Germinal

Émile Zola

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1885

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Part 3, Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 3, Chapter 1 Summary

Months pass, and Étienne grows more comfortable and competent in the mine. He grows accustomed to the darkness, the draughts, the airlessness, and the tunnels, which he now easily navigates. He becomes one of the best putters, and everyone likes and respects him—except by Chaval, with whom he shares a “mutual animosity” (139). Maheu and the other miners recognize that Étienne is well educated. Maheu often assigns him to the task of timbering, for Étienne’s timbering most often passes Négrel’s inspection. Catherine and Chaval are now a couple, and they show affection openly. Catherine and Étienne tease each other about it, ignoring the chemistry between them.

Spring arrives, and new life is all around. Étienne often sits in Rasseneur’s bar, the Advantage, nursing a single beer. He speaks with Souvarine, Rasseneur’s other lodger, a mechanic at Le Voreux. Souvarine comes from a noble Russian family; he left medical school to become a mechanic so he could “mix with the common people” (142). Like many young Russians, he participated in socialist protests. One evening, Étienne says he’s had communication from Pluchart, a mechanic he used to know who is now an official in the International Association of Workers and who thinks Étienne could be “useful […] for spreading propaganda among the miners” (144). Souvarine finds the Association “nonsense,” saying workers need to “[p]ut every town and city to the torch” and destroy “this rotten, stinking world” so that “a better one will grow up in its place” (144). Étienne and Rasseneur take a more practical approach. They all agree that workers cannot continue to starve and that a revolution is coming—either through the law or by “torching the place” (146). Souvarine advocates “a world washed clean by blood, purified by fire” (146). Étienne borrows some books from Souvarine, thoughts of revolt swirling in his head.

In July, the miners’ work is disrupted by the discovery of a fault which has resulted in the seam settling lower into the ground. Teams will bid on new contracts to work on a new seam. Maheu offers Étienne a promotion to hewer. On auction day, to get a contract for his team, Maheu must bid so low that his workers’ pay will be reduced. Étienne is furious that the Company is “setting the workers at each other’s throats” (149). Maheu agrees that one day they “will be the masters” (149).

Part 3, Chapter 2 Summary

The last Sunday in July is the Ducasse festival in Montsou. Payday is the day before, and the Maheus and other miner families enjoy large meals. Gradually the Maheus disperse to their own affairs. Maheu goes to the Advantage in search of Levaque. There, he finds Étienne, who comments that he’d like to move out of Rasseneur’s room. He also poses the idea of the miners contributing to a provident fund, “a mutual aid association which we could at last count on in case of urgent need” (154). Étienne, Maheu, and Levaque pick up Pierron in Montsou. They then travel around town visiting various bars and having beers with friends. Étienne poses the provident fund idea to Levaque. The group comes across Catherine and Chaval, who has bought Catherine presents at the fair. Jeanlin has convinced Lydie and Bébert to help him steal gin. La Mouquette continues to try to entice Étienne, who refuses her advances.

Chaval takes Catherine to hear a songbird competition. Zacharie and Philomène arrive. A nailmaker pinches Catherine’s thigh, infuriating Zacharie; Chaval says nothing. They encounter the nailmaker again at another bar. A fight between him and Zacharie nearly takes place, leaving Catherine and Philomène in tears. Maheu and his party arrive. Zacharie follows the nailmaker to defend his family’s honor.

The group ends up at the Jolly Fellow, which has a large dance hall. La Levaque, along with her grandchildren, arrives with La Maheude and her three youngest children—the three had been fighting over whether Zacharie and Philomène should marry. They reconciled their differences that day, with La Maheude resigning herself to the marriage. Maheu suggests they take Étienne as a lodger now that Zacharie is moving out. Maheu and Étienne cheerfully agree. Étienne talks about the provident fund to Pierron, who at first is intrigued until Étienne suggests it would be helpful in the event of a strike. Paling, Pierron responds that “good behaviour […] is the best provident fund” (162).

The Jolly Fellow, crowded with drunk, sweating people, eventually empties as people return home. Étienne buys Chaval a beer at Rasseneur’s; Chaval is excited about the pension fund, telling Étienne he’s “a good’un all right” (164). Étienne says the only thing he cares about is “the thought that one day we’ll get rid of these bourgeois once and for all” (164).

Part 3, Chapter 3 Summary

In August, Zacharie and Philomène move with their children to their own house in the village, and Étienne moves in with the Maheus. Since he occupies Zacharie’s former space, he and Catherine live near each other. At first it is awkward to undress and sleep near each other, but eventually they grow used to it and live side by side as friends. Sometimes Catherine becomes modest and avoids him.

Étienne, dedicated to educating himself on government and revolution, continues to borrow books from Souvarine as well as read pamphlets and newspapers. The more educated he becomes, the less tolerant he is of living like “animals to be herded together” (167). He and the Maheus take time every night to sit at the table and discuss revolution. The Maheus are frustrated with their poverty and excited by revolution but still believe they will be disappointed or worse, fired. Bonnemort, of the older generation, advises them to “take what you’re given” (168). Étienne says a new day is rising and that miners are waking up from their oppression by the wealthy. Catherine is enraptured when he preaches about “a magical future” of “a new social order” (170). He describes “a great shining city […] in which each citizen would be paid the rate for the job and have his share of common joy” (171). La Maheude, though cautious about ideas that “just made life awful” when they do not come to fruition, is attracted to the idea of justice and enters “the fairyland of hope” (171). Étienne teaches them about systems of government, and they eagerly listen before returning to the grim reality of their lives.

Others from the village sometimes join them. Étienne becomes popular and respected. His education is well known, and he becomes “a sort of business agent” (173), writing letters for people in the village. He establishes the provident fund for members of the village and hopes to expand to the entire mine. He becomes the fund’s secretary and begins to take a salary. He makes decent money and takes more care of his physical appearance and clothing.

Sexual tension continues to build between Étienne and Catherine, who can hear each other breathing at night and know they are thinking of each other.

Part 3, Chapters 1-3 Analysis

The onset of spring—with its “tender green shoots” and “pure, clean air” (140)—mirrors the learning, growth, and new life in Étienne. It also foreshadows a new awakening of the miners who, armed with knowledge, begin to reject the subservience they have for years accepted. The awakening of the land after the darkness of winter represents the awakening of the people, with education as the catalyst.

“[R]ebellious by nature” (144), Étienne dedicates himself to reading and gaining knowledge in an effort to organize the workers in preparation for a confrontation with the Company, which appears more and more inevitable as the Company continues to cut wages on the pretext of timbering. Étienne, under the guidance of Pluchart, engages in a campaign to join the International Association of Workers. Although wary of Souvarine’s call for “a world washed clean by blood, purified by fire” (146), he asks to borrow his books and reads voraciously about government, “co-operative societies” (167), and the effects of the mines on workers’ health. With a reputation for being educated and intelligent, he becomes a “business agent” in the village, soon earning enough to buy himself new clothes and undergoing “a gradual transformation” (173). The more Étienne learns and the more “refined” he becomes, the more resentful he is of their being treated like “animals to be herded together” (167).

Étienne faces obstacles in his building of revolution. Pierron’s discomfort with the idea of a strike foreshadows the resistance the miners will encounter from those who profit from the Company’s corruption. Members of the older generation, like Bonnemort, chide Étienne and his “fancy ideas” (168), stating that in his day, miners accepted their station and “didn’t ask for more” (158). Étienne must overcome the workers’ innate subservience: Maheu, despite his hatred of the Company, fears losing his job and agrees with his father that “[i]t’ll always be the miner’s lot to suffer” (169).

However, with education, miners begin rejecting that their destiny is to toil to death in misery, having only enough to eat so they “could suffer without actually dying” (168). Étienne talks to the miners about how “[t]he old society was falling apart” and explains “every political system there was” (172). He describes how, “thanks to education” (169), people are now literate and coming to understand that one day, “[a] new society would emerge” (171). The whisper of rebellion convinces even the practical La Maheude who, though fearful that disappointment would make “life awful afterwards,” is drawn to “the idea of justice,” exclaiming that it is “our turn to enjoy life for once” (171).

Like Étienne’s growing knowledge and reputation, the awakening of the people reflects in the metaphor of spring. He describes how the miner is “waking from his slumber and germinating in the soil like a real seed” and how life would improve because workers have “started thinking” (169). Railing against “the rich and powerful” who have been “buying and selling the miner as they pleased,” Étienne promises “everything would blow up in their faces one day” (169). Indeed, the miners were “growing and growing, one big harvest of men ripening in the sun” (169).

Although the Ducasse festival offers a chance for the miners to find some enjoyment in the midst of their suffering, the songbird competition serves as a metaphor that dampens the tone of the chapter. At the Severed Head bar, dozens of caged birds are coerced into singing for the crowd. As they sing, they are “so carried away by the spirit of competition that some of them actually fell off their perch and died” (157). The winner is the owner of the bird who sings the longest. The people, too, are forced to work as hard as possible, competing for jobs and working themselves to death—all to the benefit of their bosses, receiving no reward themselves.