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Comparison of Jean Valjean

             Jean Valjean was given the title of a criminal all his life, however he is looked upon today as a tragic hero. Ever since that day when he stole a loaf of bread to satisfy his hunger he has been shunned upon as a criminal. The society he lived in never gave him a second chance to prove that he in fact wasn't a cold-blooded criminal. They viewed him the same way they would view a rapist or a killer. They believed that once a criminal always a criminal. In their eyes he was better off dead. If neglected upon in such a way how did this cold-blooded criminal, man of no justice, become a hero? .
             Jean Valjean did steal a loaf of bread to feed himself. He knew that this was against the law and that he would be risking everything if he had caught. However he needed to steal this loaf of bread to live another day. He would have probably have stolen food again if he hadn't got caught the first time. To him he was just trying to live. What is so wrong with living? What is the crime for wanted to survive? He made a choice a choice that everyone would have made in his situation.
             Jean Valjean shows us that there is more to a man then his record, there is his heart. Throughout the entire play he makes numerous acts of heroism. Some as simple avoiding his daughter in law's wedding for her protection, to saving a dying man from the barricades. No matter what trouble it may cause him he puts the people that surround him first. But why? Why does he do this? He knows that by doing such acts could expose his identity. He does it anyway. He knows that by doing other acts could get him killed, however he still does them. He does them with the intention to give others a helping hand or to give others the second chance he never received. His acts are the way they should be. He knows that by not helping them his cause doesn't get better it only gets worse. Why be apart of something that had him imprisoned. .
             One way that Jean Valjean showed his heroism is when he was in a whorehouse.


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Hugo also believed that man is born good, which he portrayed in Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean was arrested and sentenced, eventually, to nineteen years of labor on the Galley ships, coincidentally the same number of years Hugo was in exile. ... But, Valjean needed that loaf of bread to feed his sisters family; he was driven to crime from the corrupt aristocratic ruled society that condemned the poor. ... But because of the evil society which Valjean lived in for 19 years, that in time changed Valjean's good intentions into evil ones, as is with Madame Defarge. Valjean, instead of thankin...

  • Word Count: 2372
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

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