Summary of chapters 5.3.8-5.5.1:

While Valjean is at a loss for what to do, someone lays a hand on his shoulder—a man is before him who Valjean recognizes as Thénardier but who does not recognize Valjean. Thénardier says, “Go halves,” which means he wants what Marius has in his pockets in exchange for the key out of the sewer, which Thénardier previously got. Thénardier, assuming Valjean has killed Marius and wants to get rid of the body, gives him a rope (to tie to the body and to a stone to sink it in the river), and Valjean searches his pockets for money to give Thénardier for passage out. Thénardier surreptitiously tears a piece of Valjean’s coat off to help him locate the man at some future time, takes the small amount of money Valjean has found; Valjean gets the key and leaves the sewer. He puts Marius down on a beach and confirms he is still breathing. Javert appears behind them—Hugo tells the reader that Thénardier’s previous pursuer was Javert, who has followed him and found Valjean instead. Valjean says he will do whatever Javert wants if he will be permitted to carry Marius home to his family. Javert examines Marius and says he is already dead, but Valjean hands Javert the note from Marius’ pocketbook and they both get Marius into a carriage and drive off with him toward M. Gillenormand’s house. When they arrive, Javert calls out that Marius is there, tells the porter Marius is dead, and the servants carry Marius inside. Valjean asks another favor of Javert—to let him first go home before he is taken away, and Javert permits it. They head toward No. 7, Rue de l’Homme Armé in silence. Valjean, Hugo tells us, wants only to tell Cosette everything that has happened and where Marius is. Hugo further says that suicide, despite all Valjean has been through, is impossible to him. Javert allows Valjean to go up into the residence alone, and when Valjean looks out his window upstairs, Javert is gone. At M. Gillenormand’s house, Marius has been taken to a cot and examined by a doctor, then, when it is confirmed his heart still beats, his wounds are dressed. Marius has not received any interior wounds—a bullet was stopped short by the pocketbook, some bones are dislocated, he has sword cuts on his arms, his head has some wounds, but he appears mostly fine. As the doctor is examining and cleaning Marius, his grandfather, M. Gillenormand, come into the room. He is told Marius has been to the barricade and is wounded, and he asks if Marius is dead; thinking he is dead, M. Gillenormand launches into both cursing Marius for his foolishness and reminiscing on his childhood and the joy he brought him. At this moment, Marius raises his eyes and looks at his grandfather, who blesses him, then faints. Javert, meanwhile, walks away from the Rue de l’Homme Armé with his head down and hands behind his back for the first time in his life. He is deeply troubled and wanders through the streets toward the Seine, reflecting, as “there had been a new thing, a revolution, a catastrophe in the depths of his being; and there was matter for self-examination.” His mind is troubled; he feels duty growing weaker in his conscience as two strands of possibility tug at him: he could owe life to Valjean and let him go free, or he could give up his pursuit of him, having willingly let him go free. Neither choice is permissible to Javert and he finds his conscience at war with his duty to society. He feels certain he should return to Valjean’s home and arrest him but cannot, as his thoughts turn to Valjean’s generosity toward himself and he feels a degree of respect for Valjean. Javert is compelled, in his reflections, to acknowledge that this monster exists— “a beneficent malefactor, a compassionate convict […] saving him who had stricken him […] nearer the angels than men.” He feels his code of honor and duty fading away, sees “the fearful rising of an unknown moral sun,” and realizes there must indeed be exceptions to rules and that kindness exists in the world. Because a convict could be kind to him, and he could be kind to a convict, Javert thinks himself depraved and a horror to himself; he thinks of God as superior even to the highest of prefects and cannot understand himself or endure these new contradictions. Javert goes into the post of policemen nearby and writes “some observations for the benefit of the service,” signs his name, and leaves the page for the administration. Then, he goes back out to the quai of the Seine, where the whirlpool of rapids churns below with the dark sky above, he looks up into that black sky, remains motionless for a while, takes off his hat and lays it on the edge of the quai, and steps off the platform and into the Seine. Some time after these events, Hugo says, Boulatruelle (a laborer of Montfermeil who had long hoped to find money in the ground at the foot of a tree) has had a vivid emotion. After having been picked up with the rest of Thénardier’s bandits, had one day seen a man among the trees whom he vaguely recognized. He doesn’t know exactly who the man is, but remembers he had come to Montfermeil before, on foot, and thinks of the treasure he connects to that man. Boulatruelle follows this man, loses sight of him, and when he finds where the man had been, he has vanished, apparently having taken whatever treasure was in the hole under the plate of zinc there.

Questions for 5.5.1:

1. What do you think will become of the treasure this man has taken from the foot of the tree?
2. Did you have a favorite line or passage from this chapter? If so, what made it stand out to you?
3. Were there any instances of figurative language you thought added to the narrative of this chapter?
4. Do you have any other comments or questions about this chapter?

Final line:

"Robber!" cried Boulatruelle, showing both fists to the horizon.

Previous discussion

Previous summary

[New weekly spoiler thread up tomorrow.]

Don't forget to vote/ check out the possible reading subreddits for 2020!