{"id":6589,"date":"2018-02-19T10:19:17","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T18:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=6589"},"modified":"2024-11-27T18:22:05","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T02:22:05","slug":"les-miserables-chapter-a-day-read-along-fantine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/les-miserables-chapter-a-day-read-along-fantine","title":{"rendered":"Les Mis\u00e9rables Chapter-a-Day Read-along: Fantine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Florelle

Florelle as Fantine in Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> (1934) directed by Raymond Bernard<\/p><\/div>\n

As we enter the eighth week of the\u00a0Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> Chapter-a-Day Read-along, we arrive at the 50th chapter of the book. From The Bishop of Digne to Jean Valjean, from Fantine to the Th\u00e9nardiers, we have seen light and darkness, gardens and stars, shipwrecks and collapsed carts. And there is still so much more to come.<\/p>\n

The last few chapters have focused on the figure of Fantine and her sad fate, and in this 50th chapter Hugo summarizes her life:<\/p>\n

At the point we have now reached in this painful tragedy, there is nothing left of the Fantine she once was.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here the reader’s heart breaks. Fantine has endured shame and disgrace, has worked tirelessly to make enough money to support herself and her daughter, all to no avail. She had two treasures left, her golden hair and her white teeth. She has sacrificed them both for the sake of her ultimate treasure, her daughter Cosette, whom she mistakenly believes to be in dire straits. But Fantine’s sacrifices are not enough. She must sacrifice still more. She sells herself as a prostitute. Fantine is now truly one of les mis\u00e9rables<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Remember “the monstrous waters<\/a>” that overwhelmed Jean Valjean and all convicts? Here they overtake Fantine, but she is beyond caring:<\/p>\n

Let the whole rain-cloud come down on her and the entire ocean sweep over her! What does she care? She is a saturated sponge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In today’s chapter Hugo pauses the narrative to comment on her situation–and to place blame:<\/p>\n

What is this story of Fantine about? It is about society buying a slave.
\nFrom whom? From wretchedness.
\nFrom hunger, cold, isolation, neglect, destitution. A hard bargain. A soul for a morsel of bread. Society accepts what wretchedness offers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Who is to blame? We are.<\/p>\n

Like Jean Valjean, Fantine has made mistakes: giving herself to a man like Tholomy\u00e8s; leaving her daughter with the Th\u00e9nardiers; getting into debt. Fantine’s situation is the result of her own choices and actions. Why then does Hugo place the blame on society and not on Fantine? Some might say she is getting what she deserves.<\/p>\n

But if you follow this blog, you know that I recently finished reading Just Mercy<\/em> by Bryan Stevenson. A quote from his book seems particularly apt here:<\/p>\n

Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, Fantine made poor choices. Yes, she made mistakes. But that is no reason to abandon her to a life of degradation and misery. She is still a human being. What she needs is help. What she needs is guidance.<\/p>\n

What she needs is mercy.<\/p>\n

Instead she gets the self-righteousness of Madame Victurnien, who uses Fantine’s situation to puff herself up while at the same time casting Fantine into the “monstrous waters.”<\/p>\n

Today’s world is full of Fantines and Valjeans, men and women who have made mistakes and are suffering because of them. It is tempting to cast them aside, blaming them for their own fate, feeling no responsibility for them.<\/p>\n

But that is not the way of Jesus.<\/p>\n

As I write this, today is Monday of the first week of Lent. All over the world, Catholics who attend Mass today will hear these words from the Gospel according to Matthew:<\/p>\n

‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
\nor thirsty and give you drink?
\nWhen did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
\nor naked and clothe you?
\nWhen did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’
\nAnd the king will say to them in reply,
\n‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
\nfor one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Those of us who call ourselves Christian ought to have no doubt about how to respond when we encounter people in situations similar to Fantine. But, as Hugo says, “The sacred law of Jesus Christ governs our civilization but does not yet pervade it.” How tragically true that is, even in our time. Prostitution still exists. Poverty still exists. Human trafficking exists. The opioid crisis exists. School violence exists.<\/p>\n

As we continue to follow the story of Fantine, Cosette, and the rest of\u00a0les mis\u00e9rables<\/em>, Hugo compels us, the members of society, to question our own role in allowing such social evils to continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we enter the eighth week of the\u00a0Les Mis\u00e9rables Chapter-a-Day Read-along, we arrive at the 50th chapter of the book. From The Bishop of Digne to Jean Valjean, from Fantine to the Th\u00e9nardiers, we have seen light and darkness, gardens and stars, shipwrecks and collapsed carts. And there is still so much more to come. The last few chapters have focused on the figure of Fantine and her sad fate, and in this 50th chapter Hugo summarizes her life: At the point we have now reached in this...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Les Mis\u00e9rables Chapter-a-Day Read-along: Fantine #lesmisreadalong","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,1219],"tags":[1054,471,984,369,853,527],"class_list":["post-6589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-chapter-a-day-read-along","tag-fantine","tag-gospel-of-matthew","tag-les-mis-2018-read-along","tag-les-miserables","tag-mercy","tag-victor-hugo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/forelle_as_fantine.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-1Ih","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6589"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6602,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6589\/revisions\/6602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}