Jean Valjean's transformation
Blog Post #1
Topic B
April 27, 2015
Ben Burkhalter
Early in Les Misrables by Victor Hugo, Jean Valjean is introduced as a previously convicted man who has recently been released from prison. He is struggling early on to find a place to stay because of the yellow passport which he holds, marking him as a criminal. The only path for him seems to be for him to continue stealing to make a living; however, he soon has a change of heart after staying with the bishop for the night. During his stay, Jean makes an attempt to steal all of the silver which the bishop has. He is soon caught red handed and brought back to the bishop to face punishment for his crimes. Instead of punishing Jean, the bishop gifts the silver to Jean after making him promise “to use this silver to become an honest man” (33). Soon after, it is revealed to us that Jean has turned away from his criminal past and has become the humble and wealthy mayor of M--- sur M----. He is constantly using his wealth to help others in this town, especially the poor. He quickly makes a name for himself among the people as an easy person to ask to borrow money from. This also leads to him more pleasant towards others although he does seem to retain some strange qualities from when he was in prison. This is a radical change in his behavior and marks the beginning of a new period in his life, one of honestly and charity.
I would give you a B. There's a lot of summary and not much in the way of opinions, supporting details, and analysis. You do have evidence, but it needs to be tied in better. With a little more analysis and a little less summary, this could be a great post.
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