The Ways Jean Valjean Both Helps and Hinders Cosette in Les Miserables Essay Example

basically no prior skills. Another factor which made life very difficult was the fact that once you were poor it was very difficult to become even a middle class citizen. Businesses did not give people much of a chance to make a good pay if they were unskilled and uneducated.

Those were the two biggest factors for what kind of jobs people could get. People had no colleges, programs, or government help to even learn the skills and education these higher paying jobs required. This illustrates why most of France’s citizens had low paying jobs and were impoverished. Before the revolution, women in France had a really tough time living a good life. Women’s oppression was a major factor in Les Miserables. For instance, when Fantine is talking to the Thenadiers and says, “You see I cannot take my child into the country. Work forbids it. With a child I could not find a place there…it will not be long before I come back.

Will you keep my child for me? ”(Les Miserables, Book Four, Ch. 1). This illustrates that women could not get a job out of wedlock. It also shows how far people would go to live a good life. Women had an even harder life than men did insofar as they got lower pay and had an even harder time getting jobs. Some women even went as far as selling their bodies, hair, and even teeth for money. Another thing a lot of women did was become prostitutes to the degree that it was the only possible way for them to earn some money. Even though a lot of women

had to drop down low enough to sell the bodies for money, prostitution was still illegal.

People might say that women had an even harder life than children. Every single thing in life was difficult for women; there was no abortion or protection so the chance of women, especially prostitutes, getting pregnant was insane. Most women could not support themselves so if they had children the only thing they could do was give them up which explains why there was so many orphans in 19th century France. Women did not get any respect for all of the things they had to go through, they were discriminated by men and were seen as a waste of space.

Considering all the above we can see how women’s oppression affected life in 19th century France. In Les Miserables Cosette is one of the lucky children to the degree that she has not only someone to love her but also someone who takes care of her. Jean Valjean loves Cosette like she is his own child. He provides food, a loving home, and even teaches her to read and write so that she could get a good job once she gets old enough. Cosette’s mother, Fantine, could not provide for her to the extent that women are not allowed to have a job out of wedlock. In this story Cosette represents the allegory of the women of France.

First we can see how badly women were treated before the revolution when she is with the Thenadiers. Jean Valjean represents the New France and he treats Cosette very good. This shows us that the New France treats

women a lot better. We can all see that France after the revolution treated women very different than the Old France. Even though Jean Valjean helped Cosette so much he did hinder her in some ways. One big way was that he hid her from the outside world by living in the convent. She did not have to see all the discrimination women got besides what she already knew from being with the Thenadiers.

For example, “The convent was to Jean Valjean like an island surrounded by wide waters. These four walls were, henceforth, the world to him. Within them he could see enough of the sky to be calm and enough of Cosette to be happy. ”(Les Miserables, Book Two, Ch. 5). The quote above illustrates the way Jean Valjean saw the convent, as a place away from the rest of the world. Some people might say that this made Cosette inexperienced or weak. All throughout the depressing story of Les Miserables we can see how Jean Valjean helped but also hindered Cosette and how their allegories interacted as well.