Germinal

By February, more troops occupy Montsou. A sentry posts outside Le Voreux. The strike spreads to other pits, and work ceases. The people behave with the “deceptive docility” of “wild animals in a cage” (377).

The strike has been “ruinous” for the Company (377), which wants to hire Belgian workers but “did not dare do so” (378). The Company also keeps quiet about the damage and has fired Many miners, including Maheu. Chaval denounces Étienne, who no one has seen since the protests. The bourgeois live in terror of another attack.

Étienne is living in Jeanlin’s lair. Jeanlin, who enjoys “outsmarting the police” (380), provides supplies. As candles are scarce, Étienne often lies in the dark, remorseful for having gotten drunk and threatening Chaval; he is afraid of the “uncharted region of terror within himself, his hereditary disease, the long lineage of drunkenness” (380). He also feels “a sense of superiority” to the people and is horrified by “the base nature of people’s desires” (381). He is appalled by the living conditions of the village and frustrated that he can’t talk politics with any of them.