Germinal

"Germinal" is one of the finest novels that talks about the labour movement and how the miners struggled for their survival. The Germinal is the second novel from the famous cycle of Rougon-Macquart, which portrays the conflict between the capitalists and the working class. The novel is based on a true story about the miners of France. Back in 1884, the miners went on a mass strike, with the motive to transform their working conditions and rebuild their existing lifestyle. The author played around with the title and his choice of names for the characters to portray irony. His use of metaphors was meritorious, to begin with. For example, the mines these workers used to work in were named Voreux. It comes from the Latin word Vorax, which means the one that devours. Even the title of the novel, 'The Germinal' is a month from the Republican Calendar. Emile Zola's novel aided those coal miners who lived their whole life under duress. The novel portrays a crucial time of the rise of the working class against the aristocrats. As we know, there were many failed strike attempts by the miners. Do you think that the work of Emile Zola made a difference in changing their lives?