Jean Valjean's Importance as the Symbol of the French Penal System and Social Justice in Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" Book Review by Top Papers

In this paper, the most important character, Valjean, has been analyzed in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. By Valjean this novel, the three main characters define how his social justice affects Cosette's life through his ability to rise above the brutality of the French penal system. By evaluating these tenets of Hugo's philosophy on French society, he provides a redemptive form of love that comes from many differing sides of society that help define Valjean as the central hub of these themes within the novel.