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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. Where does La Maheude go to ask for help?

2. What does the grocer want in order to help La Maheude?

3. What happens to Jeanlin in the accident in November in the mine?

4. Why can't Bonnemort work inside the Voreux anymore?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

2. After eating dinner in the second chapter what does Etienne do and why?

3. Why does Catherine return home during the strike and what does she see?

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

5. How does the company seem after the killing of the miners by the soldiers and what does it say?

6. Describe how Germinal starts out.

7. Why has Etienne come to the mine?

8. Why does Etienne Lantier set up a meeting with the miners and what happens at that meeting?

9. What do the Montsou miners do when they leave Jean-Bart?

10. How do the miners feel about the supervisors?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

In GERMINAL, there is a constant struggle between individualism and collectivism.

1. Give two examples of this struggle.

2. Do you think individualism is more destructive than collectivism? Why or why not?

3. Do you think the collective thinking of the miners caused more problems than it solved? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

The author uses the environment to underline the symbolic value of Étienne Lantier's move from timid indignation to effective political action. For instance, Lantier and his supporters decide to leave the tavern of the Rasseneurs and move to another meeting place because the former serve "warm beer" and "bad soup."

1. What other situations in the environment to you see reflecting the situations with the miners?

2. How did Etienne's relationships with the miners and the Maheu family reflect his change from outsider to political leader?

(see the answer keys)

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