resisting les miserables

Throughout the book so far, i have found myself resisting the text several times. this book is very emotional and very difficult to read sometimes. because this book takes place in the 1800s in France, this plot is very foreign to me. but the main reason i resist this book is because of the injustice. in the book there is a young working woman named Fantine who was in love with a man named Felix Tholomyes. Fantines friends were paired with Felix's friends and Fantine was pregnant with Felix's child. later all of them left Fantine, they left her to take care of the child alone. Fantine leaves her daughter with a family, the Thenardiers, and pays them to take care of her daughter, Cosette. the Thenardiers abuse Cosette and use her as a servant of the house. this is really where i began to resist the text. madame thernadier loved her own two daughters, she spent time with them and cared for them. As for Cosette, she was hated, beaten and forced to work. Cosette was given a tiny place to sleep in while the two daughters of the thernadiers were given much more luxury. the Thernadier daughters, Azelma and Eponine, were just like their mother, cruel and unkind to Cosette. and M. Thernadier demands more money from Fantine to "take care" of Cosette. by the time Cosette is five years old she had to sweep every room, the street, wash the dishes and carry heavy loads. all this work had made her thin and pale. "injustice made her sullen, misery made her ugly, only her eyes were beautiful, but they were painful to look at. large as they were they seemed to increase with sadness." and in the winter this poor child, shivering in her thin dress, not yet six years old, sweeping with a large broom, her hands red and her eyes filled with tears. this was Cosette. she was called the lark. "no larger than a bird, trembling, frightened, shivering, first to wake every morning in the house and the village, always in the street or fields before dawn. except that poor lark never sang." this particular quote makes the book difficult to read. Cosette is so innocent, shes still practically a baby. A young child being abused by a family that is not her own, she probably doesnt remember her mother. and her mother doesnt even know that this is how her daughter is being treated. this sense of not knowing is also a difficult part of the book. if only Fantine knew what was happening. Fantine is struggling to make money for her daughter, because the man she loved left her. she was fired from her job and forced into prostitution, just so that her daughter could be cared for, but even that is not happening.  I cant even begin to imagine what it must be like. the way that victor hugo describes the situation with Cosette and Fantine makes me resist this book. its heart-breaking to read about the misery of these characters. but there are people out there in our world who are much less fortunate than us. unfortunately life is not just.