Les Misérables, Book 7: Slang, Chapter 2 summary
Book 7: Slang, Chapter 2 of 365 · 13 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 2, the narrator examines slang as a language shaped by borrowed words, invention, metaphor, and the need for secrecy, treating it as evidence of suffering and exclusion. The account of chained prisoners singing in the Châtelet cellar turns this linguistic study toward punishment, endurance, and a plea for the human soul.
What happens
- The narrator argues that slang has poetry and deserves a place in literature despite its association with crime and punishment.
- Examples trace slang to many languages and distinguish three sources: direct invention, metaphor, and practical alterations of existing words.
- The need for concealment makes slang change rapidly, although certain places preserve older forms.
- Prison vocabulary reveals how criminals understand freedom, confinement, punishment, and their own bodies.
- The narrator describes the Châtelet cellar, where chained prisoners endure extreme suffering and produce songs.
- Examples of secrecy and linguistic exchange lead to a closing appeal for the soul trapped in darkness.
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What to notice
The opening connects language with exclusion and suffering. Its darkness returns in the prison cellar and the closing image of a captive soul.
Quick check
Why does slang repeatedly change its form?
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