Revolutionary Ideas: Threats to Society in Emile Zola's Germinal

Like Pluchart, Etienne believes that capitalism is accountable for the exploitation of workers. He considers the profits of the capitalists to be a form of "stolen riches" (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 functional man even the plates to beat out" (145). At the same time, the oppressed workers were being "reduced to famishment whenever the exigencies of competition brought down prices" (274). In taking up the cause of the worker, Etienne feels that he is leading an important and courtly revolution. In this regard, he visualizes "the workers of the livelong world rising up united to guarantee the working man the bread he earns" (144). Echoing the earlier bringing of Pluchart, Etienne gives his own speech to the miners in which he denounces the capitalist net system as "a new form of slaveholding" (274). He tells them that the workers should own the means of production and thus division in the profits made by them. Furthermore, he tells the miners that it is requirement to destroy the state government because it is supported by the capitalist system. Then, "when the people had the government in their own hands, reforms could begin" (275). Unfortunately, Etienne's noble effort is doomed to failure. He is not a technical leader because he is prone to knock-down-and-drag-out passion and because he drinks too much. Also, his revolutionary plan fails because it is too idealistic.

In this way, Zola shows the faults of the loss revolutionary go about to politics. In fact, Etienne himself comes to benefit the futility of his fight against the powerful capitalists. In despair, he notes that the gild "might well be losing millions, but later on it would make them up again at the workers' expense by cutting down their livelihood" (362). Zola also shows the revolutionary approach to be a failure by his depiction of the violent mob. The rebelling crowd displays unthinking, hysterical behavior. This behavior is especially notable among the despicable women who had been repressed by the capitalists. In one scene, they almost annihilate Madame Hennebeau because they are angered by her fur coat, perfume, and other symbols of indulgent wealth.

In another horrifying scene, the vehement women castrate Maigrat after he has fallen to his death from a rooftop (352). Such anger and violence by the mob is described by Zola as "a paroxysm of blind faith" (281). Zola also makes the time period that this type of mob behavior is fickle. Thus, when the strike has failed, the people repeal on Etienne and threaten to kill him.

Zola, Emile. Germinal. Leonard Tancock, trans. London: Penguin Books, 1954.

It does not take into account the power of the army against the strikers. In addition, it does not consider the economic power of the large Montsou Company. The company solely starves the strikers into giving up their cause. The company also threatens to replace the ravenous strikers with Belgian workers.

Germinal ends with the indication that the seeds for future social salmagundi have been planted. In this way, it seems that Zola's book is meant to provide a rule of thumb to how this social change should be carried out. He warns against the violence and extremism of the Marxist revolutionaries and the anarchist terrorists. By contrast, the moderate views of Rasseneur are shown to be twain reasonable and practical. Zola also points out that the capitali
Order your essay at Orderessay and get a 100% original and high-quality custom paper within the required time frame.