Instinct
Reading Les Misérables a chapter a day for a year...
Day 97: Cosette Book Three, Fulfillment of the Promise Made to the Departed
Chapter V: The Little Girl All Alone (Signet Classics Edition Pages 386-387).
I chose this painting because of how important the light is — or the appearance of light is — in it. Hugo writes, “Darkness is dizzying. We need light; whenever we plunge into the opposite of day we feel our hearts chilled” (385).
This humble paintings drew enormous crowds when it was displayed. Some believed the paintings was backlit because of how convincing the moonlight was.
We feel the burden of the dark in this chapter. We feel the heaviness of the bucket. We feel Cosette’s fear. When Jean Valjean takes the bucket, we are relieved. She is not scared of the large hand who has taken the handle. Hugo writes, “There are instincts for all the crises of life. The child was not afraid” (387).
Humanity has an incredible capacity for suffering.
The idea that we will know what to do in a crises, that we will navigate it with some grace, that we will also have instincts that will tell us how to proceed, is comforting.
This chapter reminded me of the story THE STAR DIPPER in my childhood red book THE ROAD IN STORYLAND. (Copyright 1932) Both little girls have to navigate the dark for drinking water —Cosette is rescued by Jean Valjean, the little girl in my story had her dipper changed from silver to gold to diamonds and “if you look up into the sky some bright, starry night, you will see the dipper still there. When you see it, think about the kind little girl, who was brave enough to go into the dark woods alone.”