (Things are fine now because Dalton and I both switched jobs. But it was really, really bad there for a while.) So that's probably the best example I can come up with right now. Not having enough money to really live is super hard and talking to someone else about your fortunes versus theirs can be eye opening. But having your own circumstances change is reaaaaally eye opening.

6. Who comes to visit Jondrette? "Ursula" and her father come to visit Jondrette. The father was the recipient of one of the letters and when the daughter who visited Marius took the letter to him, he agreed to come visit Jondrette. It seems he's really rich and Jondrette is trying to get help from him. So he makes them look much poorer than they are by breaking things (including a cut on his youngest daughter's hand) and then hoping this will get money out of the rich gentleman. But then they just bring clothes (which they needed but Jondrette wanted money) so Jondrette starts telling loads of lies like how they're a year behind on their rent and have to have it that night or they'll be evicted. So the rich gentleman takes off his coat and leaves it four Jondrette then gives him five francs and says he'll be back with it that evening. All the while Marius is watching all of this from next door and is absolutely elated because he's found "Ursula" again and can finally be happy. Or so he thinks.

7. What internal crisis does Marius go through when he’s waiting to give the signal? How does he ultimately act? So "Jondrette" is setting the trap for his rich gentleman and finally, when it's laid, he asks "don't you know me?" and the rich gentleman says he does not. So Jondrette reveals that he's actually Thénardier and says that the rich gentleman took "the Lark" (as he calls her) from him and she was making him so much money and he could've lived off the money she made him for the rest of his life. So basically Thénardier accuses him of taking his livelihood and uses that as a justification for robbing him. And while revealing his name and backstory doesn't seem to have the desired affect on the rich gentleman, it absolutely shatters Marius. Because Thénardier is the man who saved his father and who is has been seeking to repay his father's debt. So now he can't decide if he should turn in Thénardier and save the rich gentleman (and go against his father's wishes) or if he should let whatever fate befall the rich gentleman and save Thénardier (and follow his father's wishes). Which, honestly, SHOULDN'T BE A DIFFICULT CHOICE. He is seeing and hearing for himself that Thénardier is a scoundrel and he even mentions Marius's father and shows that he really only saved him so he could get something out of it. But Marius ~can't decide who to save so he just waits and hopes everything will resolve itself without his interference. But, just when something awful is about to befall the rich gentleman, Marius sees what Thénardier's daughter had written for him earlier. He folds it and throws it into the Thénardier's apartment and they think it means the police are coming. So they decide to all escape and just leave the rich gentleman. But that's when Javert shows up and arrests them all. He'd been waiting outside for Marius's signal, got tired of waiting and showed up at ~exactly the right time. *slow claps*

8. What do you think of how this section wrapped up? So I basically wanted to jump in the book and yell at Marius for, like, this entire section. But at the end, I absolutely wanted him to alert the police. Though the other fear there is that Javert would recognize Jean Valjean and cart him off to prison as well. But wow. That worked out so much better than I ever expected???? Thénardier and all his goons are arrested and Jean Valjean just escapes through the window, Javert never really getting a good look at him or having the chance to recognize him. I was super impressed. Though I thought the Thénardier's had one more child??? And while I'm glad the parents were arrested, it's their children that concern me. Because none of them deserved the fate of having actually terrible parents. And their son didn't seem all that distressed by his entire family having been arrested??? So what even is the Thénardier family?????? I don't even know.

Section Six Reading Journal

Okay so. Why is Marius a thing???? Because I kind of don’t find him interesting. Everyone else in this section I was super interested in. Especially that last bit with Jean Valjean, Thénardier and Javert all ending up in the same place. That was actually nerve-wracking and I’m super not okay (though it all ended up super well so yay).

I honestly would’ve rather had all of Les Amis in this section than just a whole lot of Marius being creepy. And Jean Valjean was super right to change his tactics at the beginning because of the random guy literally stalking his daughter. (Though forever laughing about Marius showing off the handkerchief that was actually Jean Valjean’s and Cosette being like ??????)

But, anyway, I’m glad we got a lot of characters back in this section so all of the stories can start ~intertwining and we can see how it all plays out. And I’m super hoping for all the Les Amis in the next section because I miss them. (Though the “I just saw Marius’s new coat and hat and with Marius in them” was the greatest thing and I’m still laughing.) Can’t wait to read the next section!!! All of them. I love this book so much.

Also, side note, Kara and I must have super different translations because the quote referenced in section 3 is worded pretty differently in my copy and I had such a hard time finding it. (Not that I needed to since it’s an opinion but I also wanted more context.) But I also read the first chunk of this section while I was donating plasma and they always play music and I was sitting riGHT UNDER THE SPEAKER so it was super loud (not great when you’re trying to concentrate on a Hugo tangent) so that could also be a factor in why I missed this. I felt you all needed all of this information. There you go.

#trcbooks #2015: les miserables #2015 reading challenge

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