Background Story
As a parolee, Valjean is branded an outcast and his passport (his identification card) is yellow colored—identifying him to all as a former offender, much like Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. The Bishop Myriel of Digne, from whom he stole valuable silverware, tells the police that he has given the treasure to Valjean. Out of this encounter, Valjean becomes a repentant, honorable, dignified man. He is kind to all whom he encounters, a devoted substitute father to a girl who loses her mother, and a benefactor to those in need. Though a known criminal and a parolee, Valjean yet grows morally to represent the best traits of humanity. Valjean occupies a place on the wrong side of the law, but the right side of human virtues and ethics.
His antithesis, Javert, a dedicated and capable police officer, occupies a place of honor in society. The relationship of Valjean and Javert is a binary opposition between law and love. Javert pursues Valjean with the same white-hot vengeance as Captain Ahab does Moby-Dick, seeing him only as the convict he once was, rather than the benefactor of humanity he has become. The novel describes the developing struggle of Valjean to hide from Javert, and that of Javert to uncover the location of and arrest Valjean.
Read more about this topic: Jean Valjean
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