although fantine is naïve, she is not ignorant; she came from the gutter, after all. she’s had to fight for a comfortable life; to rise from the slums, to make some kind of living for herself, and as such, she’s taken it into her own hands –– at ten, she went to work on a farm, at fifteen, she walked to paris. somewhere in between she took up sewing, and begun to find a means to support herself, all culminating in her transformation (a metamorphosis, of sorts) from gamine to grisette. by the time we meet her, she is two years a mother and seemingly has her life in control (although, as we’ll soon learn, that’s not exactly the case). she’s fought so hard to live a life with some semblance of comfort and she finally has it, achieved by her own means and accomplishments –– it’s all she could have ever dreamed of, really, and in a way, it’s the first thing that’s truly hers. she takes matters into her own hands again following her abandonment, returning to her hometown in order to continue providing for not only herself, but for cosette, as well. hell, even the book itself says she had the “the fierce bravery of life” within her, that she was vaguely aware that she could fall back into a life in the slums. she’s seen enough of life –– of both its joys and its horrors –– to know better than to just sit around and wait for something to happen. her true detriment, i think, is that she’s an idealist... painfully so.
