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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is one of the reasons Etienne thinks he might be working in the mine?

2. What does Etienne do about what he sees on his walk?

3. What happens to Etienne's relationship with Catherine when he moves into her home?

4. How does Léon Grégoire make his money?

5. How does Etienne feel about the miners with whom he is working?

Short Essay Questions

1. Souvarine and Etienne have a discussion after the tragedy of the shooting. What do they talk about and what does Souvarine do?

2. How do the miners decide on a delegation to meet with Hennebeau and what are the results of the meeting?

3. Describe a little of Bonnemort.

4. What does Lantier create for the miners to join and what is one of his first projects?

5. What do the Montsou miners do while the miners are working at the Jean-Bart mine?

6. Why were the Montsou miners angry at the Jean-Bart miners?

7. On pay day in October what angers the miners and what do they do about it?

8. What does Etienne tell Catherine about himself on his first day of work?

9. What does Lantier talk to Deneulin about and what are the results?

10. What happens outside the mine after the mine is flooded?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the end, the idealist Étienne Lantier traversed the world of the Voreux and though accomplished little in terms of actual gains, he left the miners with a will to fight; the seed of this may eventually grow and burst again through the infertile ground of the mining pit.

1. Do you think this book ended with any shred of hope? Why or why not?

2. If you had been a miner in this situation do you think you would try again? Why or why not?

Use examples from the book to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Grégoire summarizes the entire position of the typical bourgeois.

1. What do you see as his position?

2. What parts of Gregoire's position do you believe is true? What parts do you see as false?

3. Do you believe the wealthy class in America today would agree with Gregoire's position on the miners? Why or why not?

Use examples from the text to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

The situation is desperate, with the miners having no food or heat. Zola draws an analogy of lack of coal as a source of collective energy (for the houses), which is correlated with the lack of food, a source of personal energy (for the body).

1. Discuss two other analogies that Zola uses in the miners' situation.

2. Do you think Zola's analogies are meant to be ambivalent to be powerful? Why or why not?

3. Would he have strengthened his position better with more concrete writing?

(see the answer keys)

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