The Garden of the Mind

Les Miserables is ripe with symbolism as most classics are. In recent lectures references have been made to Jean Valjean’s garden and it has been a wondrous spark for my analytical brain.

Jean Valjean and Cosette are running from the law again. They decide to live in a house where they try to be inconspicuous. Hence Jean Valjean decides to not spend any time tending to his garden. He decides that if his garden is lovely, people will be drawn to it and they then will begin to come around. Having people around means people asking questions, which is what he most wants to avoid. So the garden is overgrown, weeds take over and people get the impression that no one lives there. Just as he wanted!

I began to wonder about the garden as something more than its face value. Yes, he doesn’t want people to visit or be nosey but what if there was more to this garden upon looking more closely. I realized that the garden was a symbol of Jean Valjean’s mental state. He’s slowly growing older and he’s trying the best he can to protect and raise Cosette without drawing attention to him or his history. His thoughts are sprouting all over and taking over the house of his body. He’s trying to contain everything in the garden of his mind. But it’s hard to not see that it’s slowly consuming him.

At this point in the narrative Cosette is slowly becoming a woman so we see her development and her thoughts more than we did before. In one scene Cosette takes a walk in the garden and the weeds are past her ankles. Despite this she enjoys walking through the weeds. She even likes to see the different kinds of bugs that appear as she strolls through the various paths. My interpretation of this scene is how Cosette is trying to make her way through her father’s thoughts, knowing they are confusing but enjoying the tidbits that she can put together. She’s slowly understanding her father without directly confronting him and questioning him on his decisions.

This is one section of the novel that I found intriguing. Honestly the novel doesn’t disappoint but this was one of the few times I was prompted to write something related to my readings.

It made me wonder if the garden I’ve been trying to grow the last few years is a symbol for my mental state. I’ll have to pay more attention come spring time!