Answer:
At the beginning of October 1815, a disreputable-looking traveler enters Digne on foot. In spite of his money, he is repeatedly refused food and shelter for the night with harsh words and threats. A fierce hound routs him from a doghouse when he mistakes it for a worker's hut. Despairingly he sums up his plight with the pathetic cry, "I am not even a dog!"
On the advice of a kind passerby, he tries the door of Monseigneur Myriel. He bluntly introduces himself as Jean Valjean, an ex-convict recently released from prison. To his surprise, the bishop welcomes him warmly, inviting him to share his supper, giving him advice, and finally offering him a bed for the night. Even more remarkable, he treats Valjean with unfailing courtesy and ignores the stigma of his past.
Valjean's past is a tragic story. Originally a primitive but uncorrupted creature, when he was twenty-six years old he was condemned to a five-year jail term for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his widowed sister and her large family. Repeated attempts to escape lengthened his sentence to nineteen years. In jail, the merciless treatment he endured corrupted his fundamental potentialities for good into an implacable hatred for society. The continuous hostility he has encountered since his release has only confirmed this hatred.
The bishop's kindness moves Valjean profoundly but does not regenerate him. Rising stealthily in the middle of the night, the ex-convict steals his host's silver from a cupboard above the sleeping man's
head — indeed, he is prepared to kill the bishop if he wakes. The police, however, catch him when he is making his escape and bring him back to the bishop. This time his crime will bring him life imprisonment. However, Monseigneur Myriel pretends that the silverware is a legitimate gift and in a gesture of supreme kindness even adds his candlesticks to it — the only objects of value he has left. As Jean Valjean is leaving, he exacts his reward: "Don't forget," he tells the astonished man, "that you promised me to use this silver to become an honest man."
Still Jean Valjean's conversion is not complete. On a deserted road, he steals a coin from an itinerant chimney sweep, Little Gervais. But this last contemptible act sickens him of himself, and in a paroxysm of remorse he resolves to amend his life.
Explanation:
Have A Great Day!
