Jean Valjean began the story as an ex-convict who was searching for food and shelter after working in the galleys for sixteen years. Unfortunately, he failed to receive compassion from any lodging, or home. While he was wandering through the streets after been rejected so many times, "he came to the prefecture then to the seminary. On passing by the cathedral square he shook his fist at the church" (22). Through this discrete action, it was clear how he had felt toward the church. The church, we learned was a representation of his resentment toward everyone and everything around him (due to his past experienced of suffering). After he found shelter within the Bishop’s lodging, he expressed his gratitude for excepting him, and began to tell stories of suffering in the past. Here, the reader would assume this encounter and expression would be the end of Jean Valjean’s criminal actions, as did the Bishop when he said, “you have left a place of suffering. But

“I have often been severe in my life towards others. It was just. I did right. Now if I were not severe towards myself, all I have justly done would become injustice” (67). Javert defended his belief that he should have been redeemed from his duty as inspector because he unfairly judged his mayor. Javert’s main goal from the start of the novel was clearly professional. He strived for perfection through his self-righteousness and morality as an inspector by trying to capture Jean Valjean. Javert was known to have strong beliefs and morals, and stands by them at every turn. Throughout the novel he has several encounters with Jean Valjean. With each encounter, his anger and determination begins to build up, until his own turning point of growth. Javert’s progress as a character was different from other characters, because it’s actually a downfall that represented his growth. After Jean Valjean spared his life, Javert became convinced of Valjean’s progress as a person. He stepped into the realization that Jean Valjean was no longer the convict he was so long ago, and he has changed for the better. In return (although disobeying his own morals as an inspector), he let him free as well. “One thing has astonished him, that Jean Valjean had spared him, and one thing had petrified him, that he, Javert, had spared Jean Valjean. W

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