Everyone needs Jean Valjean

I was 11. We were on vacation in London, in the suburbs. I couldn't put it down. Well, I did skip the battle scenes and even as an adult I never could read through them.

And then there was the scene. The little girl, ill treated, a victim of nasty treatments by the Ténardier who pocketed the money paid by her mother for her pension and instead made her work like a slave and hit her and treated their own daughters like princesses. But then there was the scene. Cosette was carrying a bucket that was too heavy for her. She had to go get water at the spring in the woods. It was dark and scary.

 

  As she leant to fill her bucket, she lost the coin the Ténardier had just recommended she shouldn't lose but her rags could not hold the coin properly. The forest at night was no place for an 8 year old undernourished girl. But suddenly a hand shows up out of nowhere and picks the over heavy jug. Then he takes her hand in his, protecting her with his powerful body as they walk back to the village. And he gets her the beautiful doll the Ténardier could not afford to buy for their daughters.

Jean Valjean made everything right. He brought justice. Protection. Love.

And I longed for someone like him to come into my life. My world wasn't as hard as little Cosette's, but I had two older sisters and they would beat on me when they had to take their frustration out. My parents also hit me.  My home didn't feel safe. I was afraid of the crocodiles that hid under my bed, the foxes that came in the night and bit me in the stomach. My parents were not protective. They didn't understand about emotional safety. The boy next door bullied me for years, he hurt me, I was scared of him, but never for a minute thought of asking my parents for help, especially not my father who would have said, figure it out yourself. I couldn't bring any complaint from school either.

What I needed was Jean Valjean. 

 

 

The world needs Jean Valjean. The people in Ukraine. The people in Gaza. The women who endure domestic violence, and systemic violence. Children subjected to abuse. The people who are evicted from their homes, from their lands in various regions of the world. The men who work in mines in Africa. The animals losing their environment. The people in the US who need to be freed from the unbalanced dictator in the White House.  

And by extension I love Victor Hugo. He believed in a better life for Les Misérables. He had to go into exile because of his activism.

The truth according to a lawyer

Pierre Olivier, a lawyer, discusses truth in court. He presents the situation of a pedophile who denies the facts despite the overwhelming evidence that has been gathered against him. Olivier's role as a defense lawyer is to explain to the accused that if he denies, he will get 15 years in prison, if he admits he will fare better with only 8 maybe. But sometimes the accused does not want, or can not, recognize the facts. He needs to continue to deny to preserve his perception of himself, to protect his family's illusions. Pierre Olivier maintains that the lawyer must not push him to confess his guilt, because this could result in suicide, either of the accused or of his family, one of his children for example.

I was shocked. If I put myself in the place of the victim, I think I would need, more than a "punishment" for the perpetrator, that the crime be recognized, that my victim status be confirmed by the accused. Does the perpetrator's family entitlement to protection prevail over the victim's need for the truth to be told? Maybe for the defense lawyer.

It is a difficult subject. Our legal system comes to us from the Romans. Is might be time to review it and to improve it.



Contributed by - - Arabella Hutter


Posted by - - Arabella Hutter