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Why Jean Valjean Died Copito the albino gorilla died from excessive sun exposure— who can slather sunscreen on a five hundred pound gorilla? And that’s not a joke. Copito de Nieve’s name meant Snowflake, and he was white as a melon rind; no, not really, just his skin peeking through his white fur looked like that. Overall, he looked like an old man wearing a polar bear suit: shaggy, loose, yellowed in spots, wrinkled, yet majestic. It was Victor Hugo who said that wrinkles coupled with happiness are adorable, his Miserables scouring Paris looking for grace. Copito lived in Barcelona, a one of a kind, and until very old age, well past what he would have in the wild. Jean Valjean struggled his whole life to make up for stealing a loaf of bread. He spent nineteen years in the galleys of fictional France and then lived for the talisman of silver candlesticks. They say no two snowflakes are ever alike, but I think, in their essence, aren’t they all the same? The sun is their enemy. Copito died of skin cancer; Jean Valjean died because he had nothing left to conceal.
Laura McCullough | Mudlark No. 32 |