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Emile Zola's Germinal

Emile Zola's Germinal was published in 1885, and its main characters represent some of the important political and economic theories of that time. In particular, the novel focuses on the revolutionary ideas which Zola saw as being a potential threat to society. For example, Zola's concern with Marxist Socialism is reflected in the characters of Pluchart and Etienne Lantier.

Pluchart is the secretary of the Workers' International, and his lectures are designed to spread the revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx. The basic idea behind Marxism is that workers are exploited by the bourgeoisie, or the capitalist owners of the means of production. In order to change this situation, the workers need to rebel against their capitalist oppressors. When Pluchart gives a speech to the coal miners at the Montsou Company, he tells them of the many benefits they would receive under a Marxist economic system. His description of a Marxist society sounds very good on the surface, with "the workers of the whole world united by a common hunger for justice, sweeping away the rotten bourgeoisie, establishing at long last the free society in which he who does not work does not reap!" (242). Pluchart is the one who recommends the use of a strike in order for the coal miners to make the Montsou Company give them higher wages and better working conditions.

Although Pluchart recommends the use of a strike, it is Etienne Lantier who becomes the leader of the strike and thus puts the Marxist revolutionary plan into action. Like Pluchart, Etienne believes that capitalism is responsible for the exploitation of workers. He considers the profits of the capitalists to be a form of "stolen wealth" (233). At Montsou, Etienne notes that "the bourgeois had been living on the fat of the land, and so greedily that they didn't leave the working man even the plates to lick" (145). At the same time, the oppressed workers were being "reduced to starvation whe...

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Emile Zola's Germinal. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 21:57, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1693201.html