Secondary Characters

Yes, I’m still reading “Les Miserables” in French but I am getting very close to the end. It’s been quite a nice journey so far. I expect that I will be very sad when I am done too. One of the aspects of the novel that I’ve enjoyed immensely are the descriptions of some of the secondary characters.

Hugo does an amazing job with characterization in general (and a bunch of other techniques too) but he’s particularly plucked at my heart with his penchant for plucky descriptions of two secondary characters. It got me wondering what was the point of having these two characters in the novel in the first place.

There was a basic philosophy to the novel where he would treat the degradation of man by the proletariat, the atrophy of infants by night and the decline of women due to hunger so I understand that these two characters who were children contributed to that purpose. The strange thing is that both of these characters seem unaffected by the night. They seem to do just fine by day and by night even if they are poor. They get by.

But there is more to them that just that. They are characters that we root for and we want them to come out on top. They do the right thing without probably even being aware that it’s the right thing. They also show up their parents by being beacons of goodness, while their parents frankly suck.

I suppose that I don’t really need to have an answer to why they are in the novel. I like them a lot and wish there was more of them throughout the novel. But I believe that if they appeared more often, they might annoy me. So yet again Mr. Hugo knows how to pace himself and his story to make it pleasant for the reader.

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!

Villains

I’ve been reading and occasionally struggling through ‘Les Miserables’ in French. It’s quite good so far. It’s thought provoking and emotional. I’m enjoying it immensely.

Recent time with the novel has made me ponder what makes a good villain. The hero and villain in this book are Jean Valjean and Lieutenant Javert. As usual, they have a complex relationship and it made me wonder if that is needed for a good book. Obviously one of the basic tenets of a novel should be that there is some tension or an unresolved issue; something that hooks us into reading and, most importantly, completing a book.

But further to that it made me wonder what makes a good villain. When we think of the protagonist, many times we need to feel a connection to them so that we can root for them along the course of the story. And even if you don’t empathize with the main character, we have to be concerned with their plight to some degree. Perhaps it is because we have been in a similar situation and want to see how they will handle it. Or it could just be that we want to step into their ‘footprints’ and live vicariously through them. As long as we have some combination of these items, then we are all set emotionally to follow the hero. But what do we do or feel when it comes to a villain.

I thought to some of the greatest villains that I could think of in recent history and in popular culture - the two that I could think of were Darth Vader of the Star Wars saga and Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. There is an element of fear to both of them. I remember as a kid that I was insanely scared of Darth Vader – not just because he was dressed in black (because that seems common with many villains) but because he seemed so strong and invincible. This is the case as well with Voldemort when I read the Harry Potter books. Yet as the stories developed for both of these arts, the background of each was identified and I was more curious to know how they became evil. I, perhaps naively, believed that they were not born that way. I wanted to know their psychological make-up and to have them sit on a couch with me as I asked them questions to get to the root of their identity and their unresolved issues.

It is this confrontation between the good guy and the bad guy that intrigues us. As we learn about Luke Skywalker and he develops into his full character, we become curious as to why Darth Vader is who he is. This is the same for Harry Potter and Voldemort. In many ways their character development mirrors each other in opposite ways. And they often balance each other out. So we become invested in not only the growth of the hero but in the demise or softening of the bad guy. Can the bad guy be made good? etc.

This same premise has been occurring in one of my favorite shows of the season ‘Once Upon a Time’ as well. As we learn more about Snow White, we wonder why the Evil Queen hates her so much. As their stories are told side-by-side, we become connected to their histories. It also helps a lot that the actress (Lana Parrilla) who plays the Evil Queen is a complete bitch (she’s one of those characters that I love to hate and I think that might be the case with the other examples I’ve provided too). It’s the dichotomy between these characters and the tension that they create that keep us glued to the screen or entranced between the pages. Or perhaps it is something else altogether. It’s definitely up for discussion.