Here, again, some questions must be put, which we have already put to ourselves elsewhere: did he catch some shadow of all this in his thought, in a confused way? misfortune certainly, as we have said, does form the education of the intelligence; nevertheless, it is doubtful whether jean valjean was in a condition to disentangle all that we have here indicated. if these ideas occurred to him, he but caught glimpses of, rather than saw them, and they only succeeded in throwing him into an unutterable and almost painful state of emotion. on emerging from that black and deformed thing which is called the galleys, the bishop had hurt his soul, as too vivid a light would have hurt his eyes on emerging from the dark. the future life, the possible life which offered itself to him henceforth, all pure and radiant, filled him with tremors and anxiety. he no longer knew where he really was. like an owl, who should suddenly sees the sun rise, the convict had been dazzled and blinded, as it were, by virtue.

that which was certain, that which he did not doubt, was that he was no longer the same man, that everything about him was changed, that it was no longer in his power to make it as though the bishop had not spoken to him and had not touched him.

in this state of mind he had encountered little gervais, and had robbed him of his forty sous. why? he certainly could not have explained it; was this the last effect and the supreme effort, as it were, of the evil thoughts which he had brought away from the galleys,—a remnant of impulse, a result of what is called in statics, acquired force? it was that, and it was also, perhaps, even less than that. let us say it simply, it was not he who stole; it was not the man; it was the beast, who, by habit and instinct, had simply placed his foot upon that money, while the intelligence was struggling amid so many novel and hitherto unheard-of thoughts besetting it.
how does following quotation from the first paragraph of the excerpt use vivid imagery to develop jean valjean's character?

"like an owl, who should suddenly sees the sun rise, the convict had been dazzled and blinded, as it were, by virtue."
a) the use of figurative language signifies the shift in the author's tone in reference to valjean's character.
b) by comparing valjean to an owl, the author is symbolizing his desire to change & escape the darkness of life.
c) the contrast of light and dark makes the reader think valjean will begin a life of crime, different from the virtuous man he was.
d) like the owl, valjean has begun to commit his crimes at night.