Personal Narrative Essay: Redemption In A Softball Team

Alexis Peppars Peppars 1
Mrs. Starmer
Senior Humanities
28th November 2012
Redemption
Softball isn’t just a sport, it’s a passion. Last year, in a softball game, I tripped and cause us to get all three outs. My team, as well as my coach, was very upset. As a consequence, I sat the next two innings out. Sitting alone and thinking about how my mistake could cost us the game, I felt as though I needed to prove to my team that I didn’t mean to and that I could help get the game back. I finally convinced my coach to let me back in the game. An inning had gone by I still hadn’t proven myself. I was getting nervous. Bottom of the ninth, my chance came. Playing shortstop, a ground ball was headed straight for me. I caught it, and threw it to first. First then through it to third, and I tagged the runner coming from second base. A triple play! We were three points ahead and had won the game. I had such a feeling of self-accomplishment and pride. I had proven to the team that I was a
valuable player. In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, the main character, Jean Valjean, is a criminal. He isn’t as bad as he is made out to be. Throughout the book, he proves this by redeeming himself. In the beginning, Valjean steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving family and is thrown in the galleys. He escapes and ends up at the house of the bishop. Valjean, looking for refuge for the night, is taken in by the bishop. In the middle of the night, Jean Valjean steals the bishop’s silver plates and escapes into the night. Later in the story Valjean is caught for stealing the plates. When brought to the bishop’s house, the bishop says that he gave Valjean and says that he forgot the candle sticks. The bishop tells him to use the silver for good. Before departing, the bishop tells Valjean, “forget not, never forget, that you have promised me to use this silver to become and honest man.” (34) He redeems himself by keeping his promise to the bishop by opening a factory to create jobs so people can make an honest living. He then lives as an honest man as mayor of M__Sur__M. This is not the only way Jean Valjean proves he is an honest man.
Jean Valjean lived as mayor and helped better the lives of many people. His true test of character comes when an honest worker, Champmathieu, is wrongly accused of being the criminal, Jean Valjean. Valjean battles with himself about giving himself up as Jean Valjean for the freedom of an innocent man. Three convicts identify, so to speak, Champmathieu as Jean Valjean. Valjean thinks it over a long while weather it is worth it or not to come clean and save this man. Valjean goes to Champmathieu’s court hearing and sits, listening with a heavy heart until the closing arguments. Jean Valjean then stands up and tells the three convicts to “look this way.” He then admits to being the real Jean Valjean. “Do you not recognize me,” he asks. (116) Valjean continues to redeem himself and keep his promise to the bishop of being an honest man. He does this by sacrificing his freedom for that of an innocent
man. Not everything we do in life, or that is done is book, is intentionally done for redemption. There are some things that are done intentionally, but not always is it consciously redemption. Such as lying then telling the truth, or hitting someone and apologizing. Jean Valjean doesn’t do something and then find a way to make it better to get out of it. He makes it better because he is growing and changing. He was once a criminal and over time, by growing as a person and helping others, became an honest, wholehearted, gentleman to society. Not everything needs an alterior motive to make you do something. To truly redeem yourself, you need to do it to make yourself feel better about yourself; Even if it’s something as simple as sacrificing two seconds of your day to say sorry for bumping into someone in the hallway. You made them smile, and you made yourself feel better.