Les Miserables Reflections Reflection Entry #1 It is often the case that the opening lines of a book set the

keynote for the whole. Here, it is the Bishop of Digne who sets the spiritual keynote for Les Misrables. A truly good man or woman is one of the most difficult characters for a writer to portray convincingly. Notice that in describing the bishop, Hugo does not simply tell us "This man is a saint." Instead, he introduces him to us gradually and lets us form our own conclusions. We learn first what people say about his past. Then we see him in action, giving away his palace and his income; and we hear him speak simply and wisely to his parishioners, gaily to his sister, wittily to the great. In Chapters 5-9, we penetrate further into his private life and learn that he lives as unpretentiously in his bedroom as he does in public, and that his sister and servant love and revere him even more than his parishioners. To add more conviction still to this straightforward account, Hugo lets us read at firsthand the bishop's personal budget and his sister's letter to an old friend, and subjects him to two difficult tests: a test of courage with Cravatte, the thief, a test of charity with G., the conventionist. And when, finally, we are given a glimpse of his inner thoughts, we are not surprised at the radiance we find there. This was what i was able to ponder upon for the first few chapters of the book. It was really well thought out and well organized and reflects clearly what happened at the time in which it was written. Reflection Entry #2 Hugo pauses in his story to give a long description of the convent in whose garden Jean Valjean now finds himself: its founding, its inhabitants, its activities, even the colors in which its walls are painted. In the chapter following, he gives his own personal views on the subject of monastic institutions. Because, according to the tenets of realism, environment is one of the most important factors in forming character, a detailed description of the character's environment is common. Hugo had all the details he gives us here about convent life from Juliette Drouet; they are all accurate, and for someone interested in convent life, even fascinating. But fifty pages of convent is, for the ordinary reader, far too much. Hugo does have two practical aims, however, in discussing the convent at length. He wants us to understand thoroughly this atmosphere, which will add its gift of humility to the charity Bishop Myriel taught Jean Valjean and which for so many years will protect Cosette's innocence while not depriving her entirely of feminine mischief such as eating forbidden fruit (the orchard apples and pears) and reading forbidden books (the Rules of St. Benedict.) He also, in an age when a single church and a Divine Monarchy still vie for French loyalty with an irreligious democracy, wishes to state his position on the religious question. Hugo as a modern man finds convents unnatural and unproductive, but as a poet, he cannot help admiring the sublimity of the monastic sacrifice. And if the convent stultifies, so does pure materialism: there is no Progress without an Ideal. What he himself would prefer is a more active, a more secular form of salvation, the striving for social utopia. Reflection Entry#3 In an epic description that perhaps may owe something to Dante's Inferno, Hugo now introduces us to the world that lies even below that of Les Misrables the lowest depths of the criminal poor. The study of criminal life fascinated many nineteenth-century authors. Balzac has several novels in which the master criminal Vautrin appears; Dickens has his Fagin; and a number of popular French authors like Eugene Su made adventures in the underworld their stock in trade. Like most nineteenth-century reformers, Hugo is an environmentalist that is, he believes that man is, on balance, naturally inclined to good, and that the evil in him is a product of his treatment by society. Crime, he says at the end of Chapter 2, will vanish with enlightenment. However, Hugo the writer is wiser than Hugo the theoretician, and in Book VIII he will invalidate everything he has said in Book VII by showing us a man whose criminality is not the result of his environment, and who is villainous as naturally as he breathes.

Reflection Entry#4 Skillfully, Hugo here begins to draw all his characters together toward the climax of the revolution. Not all will be on the same side: Javert, for instance, will be there as a police officer, and Valjean as an angel of mercy; and even among the revolutionaries motivations will differ widely. Marius will fling himself into it because he has lost the only thing in life he cares about; M. Mabeuf because he simply cannot afford to go on living; and even among the Friends of the A.B.C., the emotions are not entirely political. This only adds to the realism of the events, however, and to the credibility of their actions. In French, a climax is known as a noeud, or knot, and the denouement is the untying of that knot. Hugo in the last two parts has given us an excellent example of the aptness of the term. At the beginning of Part Three, the lives of most of the characters of Les Misrables were single threads scattered all over Paris and its nearby villages. Thnardier with his colonel at Waterloo, Cosette and Marius, Enjolras and Gavroche all appeared to have nothing whatever to do with one another. Gradually Hugo has tied these threads together, knotting Marius and Cosette together by Eponine, Valjean and Javert by Thnardier, Gavroche and M. Gillenormand through the little lost boys. Now he throws a final loop about them and, like the fine dramatist he is, draws them all gently toward a common center.

Reflection Entry #5 At the end of the day, here is what I have to say about the book Les Miserables. At its core, Les Miserables is about t h desperate struggle of people to make ends meet, of those who look down" upon the les miserables as street scum unworthy of their attention and of the all too few people who do care. Those few cared enough to sacrifice their own lives in a battle they know they cannot win in order to bring a new world that will rise up like the sun. And, when you think about it, these issues are just as relevant today as in 19th century France. There is still poverty, still too many who judges the poor and repressed and too few who care enough to try to bring change. Think about the recent violence in the Islamic word, at its simplest, isnt it about the exact same thing: The struggle for a better life, for freedom, brotherhood and equality? The student revolutions were endemic at the time, just as revolts in the Islamic nations are today. We like to think how much better the modern world is, but is it really?

Editorial in Health IV

Submitted by: Marina Cachero IV - Macapagal

Youth violence is one of the most mentioned and discussed problem in most city and schools around the country. This has received increased public attention since the rash of school shootings and violent acts that have occurred in recent years. It is a topic that is of great importance in class and course reading since school counselors should be well informed so that they will be prepared in dealing with these children involved in the violent acts. Violence among youth, especially in schools, is one of societys most pressing concerns. It is a source of controversy all over the country because there is no set reason blamed for this change in our youth. It is not a problem only seen in one or two regions. Youth violence is a global concern. Among the reasons given for youth violence is lax parenting. But, some of the students guilty of violent crimes are from, apparently, stable families with both parents intact. True, some are from broken homes, where grandparents or other relatives act as surrogates for absentee parents. It is also a fact that the economic challenges of the modern society places tremendous stress on some parents, who focus more on the challenges of making financial ends meet and less on discipline within the family. There needs to be a collective effort to influence and perpetuate socially acceptable behavior to deter violence among the youth. As the situation worsens, it will truly take a cohesive community to stem the problem and create a society where young people are not a threat to themselves and others.

Submitted by: Kim Carlo Uy.

Youth Violence has become a very wide spread epidemic, many people have different views on the cause which is making these kids become violent. Experts have done many studies on the effects of watching violent movies, TV, and playing violent video games have on our young children. The types of families these kids come from are different walks of life that affect the way kids act towards other people and themselves. Violent kids do so many different crimes that really affect peoples lives forever. The age bracket kids become violent, and types of crimes they do is just appalling. Its in everyones best interest to combat youth violence, because kids are hurting and torturing others kids and it needs to stop. Youth that watch violent movies have a greater tendency to show more aggressive behavior and thoughts than youth that do not. Randomized experiments reveal that exposure to media violence can cause immediate increases in aggressive thoughts and tolerance for aggression in both children and older youth. At the end of the day, the answer lies in the problem, Media. We can either make it beneficial or destructive depending on how we use it.

Submitted by: Keno Clem Groyon

It has been recognized that children who are continuously being exposed to violent images in the media tend to incorporate the ideas behind violence in their learning process. The phenomenon of violence is also very complex and there are many factors that can or cannot induce violent behavior in a human being. Many people have suggested that the individuals' personalities, their family backgrounds, their cultural, educational, and religious implications, all contribute to acts of violence. It is believed that children learn from things that happen around them and also by observing people who are important to them, e.g. parents, teachers, priests etc. This is because children start to develop a sense of themselves and others and a sense of right and wrong very early. Children who are raised in a society where inequality is supported, they find more evidence of selfishness, competition and domination, they are more likely to grow up to be violent people. From this we can derive the fact that children are more likely to be exposed to violent material in the media if they are not supervised properly and are not guided properly. Many researches have contributed to this as realizations have been made that prolonged exposure to violence and anti-social behavior in the media to children causes them to be more involved in the use of alcohol and drugs. Even though it has been said that there is a very positive relationship between violence in a person and violence that he/she has been exposed to in the media. There are many other factors that also have to be considered when viewing the exact effect of violence in media on a child or a person. Although almost everyone would agree that children who view violence in media might turn out to be violent in their real lives, this cannot be the only factor that must be considered when drawing such a conclusion.