# The Malicious Playfulness of the Wind explained — Les Misérables

> Chapter companion for Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

## What happens

The Thénardiers, burdened by debt and having two more sons, arrange with Magnon to secretly give her their youngest boys in exchange for ten francs a month, as Magnon had lost her own children to croup and needs replacements to keep receiving support from M. Gillenormand. Years later, after a police raid captures Magnon, the two boys are left homeless and wander the streets, losing the address that was meant to guide them.

## Themes in this chapter

### Social Injustice and Poverty

The Thénardiers' poverty drives them to sell their own children, and the boys are ultimately abandoned to the streets, illustrating how destitution corrupts family bonds.

### The Human Condition and Fate

The children's fate is sealed by a gust of wind that tears away their only guide, symbolizing the random cruelty of life for the poor.

## Character check-ins

### Thénardier

Arranges to give away his two youngest sons to Magnon for profit, justifying the act with a cynical reference to Rousseau.

### Madame Thénardier

Feels a brief scruple about abandoning her children but is easily persuaded by her husband.

### The Magnon

Takes the Thénardier boys to replace her own deceased children, receiving monthly payments from M. Gillenormand and paying Thénardier a fee.

### M. Gillenormand

Unknowingly continues to support the substituted children, visiting them every six months without noticing the change.

### Gavroche

Mentioned as one of the Thénardier children who barely had time to discover his younger brothers before they were given away.

### Éponine

Mentioned as having handed a note to Magnon relating to the Rue Plumet.

## Key lines

> “But this is abandoning our children!” Thénardier, masterful and phlegmatic, cauterized the scruple with this saying: “Jean Jacques Rousseau did even better!”

When Madame Thénardier protests that they are abandoning their children, Thénardier dismisses her guilt by claiming that even the famous philosopher Rousseau did worse.

_Highlights Thénardier's cynical rationalization of child abandonment._

> At the corner of the Rue Clocheperce, a gust of wind tore it from him, and as night was falling, the child was not able to find it again. They began to wander aimlessly through the streets.

A gust of wind snatches the address paper from the elder boy's cold fingers, and with night falling, they cannot retrieve it, leaving them to wander the streets without direction.

_The wind's malicious playfulness seals the children's abandonment, giving the chapter its title._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters/i-the-malicious-playfulness-of-the-wind
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters