Part VII: Chapter 1-6 Summary

The company seems confused about the way things turned out and tries to convince the miners to go back to work. They promise that they will make improvements. In the house where la Maheude stands alone as the head of the family, no one wants to go back to work; they figured that it would be catastrophic to allow the company to kill the father and then continue to exploit his children.

Etienne Lantier has to face the strikers' anger; the miners are now accusing him of every bad thing that happened to them since the beginning of the strike. He is now the target of constant insults from the people he tried his best to help. Rasseneur, who is more moderate than Lantier, takes back the reign of leadership. The Gregoires are celebrating the engagement of...