Blog 1 Les Mis

One scene that I was really interested in was when Jean Valjean is in the church after stealing the silver and being caught.  The reason for this is the many layers of communication ethics that take place.  One is the relationship between the pastor and Jean, another is the soldiers and the pastor and with Jean.  The Pastor is really the one man that truly has to navigate the many layers, since he even has one more level of communication and morals that he needs to adhere to, his communication and relationship with God and the church.  What struck me though was how little all of this mattered to the pastor as he quickly agreed to the lie in order to save Jean, even adding more to his loot.  In this class we are going to study many of the motivations behind peoples choices on how, when, and what to say when they speak and how to follow some basic ethical rules.  Yet the Pastor quickly and almost seamlessly passed through these levels and thoughts in order to save Jean's life.

The Pastor has to take many factors into account when he is making this snap decision.  His moral code with God, (whether to lie or condemn a man to slavery or death, a decision difficult within itself), then their is his responsibilities to the social contract that he has when living in France (basically to adhere to its laws, and not harbor a criminal) and finally his own personal code of morals and ethics.  In the end while the decision can be broadened to all of these aspects, the one that I think truly chose to guide him was his relationship with God, since a mans life is more valuable that the loaf of bread (in this case the silver) he steals to feed his family.  As long as the pastor says and I am paraphrasing from the movie here that he uses the silver to become a new more honorable man.  In the end this scene is amazing to me, since we see how one mans navigation of communication ethics can drastically change someones life, and that at times the choices we make hold that power, so it is important to act in the best possible way.