"Germinal", an artistic analysis of the novel by Emile Zola. "Germinal", an artistic analysis of the novel by Emile Zola Passion for revolutionary ideas

Mechanic Etienne Lantier, expelled from the railway for slapping his boss, is trying to get a job in the mine of the Monsou company, which is near the town of Vore, in the village of Dvuhsot Soroka. There are no jobs anywhere, the miners are starving. A place for him in the mine was found only because on the eve of his arrival in Vora, one of the haulers died. The old slaughterer Mahe, whose daughter Katrina works with him in the mine as a second hauler, takes Lantier into his team.

The work is unbearably difficult, and fifteen-year-old Katrina looks perpetually haggard. Mahe, his son Zakharia, artel workers Levak and Chaval work, lying either on their backs or on their sides, squeezing through a shaft barely half a meter wide: the coal seam is thin. In the slaughter unbearable stuffiness. Katrina and Etienne are pushing the carts. On the very first day, Etienne decides to leave Vore: this daily hell is not for him. In front of his eyes, the company's management smashes the miners for not caring about their own safety. The silent slavery of the miners amazes him.

Only the look of Katrina, the memory of her make him stay in the village for some more time. The Mahe live in unimaginable poverty. They are always indebted to the shopkeeper, they do not have enough for bread, and Maheu's wife has no choice but to go with the children to the Piolena estate, owned by the landowners Gregoires. Gregoires, co-owners of the mines, sometimes help the poor. The owners of the estate discover all signs of degeneration in Mahe and her children and, having handed her a pair of old children's dresses, they teach a lesson in frugality. When a woman asks for a hundred sous, she is refused: serving is not in the Gregoire rules.

Children, however, are given a piece of bread. In the end, Mahe manages to soften the shopkeeper Megr - in response to a promise to send Katrina to him. While the men work in the mine, the women prepare dinner, a stew of sorrel, potatoes, and leeks; the Parisians, who came to inspect the mines and get acquainted with the life of the miners, are touched by the generosity of the mine owners, who give the workers such cheap housing and supply all the mining families with coal.

Washing becomes one of the holidays in a mining family: once a week, the whole Mahe family, without hesitation, takes turns dipping into a barrel of warm water and changing into clean clothes. Mahe then indulges with his wife, calling his only entertainment "free dessert". Meanwhile, Katrina is harassed by the young Chaval: remembering her love for Etienne, she resists him, but not for long. In addition, Chaval bought her a ribbon. He possessed Katrina in a barn outside the village.

Etienne gradually gets used to work, to comrades, even to the rough simplicity of local customs: he now and then comes across lovers walking behind the dump, but Etienne believes that young people are free. Only the love of Katrina and Chaval outrages him - he is unconsciously jealous. Soon he meets the Russian machinist Suvarin, who lives next door to him. Souvarine avoids talking about himself, and Étienne does not soon find out that he is dealing with a populist socialist.

After fleeing Russia, Souvarine got a job at the company. Etienne decides to tell him about his friendship and correspondence with Plushard, one of the leaders of the labor movement, the secretary of the northern federation of the newly created International in London. Souvarine is skeptical about the International and Marxism: he believes only in terror, in revolution, in anarchy, and calls for burning cities, destroying the old world by all means. Etienne, on the contrary, dreams of organizing a strike, but it needs money - a mutual benefit fund that would allow him to hold out at least for the first time.

In August, Etienne moves to live with Mahe. He tries to captivate the head of the family with his ideas, and Mahe seems to begin to believe in the possibility of justice, but his wife immediately reasonably objects that the bourgeoisie will never agree to work like miners, and all talk of equality will forever remain nonsense. Mahe's ideas about a just society come down to the desire to live properly, and this is not surprising - the company is fined workers with might and main for non-compliance with safety regulations and is looking for any excuse to cut wages. Another pay cut is the perfect excuse to go on strike.

The head of the Mahe family, receiving a godlessly reduced salary, is also reprimanded for talking about politics with his tenant - rumors have already circulated about this. Toussaint Maheu, an old miner, is only enough to nod fearfully. He himself is ashamed of his own stupid obedience. The cry of poverty echoes throughout the village.

At the new site where the Mahe family works, it becomes more and more dangerous - either an underground source will hit in the face, or the layer of coal will be so thin that you can move in the mine only by peeling off your elbows. Soon, the first collapse in Etienne's memory occurs, in which the youngest son of Mahe, Jeanlin, broke both legs. Etienne and Mahe understand that there is nothing more to lose: only the worst lies ahead. It's time to strike.

On behalf of the miners, Etienne begins to speak - he alone is able to argue with Enbo. Étienne finally directly threatens that sooner or later the workers will be forced to resort to other measures in order to defend their lives. The board of mines refuses to make concessions, which finally hardens the miners. The whole village is running out of money, but Etienne is convinced that the strike must be held to the last. Plushard promises to come to Vora and help with money, but hesitates.

At last Étienne waited for him. The miners gather for a meeting with the widow Desir. The owner of the tavern, Rasner, is in favor of ending the strike, but the miners tend to trust Étienne more. Plushard, considering strikes to be too slow a means of struggle, takes the floor and urges all the same to continue the strike. The police commissioner with four gendarmes appears to forbid the meeting, but, warned by the widow, the workers manage to disperse in time. Plushard promised to send the allowance. The company's board, meanwhile, decided to fire the most stubborn strikers and those who were considered instigators.

Arriving in Jean Barthes, workers from Monsou begin to cut ropes - by doing this they force the miners to leave the mines. Katrina and Chaval, who live and work in Jean-Bart, also go upstairs. A fight breaks out between strikers and strikebreakers. The management of the company calls the police and the army - dragoons and gendarmes. In response, the workers begin to destroy the mines. The uprising is gaining momentum, spreading like fire through the mines.

With the singing of the Marseillaise, the crowd goes to Mons, to the board. Enbo is lost. The miners rob Megr's shop, who died while trying to save his property. Chaval brings the gendarmes, and Katrina barely has time to warn Étienne so that he does not get caught by them. This winter, police and soldiers are deployed in all the mines, but work is not resumed anywhere. The strike covers more and more mines. Etienne finally waited for a direct clash with the traitor Chaval, for whom Katrina had long been jealous, and won: Chaval was forced to give her up and flee.

Meanwhile, Jeanlin, the youngest of Mahe, although limping on both legs, learned to run quite quickly, rob and shoot with a sling. He was disassembled by the desire to kill the soldier - and he killed him with a knife, jumping like a cat from behind, unable to explain his hatred. Collision of miners with soldiers becomes inevitable. The miners themselves went to bayonets, and although the soldiers were ordered to use their weapons only as a last resort, shots were soon heard. The miners throw mud and bricks at the officers, the soldiers respond with firing and with the very first shots they kill two children: Lydia and Beber.

Killed Mouquette, in love with Etienne, killed Toussaint Mahe. The workers are terribly frightened and depressed. Soon representatives of the authorities from Paris come to Mons. Etienne begins to feel himself the culprit of all these deaths, ruin, violence, and at this moment Rasner again becomes the leader of the miners, demanding reconciliation. Etienne decides to leave the village and meets with Souvarine, who tells him the story of the death of his wife, who was hanged in Moscow. Since then, Souvarine has neither affection nor fear. After listening to this terrible story, Etienne returns home to spend his last night in the village with the Mahe family.

Souvarine, on the other hand, goes to the mine where the workers are going to return, and saws off one of the fasteners of the sheathing that protects the mine from the underground sea - the "Stream". In the morning, Étienne finds out that Katrina is also going to go to the mine. Yielding to a sudden impulse, Etienne goes there with her: love makes him stay one more day in the village. By evening, the current broke through the skin. Soon the water broke through to the surface, exploding everything with its powerful movement. At the bottom of the mine, old Muc, Chaval, Etienne and Katrina remained abandoned. Chest-deep in water, they try to get out into a dry mine, wander in underground labyrinths. This is where the last skirmish between Etienne and Chaval takes place: Etienne cracked the skull of his eternal rival.

Together with Katrina, Etienne manages to scrape out a kind of bench in the wall, on which they sit above the stream rushing along the bottom of the mine. They spend three days underground, waiting for death and not hoping for salvation, but suddenly someone's blows are heard through the thickness of the earth: they make their way to them, they are saved! Here, in the dark, in the mine, on a tiny strip of firmament, Etienne and Katrina merge in love for the first and last time. After that, Katrina is forgotten, and Etienne listens to the approaching tremors: the rescuers have reached them. When they were brought to the surface, Katrina was already dead.

Having recovered, Etienne leaves the village. He says goodbye to the widow Mahe, who, having lost her husband and daughter, goes to work in a mine - a hauler. In all the mines that have recently been on strike, work is in full swing. And the dull blows of the kyle, it seems to Etienne, come from under the blossoming spring earth and accompany his every step.

Emile Zola

GERMINAL

PART ONE

In the thick darkness of a starless night, along the high road from Marchienne to Mons, which ran exactly right between the sugar beet fields for ten kilometers, a traveler walked. He did not even see the land in front of him and only felt that he was walking across an open field: here, in the boundless expanse, the March wind was rushing, like an icy sea squall, completely sweeping the bare earth and swampy swamps. Not a tree was visible against the night sky; a paved road stretched through impenetrable darkness, as if they were in a port.

The traveler left Marchienne at two o'clock. He walked with long strides, wearing a shabby cotton jacket and velvet trousers, shivering from the cold. He was very embarrassed by a small bundle tied in a checkered handkerchief; every now and then he shifted it from one hand to the other, trying to squeeze it under his arm so that it would be easier to put both hands into his pockets, stiff from the east wind and cracked to the point of blood. In the devastated head of this unemployed, homeless man, only one thought stirred, one hope that with the dawn, maybe it would get warmer. He had been walking like this for a whole hour, and now, two kilometers from Monsou, he saw red lights on the left; three braziers with red-hot coals seemed to hang in the air. At first this even frightened the traveler, and he paused; however, he could not overcome the agonizing urge to warm his hands, even for a moment.

The road descended into a hollow. The lights are gone. To the right stretched a wooden fence, behind it was the railroad track; to the left was a slope overgrown with grass; a village with low monotonous tiled roofs stood out vaguely. The traveler walked another two hundred paces. Suddenly the lights reappeared at the turn in front of him. He couldn't understand how they could burn so high in the dark sky, like three misty moons. But at this time another picture attracted his attention: below he saw the crowded buildings; above them rose the silhouette of a factory chimney; faint light flickered here and there in the dimmed windows; Outside, on the scaffolding, five or six lighted lanterns hung bleakly, so that one could barely make out a row of blackened logs that looked like giant goats. From this fantastic bulk, drowning in smoke and darkness, only one sound could be heard - the mighty, drawn-out breathing of an invisible steam engine.

The traveler realized that in front of him were coal mines. He suddenly felt ashamed: was it worth going there? You won't find work there. Instead of heading towards the mine buildings, he climbed the embankment, where coal burned in three cast-iron braziers, illuminating and heating the work site. The workers here had to work until late at night, as coal waste was still supplied from the mines. Here the traveler heard the rumble of trolleys that rolled along the walkways; he could make out silhouettes moving, people unloading coal at every brazier.

Great, - he said, approaching one of the braziers.

There, with his back to the fire, stood the driver, an old man in a purple woolen jersey and a hat of rabbit fur. The big bay horse, as if rooted to the spot, patiently waited for the six wagons it had brought in to be released. A skinny red-haired fellow slowly emptied them, mechanically pressing the lever. And above, the icy wind whistled with redoubled force, sweeping like a sweep of a scythe.

Good, the old man replied.

There was silence. Feeling the incredulous look of the driver, the traveler hurried to give his name.

My name is Etienne Lantier, I'm a mechanic... Is there any work for me here?

The flame illuminated him; he was probably no more than twenty-one years old. Black-haired, handsome, he seemed very strong, despite his small stature.

The driver, reassured by his words, shook his head negatively:

Jobs for a mechanic? No no. Two people came yesterday too. There is nothing.

A gust of wind silenced them. Then Étienne asked, pointing to a dark pile of buildings at the foot of the hill:

It's a mine, isn't it?

The old man could not immediately answer him: he was choked by a strong attack of coughing. At last he coughed, and where the spit had fallen to the ground, a black spot appeared in the reddish reflection of the flame.

Yes, this is the Vore mine ... And here is the village. Look!

And he pointed into the darkness where the village was; the traveler had noticed its tiled roofs before.

But now all six trolleys were empty; the old man silently followed them, with difficulty moving his sick, rheumatic legs. A large bay horse pulled the trolleys without prodding, stepping heavily between the rails; a sudden gust of wind ruffled her fur.

The Vore Mine is no longer a hazy vision. At the brazier, Étienne seemed to have forgotten that he needed to warm his hands, which were chapped to the point of blood. He kept looking and recognizing every detail of the mine: the tarred sorting shed, the tower over the descent into the mine, the large room for the hoist, and the square tower that housed the sump pump. This mine with squat brick buildings, settled in a hollow, putting up a chimney like a formidable horn, seemed to him a lurking insatiable beast, ready to devour the whole world. Continuing to look at everything, he thought about himself, about the fact that for a whole week he had been looking for work and living like a vagabond; he remembered how he worked in the railway workshop, how he slapped the boss, was expelled from Lille, and how he was later expelled from everywhere. On Saturday he came to Marchiennes, where, according to rumors, one could get a job in the ironworks; but there he found nothing either in the factories or at Sonneville, and he had to spend Sunday in the lumberyards at the carriage workshop, hiding behind logs and boards stacked in piles; At two o'clock in the morning he was driven out of there by the watchman. Now he had nothing - not a single sous, not a slice of bread; what will he do, wandering along the high roads, not even knowing where to hide from the cold wind? And so he got to the coal mines; by the light of rare lanterns one could see lumps of mined coal, and through the open door he saw the brightly blazing furnaces of steam boilers. He heard the incessant, relentless puff of the pump, powerful and drawn out, like the stifled breath of a monster.

The workman who unloaded the carts stood hunched over and never looked at Étienne, who stooped to pick up his bundle, which had fallen to the ground. At this time, a cough was heard, announcing the return of the driver. He slowly emerged from the darkness, followed by a bay horse pulling six newly loaded wagons.

Are there factories in Monsou? asked Étienne.

The old man coughed black, and then answered under the whistle of the wind:

There are enough factories here. You should have seen what was being done here three or four years ago! The chimneys smoked, there were not enough workers, people never earned as much as in those days ... And now they had to tighten their bellies again. A real misfortune: workers are counted, workshops are closed one after another ... The emperor, perhaps, is not to blame, but why did he start a war in America? Not to mention that livestock and people are dying from cholera.

The Mahe live in unimaginable poverty. They are always indebted to the shopkeeper, they do not have enough for bread, and Maheu's wife has no choice but to go with the children to the Piolena estate, owned by the landowners Gregoires. Gregoires, co-owners of the mines, sometimes help the poor. The owners of the estate discover all signs of degeneration in Mahe and her children and, having handed her a pair of old children's dresses, teach them a lesson in frugality. When a woman asks for a hundred sous, she is refused: serving is not in the Gregoire rules. Children, however, are given a piece of bread. In the end, Mahe manages to soften the shopkeeper Megr - in response to a promise to send Katrina to him. While the men work in the mine, the women cook dinner, a stew of sorrel, potatoes, and leeks; the Parisians, who came to inspect the mines and get acquainted with the life of the miners, are touched by the generosity of the mine owners, who give the workers such cheap housing and supply all the mining families with coal.

Etienne is gradually getting used to work, to comrades, even to the rough simplicity of local customs: he now and then comes across lovers, but Etienne believes that young people are free. Only the love of Katrina and Chaval revolts him - he is unconsciously jealous. Soon he meets the Russian machinist Suvarin, who lives next door to him. Souvarine avoids talking about himself, and Étienne does not soon find out that he is dealing with a populist socialist. After fleeing Russia, Souvarine got a job at the company. Etienne decides to tell him about his friendship and correspondence with Plushard, one of the leaders of the labor movement, the secretary of the northern federation of the newly created International in London. Souvarine is skeptical about the International and Marxism: he believes only in terror, in revolution, in anarchy, and calls for burning cities, destroying the old world by all means. Etienne, on the contrary, dreams of organizing a strike, but it needs money - a mutual benefit fund that would allow him to hold out at least for the first time.

In August, Etienne moves to live with Mahe. He tries to captivate the head of the family with his ideas, and Mahe seems to begin to believe in the possibility of justice, but his wife immediately reasonably objects that the bourgeoisie will never agree to work like miners, and all talk of equality will forever remain nonsense. Mahe's ideas about a just society come down to the desire to live properly, and this is not surprising - the company is fining workers with might and main for non-compliance with safety regulations and is looking for any excuse to cut wages. Another pay cut is the perfect excuse to go on strike.

The director of the Enbo mines is informed that no one has come to work. Etienne and several of his comrades made up a delegation to negotiate with the hosts. Mahe also entered. Along with him went Pierron, Levak and delegates from other villages. The demands of the miners are insignificant: they insist that they be given an increase in the wage for the trolley by only five sous. Enbo tries to cause a split in the deputation and speaks of someone's vile suggestion, but not a single miner from Monsou is yet a member of the International. On behalf of the miners, Etienne begins to speak - he alone is able to argue with Enbo. The miners gather for a meeting with the widow Desir. The owner of the tavern, Rasner, is in favor of ending the strike, but the miners tend to trust Étienne more. Plushard, considering strikes to be too slow a means of struggle, takes the floor and urges all the same to continue the strike. The police commissioner with four gendarmes appears to forbid the meeting, but the workers warned by the widow manage to disperse in time. Plushard promised to send the allowance. The company's board, meanwhile, decided to fire the most stubborn strikers and those who were considered instigators.

Etienne is gaining more and more influence over the workers. Soon he completely supplants their former leader - the moderate and cunning Rasner, and he predicts the same fate for him over time. An old man named Immortal at the next meeting of miners in the forest recalls how fruitlessly his comrades protested and died half a century ago. The uprising is gaining momentum, spreading like fire through the mines. With the singing of the Marseillaise, the crowd goes to Mons, to the board. Enbo is lost. The miners rob Megr's shop, who died while trying to save his property. Chaval brings the gendarmes, and Katrina barely has time to warn Étienne so that he does not get caught by them. This winter, police and soldiers are deployed in all the mines, but work is not resumed anywhere. The strike covers more and more mines. Etienne finally waited for a direct skirmish with the traitor Chaval, for whom he had long been jealous of Katrina, and won: Chaval was forced to give her up and flee.

Meanwhile, Hanlen, the youngest of Mahe, although limping on both legs, learned to run quite quickly, rob and shoot with a sling. He was disassembled by the desire to kill the soldier - and he killed him with a knife, jumping like a cat from behind, unable to explain his hatred. Collision of miners with soldiers becomes inevitable. The miners themselves went to bayonets, and although the soldiers were ordered to use their weapons only as a last resort, shots were soon heard. The miners throw mud and bricks at the officers, the soldiers respond with firing and with the very first shots they kill two children: Lydia and Beber. Killed Mouquette, in love with Etienne, killed Toussaint Mahe. The workers are scared and depressed. Soon representatives of the authorities from Paris come to Mons. Etienne begins to feel himself the culprit of all these deaths, ruin, violence, and at this moment Rasner again becomes the leader of the miners, demanding reconciliation. Etienne decides to leave the village and meets with Souvarine, who tells him the story of the death of his wife, who was hanged in Moscow. Since then, Souvarine has neither affection nor fear. After listening to this terrible story, Etienne returns home to spend his last night in the village with the Mahe family. Souvarine, on the other hand, goes to the mine where the workers are going to return, and saws off one of the fasteners of the casing that protects the mine from the underground sea - the "stream".

In the morning, Étienne finds out that Katrina is also going to go to the mine. Yielding to a sudden impulse, Etienne goes there with her: love makes him stay one more day in the village. By evening, the water broke through to the surface, exploding everything with its powerful movement. At the bottom of the mine, old Muc, Chaval, Etienne and Katrina remained abandoned. Chest-deep in water, they try to get out into a dry mine, wander in underground labyrinths. This is where the last skirmish between Etienne and Chaval takes place: Etienne cracked the skull of his eternal rival. Here, in the dark, in the mine, on a tiny strip of firmament, Etienne and Katrina merge in love for the first and last time. After that, Katrina is forgotten, and Etienne listens to the approaching tremors: the rescuers have reached them. When they were brought to the surface, Katrina was already dead.

Having recovered, Etienne leaves the village. He says goodbye to the widow Mahe, who, having lost her husband and daughter, goes to work in the mine as a hauler. In all the Shakhty, which have recently been on strike, work is in full swing. And the dull blows of the kyle, it seems to Etienne, come from under the blossoming spring earth and accompany his every step.

During a quarrel with the boss, the mechanic Etienne Lantier slapped him in the face, for which he was immediately fired from the railway. He is trying to get a job at a mine that is owned by Monsu's company. The mine is located near the town of Vore, in the village of Dvuhsot Soroka. But all the miners are starving, there is no work and is not expected. Etienne got a job in the mine only thanks to a tragic accident: before he came to Vore, a hauler died there. Old Man Mahe works as a miner in the mine, along with his daughter Katrina. It was he who offered Lantier a job in his artel.

Katrina, who is only fifteen years old, looks thin and tired from endless hard work. Mahe, together with his son Zakharia and two other artel workers, Levak and Chaval, work in a narrow mine, where the height is no more than half a meter. Because of the thin coal seam, they have to roll over on their backs, then on their sides. Etienne was supposed to push the carts with Katrina. After working like this for a day, Etienne wants to quit this hellish work. He witnessed how the head of the mine scolds the miners for non-compliance with safety rules. The miners are silent, like slaves. This shocks Etienne. But remembering the image of Katrina, he lingers in the village for an indefinite period. The Mahe family is a beggar, constantly borrowing food from the shopkeeper. Mahe's wife had no choice: she took the children and went to the Piolen estate, where the Gregoires live. She had heard that the Grégoires were co-owners of the mines and often helped begging families whose husbands worked in the mine. The owners of the estate had only one look at Mahe and her children to understand that their family was degenerating. They gave the children a pair of old dresses and read a moral. When Mahe asks them for at least a hundred sous, she is refused, since serving is a base thing. But children are treated to a bun. Mahe appeases the shopkeeper Megr by promising him Katrina's friendship. While husbands undermine their health in the mines, and their wives cook a watery soup of sorrel and potatoes: tourists who have come from Paris to this wilderness to gawk at the mines and the life of the miners admire the generosity of those who own the mines. After all, they provide workers with almost free housing and their workers have no shortage of coal!

Every week the Mahe family has a holiday - swimming. On this day, the whole family, not embarrassed by each other, take turns diving into a tank of warm water and changing clothes to clean ones. After that, Mahe retires with his wife in the bedroom - this is his only entertainment. Katrina, meanwhile, is waiting for the molestation of the young and arrogant Chaval. Remembering Etienne, she refuses Chaval - after all, she is in love with a mechanic. But soon yields to his pressure - after he gives her a ribbon. They took refuge in a barn under the village.

Etienne is gradually drawn into a new life, rubs himself against his rude and simple comrades, every now and then he sees how lovers have mercy on the heap, but Etienne believes that free and careless youth are supposed to behave this way. But he is jealous of Katrina to Chaval. Soon he makes a new acquaintance - the Russian machinist Suvarin, who settled in a neighboring house. Souvarine does not really like to talk about himself, and only after some time Etienne learns that his new friend is a populist socialist. He got a job in the company, shortly before that he had escaped from Russia. Then Etienne tries to gain his trust by telling that his pen pal is none other than Plushard. Plushard is one of the leaders of the labor movement in London, and he also holds the position of secretary in the northern federation of the London International. Souvarine does not like the International and Marxism: for him the only true path is terror, revolution, anarchy, and his dream is to destroy the old world by burning entire cities. Etienne's dreams are a little different - he believes that it would be more rational to organize a strike, but in order to organize it, funds are needed - you must first create a mutual benefit fund that would help you stay afloat at least for the first time.

Etienne is scheduled to move to Mahe in August. He talks a lot with Mahe's father about his ideas, and faith in justice seems to flash in his father's head. But his wife immediately lowers him to the ground, saying that the bourgeois will never take on such hellish work as working in a mine, this is out of the question. All talk about the equality of all people is absolutely must. Thinking about a just society, Mahe thinks of only one thing - to live at least a little in abundance. This is due to the fact that recently at work it has become especially tight: constant fines from the company for non-compliance with safety rules, and its constant intrigues of how to cut wages even more. Here is the pretext for the strike - another wage cut. When Mahe receives his meager earnings, he still listens to accusations that he is having political conversations with his new tenant - this has already been rumored. Old man Toussaint Mahe only nods in fright, unable to object to his superiors. Leaving the office, he feels a burning shame for his silence. The whole village silently suffers from terrible poverty. The Mahe family is transferred to a new site, where it is even more dangerous to work - underground sources often come across, and the layer of coal on it is even thinner than before - you can work in the mine only by touching the walls with your elbows. After some time, Etienne falls under a collapse. Under the collapse, the youngest son of Mahe - Zhanlin broke both legs. The patience and hopes of Etienne and Mahe come to an end - both understand that it will only get worse. It's time to go on strike.

The director of the mines, Enbo, is informed that work in the mines has stopped. Etienne, along with his comrades and Maheu, went to negotiate with his superiors. They were joined by delegates from neighboring villages. The miners put forward meager demands: that only five sous be added to the salary for each trolley.

The head of Enbo is trying to split the deputation with his speech about someone's vile suggestion, but not a single miner in Monsou is yet a member of the International. Etienne is the only one of his colleagues who can speak clearly and is not afraid to speak to his boss. He is assigned to negotiate on behalf of all the miners. When their negotiations reach an impasse, Étienne bluntly states that if their demands are not met at the initial stage, then others will appear later, and who knows what they will be. But the bosses of the company turn out to be deaf to the requests of the miners, and they finally become embittered. After some time, no one in the village has any money left, but Etienne insists that the strike continue. Plushard promises that he will come to Vor with money, but he is not there. At last the movement for which Étienne had been waiting began. A miners' conference is being held at Madame Desir's house. The owner of the tavern, Rasner, advocates that the strike should be stopped, but the miners trust their leader, Etienne. Plushard says that the strikes are a struggle that is too slow, but still urges the miners not to back down from what they started. The police commissioner arrives with four subordinates to break up the conference. But Madame Desir warns the workers in time, and they manage to disappear. Plushard once again promises to send material assistance. The company's management also decided to act - it was decided to fire the most active strikers.

Meanwhile, Etienne is gaining more and more respect among the miners. Soon their former chief - reasonable and cunning Rasner is completely forgotten. Ranser predicts the same future for Étienne. At a new meeting of workers, which was held this time in the forest, an old man nicknamed Immortal tells all those gathered about how his peers protested and died half a century ago, without achieving anything. Etienne delivers a passionate and inspiring speech.

It was unanimously decided to continue to strike. Of all the mines, only one is working, in Jean-Bart. Those miners who work there are called traitors and decide to teach them a lesson. The strikers come to Jean-Bart and force the miners out of the mines, cutting the ropes. Katrina and Chaval, who lived and worked in the "treacherous" village, also rise to the surface. Workers from Monsou are waiting for them there. A fight starts. The heads of the mines are trying to stop the unrest by sending gendarmes and police there. Meanwhile, the rebellion is spreading through the mines with great speed. Singing "Marseilles", the rebels go in a huge crowd to the authorities in Mons. Enbo is in a panic, not knowing what to do. An army of rebels loot the shop of Megr, who died trying to save his property. At the instigation of Chaval, the gendarmes appear, Etienne almost got caught by them - Katrina warns him in time. When winter comes, there are already police posts in all the mines, but this measure does not restore work. The strike extends beyond the mines. Etienne has finally waited for the moment when he can take revenge on the traitor Chavel, who forced him to be jealous of Katrina. Victory turns out to be on the side of Etienne, Chaval concedes and is forced to flee.

At this time, Jeanlin, the youngest son of Mahe, heals both broken legs. Limping, he nevertheless runs fast, hooligans and shoots. He is seized by an inexplicable desire to finish off the gendarme, which he did, attacking him from behind with a knife. Zhanlin could not explain the reasons for his hatred. It becomes obvious that miners and soldiers will collide from day to day. Despite the fact that the soldiers were ordered to use weapons only when absolutely necessary, the rebels were so aggressive that the first shots soon rang out. The miners respond by throwing clods of mud and brick fragments at the police. During the riots, Lydia and Beber, children, were shot dead by soldiers. Mouquette was also killed, suffering from unrequited love for Etienne, Toussaint Mahe died. These deaths sober up the rebels: they are scared and confused, because the matter begins to take a serious turn. Monsou is soon visited by government officials from Paris. Etienne also becomes uneasy because of the current situation: he begins to blame himself for the death of all those killed, for the destruction of houses and the violence reigning everywhere. The miners once again turn to their former leader, Rasner, for help, who orders everyone to calm down. Etienne leaves the village, and there he meets Souvarine. The Russian tells him that his wife was recently hanged in Moscow, and now Souvarine is absolutely free - he has no more attachments, and no more fear. Hearing this terrible confession of Souvarine, Etienne returns home to spend the last night in the Mahe family, which has already become his family. At night, Souvarine sneaks to the mine, where the miners were going to start work in the morning, and saws off that cladding that protected the mine from the "Stream" - the sea underground. In the morning Catarina tells Etienne that she intends to go to the mine. For the sake of love, Etienne decides to stay a little longer in the village. All day long the couple worked side by side, and by evening the water burst into the mine. Everyone managed to get out, except for the old man Muk, Chaval, Etienne and Katrina. The water takes them by surprise. Trying to get to the surface, they get lost in the underground passages. Etienne and Chaval fight again. During the skirmish, Etienne crushes the head of the enemy. Étienne carves what looks like a raised platform into the wall, and he and Katrina escape there. Looking at the rushing whirlpool below them, they await imminent doom. After staying there for three days, they no longer hope that they will be able to get out alive, and suddenly they hear blows from above - salvation is already close. In a dark mine, on a hill among a deadly stream of water, she makes love for the last time. After that, Katrina seems to fall asleep - Etienne decides not to wake her. When rescuers reach them, Etienne is lifted to land. Katrin is dragged out after him - she was already dead.

Having come to his senses after suffering horror and the death of his beloved, Etienne leaves the village. Mahe's wife lost her husband and daughter in the flood. But after the restoration of work at the mine was announced, she gets a job there as a hauler instead of her daughter. Still recently rebellious miners are now busy working. Walking through the flowering land and breathing in the spring air, Etienne hears the thud of a kyle at every step.

A brief description of the novel "Germinal" was retold by Osipova A.S.

Please note that this is only a summary of the literary work "Germinal". This summary omits many important points and quotations.

First published in 1885, Germinal is the thirteenth novel in Zola's famous Rougon-Macquart cycle. Bearing the name of the seventh month of the French Republican calendar, put into circulation after the French Revolution, it tells about the growth of a new social consciousness (germinal from the Latin "germen" - sprout), rising from the depths of the earth. Germinal, like most of Zola's works, offers a unique analysis of French reality, made not just in realistic, but in naturalistic detail.

The main protagonists of the novel are the miners - the poorest, socially unprotected and most hardworking people of France. The reader plunges into their life together with Etienne Lantier, a mechanic who came to the village of Two Hundred Forty and lost his job. The first person the young man meets is the old Immortal, the eldest member of the Mahe family. His son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren are all working or planning to work for the benefit of the Coal Mines Company in one way or another. This family has not known another life for the past one hundred and six years. Mahe's father heads the coal miners' artel, his eldest son Zachary, along with adult men, splits coal, his eldest daughter Katrin, at the age of fifteen, works as a hauler and lifts trolleys on her back, with a total weight of up to 700 kilograms. Ten-year-old Jeanlin Mahe also works in the face, earning his couple of tens of sous a day. Despite the fact that Mahe's artel is considered one of the best and most productive at the Voreya mine, the family itself lives very poorly and practically beggars. The younger children have not yet grown up, the older ones are about to leave the family, old Mahe is too old for full-time work. It is good to live in the village of Two Hundred Forty only to those who cater to the senior foremen, including their wives. Such miners have money and confidence in the future. When a confrontation arises at the mine between the miners and the management due to poor fastenings, the relatively stable life of the heroes collapses. On the one hand, they understand that cut salaries will not allow them to survive; on the other hand, for lack of faith in God, they gain faith in themselves, in a better life that they can achieve on their own on this earth. Etienne Lantier is trying to lead the backward (educational) miners to a new life, but due to his personal illiteracy and the capitalist dominance of large coal corporations, his idea fails miserably. The strike organized by the miners and the subsequent riot with the destruction of the mines leads to tragic consequences: little Alzira dies of hunger, Mahe's father is killed, Katrin dies in the Voreya mine blown up by the Russian anarchist Souvarine (comrade Lantier), Zakhary during rescue excavations.

The Mahe family in the novel is contrasted by two rich but heterogeneous families: the Grégoires and the Enbo. The former live like drones, deriving income from a single share of the Monsou coal mines. The Gregoires are not interested in anything but a quiet life in the company of their adored daughter Cecile. The second family - the directors of the Enbo mines - is a love triangle, consisting of the director himself, his wife and the director's nephew, who is also his wife's lover. Director Enbo is an active, educated, but deeply unhappy person. He is madly in love with his wife, but cannot access her body. The sight of rebellious miners makes Enbo feel envious: he is ready to give everything to be able to make love anytime and anywhere, not to hide his feelings behind public prudence, to be a true husband to his wife.

The theme of love in the novel is also connected with the relationship between Etienne Lantier and Catherine Mahe. These heroes fall in love with each other at first sight, but bodily approach each other only in the face of death. Thus, the author emphasizes the purity of their feelings and exposes a terrible reality in which the young daughters of miners are inclined by physical violence to a family life that looks like simple debauchery.

The artistic value of the novel "Germinal" is associated not only with the beginning, which affirms the possibility of a new, happy life, but also with the accurate transfer by the author of the details of the life of ordinary, working people. Difficult working conditions (heat, high humidity, black coal dust, absorbed into a person over many years of work so that even his saliva becomes black) and life (sleeping of the children of the Mahe family in the same room, managing natural needs in the presence of each other, sickening smells fried onions, common in the poor houses of miners), endless, animal sex of young people in the backyards of an abandoned mine, and, as an apotheosis of universal shamelessness and hopelessness, manhood strung on a stick, torn off by angry women from the shopkeeper Megr, who died by his own negligence. It is possible to list the realities of life of the lower strata of society endlessly, since they are present on almost every page of the novel, making it a unique work that recreates a detailed and natural, unadorned picture of ordinary reality. The frank and horrifying details of the life and death of the heroes of Germinal serve as an objective justification for the revolutionary indignation of a tired and hungry people.

In addition to the analysis of the novel "Germinal" there are the following works.