[He is well-acquainted with the dark writhing underbelly of mankind. He had been been crushed beneath the weight of man's laws as a beetle is crushed beneath the weight of man's heel. The indignity of a galley slave's life had carved him down to the bone until all that remained of him was hatred, resentment, and a flight instinct - a honed network of ligaments and muscles contained within a hardened shell.]
I did not say that men were incorruptible.
[He has beheld man at his most corrupt. Yet they have a capacity for good equal to their capacity for wickedness. In his experience, men are corrupted by the acts of society and purified by the acts of individuals.
As Kagari teeters into cruelty, that last refuge of a man abandoned by society, Jean Valjean holds his words steady and his manner patient, even as he brow furrows for what he sees and hears. From that one question, he can patch together the larger picture.]
So from such a young age, one might be accused of a crime he has not yet committed. A crime he may never commit, but possibility is as punishable as guilt. Is that truly so?
no subject
I did not say that men were incorruptible.
[He has beheld man at his most corrupt. Yet they have a capacity for good equal to their capacity for wickedness. In his experience, men are corrupted by the acts of society and purified by the acts of individuals.
As Kagari teeters into cruelty, that last refuge of a man abandoned by society, Jean Valjean holds his words steady and his manner patient, even as he brow furrows for what he sees and hears. From that one question, he can patch together the larger picture.]
So from such a young age, one might be accused of a crime he has not yet committed. A crime he may never commit, but possibility is as punishable as guilt. Is that truly so?