Les Misérables, Book 7: Slang, Chapter 4 summary
Book 7: Slang, Chapter 4 of 365 · 7 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 4, the narrator identifies misery as a continuing danger and urges society to provide work, education, fairer rewards, and care for suffering people. The argument joins close examination of social problems with confidence in progress, while acknowledging the fear created by selfishness, deprivation, and resistance to change.
What happens
- The narrator distinguishes the danger of misery from the threat of peasant rebellion and demands practical help for suffering people.
- Material improvement must accompany education, and compulsory labor must also count as a right.
- Despite the apparent victories of ignorance and oppression, the narrator insists that progress cannot reverse its course.
- Social philosophy must study conflicts without hatred and diagnose civilization’s weaknesses so that remedies become possible.
- The narrator confronts hostility between prosperous and suffering people but closes with an image of an ideal beyond danger.
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What to notice
The comparison states the narrator’s confidence that progress cannot be permanently reversed. It answers the apparent triumph of forces defending the past.
Quick check
What does the narrator say must accompany labor as an obligation?
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