#which! like We get why valjean is doing this & the whole internal explanation it makes sense & we sympathize! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fluentisonus · 2 months ago

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I think I mentioned this before in my post a little while ago abt valjean not talking, but reading the barricade section just now & he talks so little. I think the only things he says the entire time is to ask for a gun to shoot down the mattress and to ask for javert & then say he's shot him -- people talk to him plenty but he never replies. and this taken with the fact that it's such a long section without his pov at all it I feel like really shows how much of a sort of. social/communicative wall I guess? he can & does put up sometimes, and how impenetrable & unreadable (& in marius' case disconcerting) it comes across. like even we as readers who know him really well are not getting much from this at all about what he's thinking or feeling or planning, he's incredibly hard to read without that element of internality

#(I'm not counting his interaction w javert in the alley here bc that's another thing)#also i won't talk abt this too kuch bc i need to actually get to this section of the book & not just do analysis from memory but #i really do think this element of not being able to read him at all is part of what freaks marius out abt him a little in that marius is to #begin with not great at reading people & also really sensitive to potential rejection/dislike so when jvj behaves this way around him #& later when he's. what's the phrase it's like 'benevolent & cold' or something i think that's like practically tailor made to make him #(marius i mean) in his own slightly neurotic way extremely nervous Already #which! like We get why valjean is doing this & the whole internal explanation it makes sense & we sympathize!#but it's just such a bad match personality wise for a hm. not entirely a misunderstanding. but you get what i mean #it's predisposed towards misunderstanding & bad communication #<- sorry this is all a complete sidetrack from the post but i was just thinking abt this in the occasional sections we get marius' pov #& his view of jvj #thoughts #les mis

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