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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 happens in the Maheu family as the strike is called?

2. Why do the activist miners say they have decided to leave the Advantage?

3. What are the type of people who tend to go to the Advantage?

4. How does Chaval feel about Catherine?

5. Where does Etienne Lantier arrive the night at the beginning of the novel?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Etienne see Jeanlin do one night and what does Etienne do and find out?

2. What does Lantier see Jeanlin do and how does he help the boy?

3. How do the miners feel about the supervisors?

4. Describe how Germinal starts out.

5. Describe a little of Bonnemort.

6. What does Etienne hear and see on his walk?

7. What happens in the mine in November and what was the consequences?

8. What do the miners demand of Mr. Hennebeau?

9. How do the miners get to their jobs?

10. What does Lantier do when the miners begin to reject him?

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

In a last burst of hope mixed with anger, the miners confront the army of guards in front of the mining pit. The miners lose. When two groups are opposed, the one that is most organized and structured ultimately wins.

1. Compare the situation of the miners with a situation in American history, for example the American Indians opposing the white man.

2. Do you believe the most powerful and organized always wins? Can the flea make the lion surrender?

3. How would this situation correlate with guerrilla warfare?

Essay Topic 3

By befriending a soldier, Lantier discovers he (Lantier) is not that different from the people against whom he is fighting. Both men share hopes, dreams and memories; both wish for the same kind of life and in the end, they can only be differentiated by the master they serve.

1. Do you think this statement could be true in any situation where one person or group of persons consider another an enemy? Use an example from the text and from life now in the United States to illustrate this statement.

2. If two enemies were placed in a room and had to stay together for one month without fighting do you think they would be enemies at the end of that month? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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