Germinal

Of all the members of his team, Maheu has the toughest job: He works at the top, in the highest heat, with no air or room to move and with a constant stream of water tormenting him. Zacharie is concerned about cracks in the supports; Maheu says if it falls, they’d survive, as they have before.

Catherine teaches Étienne about the work. Étienne struggles to prevent his tub from getting stuck as he pushes it, and swears with frustration; Catherine, laughing, lifts it with her back and hips, amazing and humbling him. They go together to dispatch their tubs, ensuring they attach a token that will identify it as belonging to their team. The pit-boys, no more than teenagers, talk raucously with each other. La Mouquette is often the subject of their jokes. Chaval teases and insults Étienne, who declines to respond, not wanting to jeopardize his job and “ready to acquiesce in the brutal hierarchy of the skilled and the unskilled worker” (45).

The team stops for lunch. Catherine realizes Étienne has no food and offers to share hers; Étienne, though famished and shaking, refuses, but she insists. She asks him why he left his job, and his answer stuns her: He was fired for hitting his boss.