如何評價尚萬強/冉阿讓（Jean Valjean）

其實我想談的是尚萬強被主教救贖的那一刻。但如果有人要談其他東西也可以。

尚萬強在服刑結束的那段，你能看出尚萬強是恨整個體制，恨這惡法，甚至憎恨整個世界的。他在一路上碰碰撞撞，想找工作卻因為身分證上被註明極度危險，在多次被拒絕後，走投無路街上幾近餓死。路人把他拉起，指引他可以去找主教(Bishop Myriel)。主教不厭惡他的骯髒，也不害怕他的危險，和善的與他共進晚餐。尚萬強卻在餐後偷取銀器被捕，卻反而獲得主教的原諒。主教甚至說：「是我的錯，這些銀器本來就是屬於你們窮人的。」

尚萬強離去後內心交戰，唱了一首歌：

What have I done? 
Sweet Jesus, what have I done? 
Become a thief in the night, 
Become a dog on the run 
Have I fallen so far, 
And is the hour so late 
That nothing remains but the cry of my hate, 
The cries in the dark that nobody hears, 
Here where I stand at the turning of the years? 

If there's another way to go 
I missed it twenty long years ago 
My life was a war that could never be won 
They gave me a number and murdered Valjean 
When they chained me and left me for dead 
Just for stealing a mouthful of bread 

Yet why did I allow that man 
To touch my soul and teach me love? 
He treated me like any other 
He gave me his trust 
He called me brother 
My life he claims for God above 
Can such things be? 
For I had come to hate the world 
This world that always hated me 

Take an eye for an eye! 
Turn your heart into stone! 
This is all I have lived for! 
This is all I have known! 

One word from him and I'd be back 
Beneath the lash, upon the rack 
Instead he offers me my freedom 
I feel my shame inside me like a knife 
He told me that I have a soul, 
How does he know? 
What spirit comes to move my life? 
Is there another way to go? 

I am reaching, but I fall 
And the night is closing in 
And I stare into the void 
To the whirlpool of my sin 
I'll escape now from the world 
From the world of Jean Valjean 
Jean Valjean is nothing now 
Another story must begin!

這一段可以看出，他原本是相信原始叢林道德，但在真正邁進深淵的那一步（已經邁出去了，因為他已經偷了）之後，尚萬強被主教拉回來。

Take an eye for an eye!  
Turn your heart into stone!  
This is all I have lived for!  
This is all I have known!  

尚萬強若是沒有受到救贖，他原本會怎麼思考呢？大概是這樣吧：「反正這些有錢人都是從我們窮人身上剝削。」之類的難懂的話，也就不會有後來的尚萬強了。Fantine也不會獲得救贖，Fauchelevent會死於馬車之下，Cosette會被虐待甚至被賣掉成為妓女。

額外補充：
救贖觀與修行觀- 價值隨筆