Part I, Book 2, Chapter 9
New Woes
This chapter is called “New Woes,” which I have to say is a great album name. What happens in this chapter is not quite so great; in short order, it describes the nature of the “freedom” Jean Valjean experienced when he was released (which, of course, we already witnessed in Chapter 1).
I am 1000% sure that the bit of the chapter’s opening line, “when Jean Valjean heard in his ear those strange words, ‘You’re free!’” is the source of the exchange from the musical where Valjean goes, “Yes, it means I’m freeee,” and Javert goes “NO! It means you get your yellow ticket of leave!”
Why yes, it is very fun for me to see where the specific bits of the musical come from.
Anyway. Jean Valjean, after 19 wretched years laboring in the prison hulks, faced a rude awakening: “He very quickly saw what kind of liberty it was to which a yellow passport is given.”
First of all, Valjean, using the newfound skills he learned in prison school, calculated how much money he should have gotten for his 19 years of work, and he figured that he was owed 171 francs. However, our poor dude forgot that he was in France and wouldn’t have been paid for Sundays and holidays (look, as someone who has been caught off-guard by all the random holidays in European Catholic countries, this is very understandable), so he was only handed 109 francs and 15 sous when he was released. I have already done the math on how shamefully paltry this sum is.
Valjean, as a result, comes out of prison believing he has been robbed. As someone who once spent weeks citing city tax codes in a protracted fight with Urban Outfitters out of principle because they overcharged me by $5, I can’t blame the guy.
Still, he commits to bootstrapping his way up, and on Day 2 of sort-of-freedom he offers his services unloading bales—”He gave of his best”—and then collects his pay, which, because he had to show his yellow passport, is significantly lower than that of the other working men. When he protests, the foreman asks him if he wants to go back to prison and tells him to f off.
A silly little game I have been playing, since I started reading Les Misérables, is pretending I am an unhinged student taking an AP English exam and writing mental essays explaining how literally any character in any fictional story is Jean Valjean. In the spirit of my silly little game: Ant-Man is Jean Valjean.
He can’t keep a menial job because employers discriminate against ex-cons, even when the crime committed was just breaking and entering! Extremely Jean Valjean coded!
“Release is not freedom,” Hugo writes, “You are let out of prison, but you continue to serve your sentence.”
No one understands this better than Jean Valjean. And also Ant-Man.
Leave a Reply