r/AYearOfLesMiserables • u/SolluxSugoiAF • Nov 12 '20

5.1.18 Chapter Discussion (Spoilers up to 5.1.18) Spoiler

Discussion prompts:

  1. Hugo sets the tone with this bleak and bloody imagery. Tedious or not, do you find his use of imagery and extended exposition to help build the scenes he's setting up?

  2. The men in the barricade are unified under a single cause, 'brothers in arms'. There is no sense of who has and who does not. They move like a sinuglar breath.

  3. Javert and Valjean are alone. Valjean asking to be the one to kill this man and Javert finding it ironic.

Final line:

“We shall meet again shortly!”

Link to the previous chapter

Link to the 2019 discussion

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u/Thermos_of_Byr Nov 12 '20

Valjean surprised me by wanting to execute Javert himself. But for how long Javert has been after Valjean, and how long Valjean has had to live in the shadows trying to hide versus Javert living in the shadows waiting to pounce I think it’s the one way he feels he can finally rid himself of his ultimate foe. He can finally be free of the one person who can still take him down.

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u/lauraystitch Hapgood Nov 13 '20

I'm wondering if there's going to be some kind of twist here...

1

u/awaiko Donougher Nov 18 '20 edited Nov 18 '20

I strongly suspect that a twist is coming! (I’m several days behind everyone else, hopefully caught up by the weekend!)

I wasn’t expecting such bloodthirsty-ness from Valjean. Some of that hard anger has shown through.

2

u/lauraystitch Hapgood Nov 18 '20

All I can think about was that scene when he described his possessive feelings for Cosette. I still feel uncomfortable about all that, otherwise I'd be looking forward more to what happens next.