In the draft of Germination, Zola stated his intention to create this work, "It shows the anger of workers. It is a shock to the society, which makes the society shake. In short, this is a struggle between capital and labor. This is the importance of this book: it announces the future and raises a question that will be the most important in the 20 th century. " The creative practice of Germination shows that the author's creative intention has been completely realized.
The story of "Germination" is based on French Mengchu Coal Company and Jinlou Mine. The story happened in the early days of the Second Empire and the Third Republic. At this time, under the rule of the big financial bourgeoisie represented by Charles Louis Napolé on Bonaparte, France has made a transition from liberal capitalism to monopoly capitalism. With the high concentration and rapid development of large industries, and with the increase of exploitation and oppression of the proletariat by the bourgeoisie, the struggle of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie is also rising. 1864, the international working class revolutionary organization "First International" was established in London, England. Under the leadership of the "First International", the French working class has been growing in the struggle.
Germination reflects the social reality of France in this specific historical period. In the early days of the Second Empire and the Third Republic, France faced an economic crisis, and serious unemployment occurred at home. Due to the deepening of the economic crisis, the capitalists of Mengchu Coal Mine Company passed on the losses caused by the economic crisis to the workers by reducing coal prices and increasing fines, which angered the workers and triggered a strike. More than 65,438+100,000 coal miners have joined the First International and gained political and economic support from the First International. With the increasing persecution of striking workers by capitalists, the hatred and anger that miners and their families have been holding in their hearts for a long time erupted like a volcano, which eventually led to a violent action to destroy the mine. This revolutionary action of the miners was ruthlessly suppressed by the bourgeoisie, and the government sent military and police personnel to shoot and slaughter workers, causing a large number of casualties. After the news that the miners in Fulou were slaughtered came out, it caused great anger among the workers in the nearby mines, and they responded positively. In order to avoid further expansion of the situation, the company resorted to conspiracy to deceive workers into returning to work. Anarchists secretly destroyed mine drainage equipment, causing many miners to drown in the well, causing terrible disasters under the mine, and only a few miners survived. Although the strike ended in the failure of the workers, it showed the glorious prospect that the working class would surely win the final victory.
Fulou Mine, which shows the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, is arranged as a typical environment in his works. Through the true description of the miners' working scene in this mine, the work vividly compares Fulou Mine to a greedy monster, always ready to devour human beings, and describes in detail how miners are stuffed into hanging cages like animals every day, sent hundreds of meters underground from the mouth of this monster, and engaged in hard work at the risk of their lives in dark, humid, high temperature and oxygen-deficient tunnels.
In particular, the works describe countless child workers and girls with meticulous brushwork, and how they bear the labor of adults with their weak bodies under the same harsh conditions. Because the tunnel is narrow and low, they sometimes have to bend or kneel like short beasts to push the coal car through. Stones and broken coal sting miners' toes from time to time, and the underground silicon dust is eroding and destroying their lungs, and the dirty air is destroying their bodies all the time. Their children have been deformed and weak since childhood. The living conditions of miners are also extremely bad. The whole family has been crowded into a small room like animals for generations. Capitalists also make up excuses from time to time and deduct workers' wages in various names. Miners are often overwhelmed by heavy debts, always threatened by the court, and finally buried in the mine or died of hunger and disease. Here, the working and living conditions of miners are almost the same as those of slaves.
"Germination" profoundly reveals the political and economic reasons that led to the workers' strike with so many facts. It tells readers that it is the enslaved status and miserable living conditions of miners that force them to put up with it no longer, which leads to a large-scale strike movement. This was of great practical significance at that time.
The work vividly describes in detail how thousands of miners roared like a waking lion under the torture of hunger and cold. They are closely United on the basis of the pain of * * * and the fate of * * *, indignant and shouting "Long live the social revolution! Kill bourgeois! " Slogan, declared war on the old world represented by the bourgeoisie. They destroyed mines, surrounded the general manager's residence, destroyed shops that exploited workers, and fought bloody battles with military and police personnel sent by the government to suppress the workers' movement. Through this desperate struggle, the works fully show the anger, awakening and strength of the proletariat. The magnificent struggle scene of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie has never been shown in the works of bourgeois writers before Zola.
The important value of "Germination" lies in that it is full of the author's deep sympathy, vividly shows the readers the real picture of this struggle, and expresses the angry complaints and merciless criticisms of the working people against the old world.
Although the strike struggle of the miners in Fulou failed, the struggle did not end. Through profound description, the work foretells the prospect of the inevitable victory of this struggle: "Now the miners are awakened in the depths, just like real seeds, sprouting in the soil! One morning, everyone will see them thriving in the beautiful fields. Yes, there will be many people, a whole traveler, to restore justice in the world. " In this vivid and meaningful discourse, readers can't feel Zola's firm belief and infinite sympathy for the working class!
As early as 1877 before the publication of Germination, in his other work Hotel, Zola attributed the unfortunate experience and poor life of workers to personal fault. He believes that the workers' drinking and depravity are the root cause of their unfortunate situation. In "Germination", Zola attributed all this to the economic and social system, and thought it was an inevitable result. Although, at the end of the work, Zola destroyed the mine with the workers, resulting in the capitalists and workers losing their jobs, which shows that he does not fully agree with armed violence, but the root of the problem pointed out by the author is within the scope of social system and class struggle. This undoubtedly played a positive role in the proletarian struggle in France from 65438 to 1980.
/kloc-The workers' movement that rose in France in the second half of the 0/9th century greatly attracted Zola's attention. He began to study the workers' movement and gradually realized that workers had become a powerful force in politics and economy at that time. Therefore, he tried to reflect this new class and new characters in his own creation. The images of the broad masses of workers and the leaders of the workers' movement created in Germination are the result of the author's exploration.
In describing the sharp and fierce struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, Germination has carefully shaped the glorious images of some ordinary workers, such as Ma 'an couple, Le Faq couple and Mu Jiti, such as burning mother and dying father, fully demonstrated their tenacious struggle and self-sacrifice spirit, as well as their lofty moral character of helping each other in the same boat and supporting each other in extremely difficult crises, and profoundly demonstrated the continuous improvement of their class consciousness.
The image of Ma Ansao occupies a very important position in her works. The work uses a lot of space to describe how her consciousness is constantly improved through fierce struggle under the cruel oppression of capitalists, and finally she grows from a timid ordinary woman to a conscious and strong warrior. Ma 'an's wife worked underground as a pusher when she was young. After she married Ma 'an, the poor life and the heavy housework of raising seven children severely damaged her health, forcing her to stay at home and take care of her. At first, Ma An-sao, like all working women, felt at ease with her fate. She objected to her husband's actions against the capitalists.
Later, under the constant propaganda of Ai Tianna, a conscious worker, especially inspired by his life principle of "from each according to his ability to get what he needs" and the prospect of a better society in the future, this kind, hardworking and gentle ordinary woman gradually abandoned her fears and fantasies about the bourgeoisie and her tolerant attitude towards the slave situation, and began to awaken. She believes that it is the workers' turn to enjoy overthrowing bourgeois rule, which is the real fairness. In the harsh confrontation between the two classes, Sister Ma finally threw herself into the revolutionary torrent and launched a discordant struggle with the capitalists.
Hard struggle constantly tempered Sister Ma 'an and made her stronger. She firmly believes that people must never go down the well again before the unjust case is solved. During the strike, although the family did not cook for many days, her fighting spirit did not waver at all. She spared no effort to support the workers' strike struggle. She once angered her daughter Jia, who went to work in another coal mine and opposed the strike decision. She actively encouraged her husband to fight face-to-face with the military police. She herself stood at the forefront of the struggle, showing extraordinary firmness and courage.
The strike failed, her husband died, her father-in-law went crazy, and her children were buried in the mine one after another. In order not to let the starving children and her insane father-in-law sit still, Ma An-sao had to return to the mine. The sacrifice of relatives and the temporary failure of the struggle did not dampen her fighting spirit. On the contrary, she became more determined and calm, and was able to judge things more clearly. She firmly believes that the miners' blood will not flow in vain. Those murderers who slaughtered her relatives and comrades will eventually be punished as they deserve. She is convinced that the injustice in the world will never last so long, and one day there will be a "good god" to avenge the poor people.
In Germination, Zola not only created a group of ordinary workers, but also deliberately created four leaders of the workers' movement. Because the author had not completely shaken off the influence of social reformism at that time, the image of the leader of the workers' movement in his works was either a petty-bourgeois socialist, an anarchist or a reformist.
Tian Aina was originally a worker in a railway workshop. She was fired by the capitalists for slapping the foreman and transferred to Fulou Mine. He is a member of First International. Because of his class status, he deeply sympathized with the hard and miserable life of miners and hated the bourgeoisie. He eagerly read a lot of revolutionary theoretical works and made unremitting exploration of socialist theory. During this period, he was once hesitant and confused in thought, and eventually became a believer in productism. This situation reflects the characteristics of the French workers' movement in the 19 era.
The work specifically describes how Ai Tianna participated in, organized and led the strike struggle of the miners in Fulou. He gave speeches everywhere, armed workers with socialist revolutionary theory, negotiated with companies and kept close contact with the "First International". However, due to his political naivety, ideological confusion and lack of struggle experience, he didn't know enough about the direction of the workers' movement, especially the method of implementing social reform. Therefore, in this struggle, he failed to put forward a clear political program and formulate correct struggle strategies, and even mistakenly thought that politics should be excluded from social problems, so that this struggle was too concentrated in the economic scope. In this way, he could not lead the miners' struggle to the right path, which led to the failure of this struggle. Of course, the failure of the struggle also has its profound historical reasons, that is, the bourgeoisie has not yet reached its death stage, the proletariat is not mature enough, and it is in the transitional stage from the comfortable class to the self-sufficient class.
After the failure of the strike struggle in Fulou Coal Mine, Ai Tiannan's thoughts changed obviously. He began to get tired of his revolutionary work. Poor and backward miners aroused his disgust. He is determined to raise the miners to the comfortable and elegant position of the bourgeoisie. Contrary to what he advocated in the past, he believes that violence does not necessarily promote things to change, and destroying mines is a meaningless action. He decided to give up violence and fantasized about winning from parliament through legal struggle. This reformist thought reflected in Ai Tianna is the natural expression of the author's own political views.
As the leader of the workers' movement, Ai Tiannan still has some remnants of old thoughts. He loves fame and wealth, is extremely vain and often regards himself as the savior of the masses. He dreams of becoming a member of parliament one day and giving a speech in Congress to attack the bourgeoisie. His dream of power even reached a ridiculous level. He once sketched a great scene for himself: once the proletariat mastered the political power and became the master of the society, he, the savior who had saved the people, would refuse any position given to him by the people, return all power to the people, and the people would take charge of it themselves. This view that the individual is above the masses and the people are the objects of gifts has nothing in common with the ideological quality that a proletarian revolutionary should have. Ai Tianna described by Zola is at best a petty-bourgeois socialist.
Ai Tianna's idol, Prussa, was originally a foreman in a factory, and later became a socialist believer and a leader of the workers' movement. His revolutionary task is to hold meetings in various places, give speeches and publicize his beliefs. In order to organize and mobilize workers from all over the world to participate in the "First International", he completely divorced from labor and became a political figure for many years. He usually dresses neatly, attaches great importance to gfd, and is often complacent about his successful speech on the podium. He is by no means a real proletarian revolutionary, but a type of figure like Ai Tiannan.
Su Fulin, another leader of the workers' movement at work, is an anarchist. As a faithful believer of bakunin, he wholeheartedly supported and actively promoted bakunin's theory of destroying everything. He insisted that all the old things in the world must be completely eradicated, so that the government, property, country and God would no longer exist. He believes that a beautiful society will be born only when there is nothing left in this decadent world and the whole earth is washed by blood and purified by fire. In order to achieve all this, we can do whatever it takes, and if necessary, we can use fire, poison and daggers to carry out terrible murders, so as to arouse the panic of the rulers and awaken the sleeping people. In Fulou Mine, Su Fulin once put his political ideas into practice. After the failure of the strike, he completely destroyed the mine to get back at the capitalists. However, it made the underground miners die innocently.
The author is obviously critical of the anarchism that Su Fulin believes in, but he has repeatedly praised his dedication, unswerving revolutionary fighting spirit and excellent moral quality, and thinks that he is a glorious figure who is always ready to secretly contribute his life without asking for martyrdom.
Lai Saina, another leader of the workers' movement who often clashed with Ai Tianna, was originally a worker in Fulou Mine. Because he took part in the strike, he was dismissed by the company, opened a hotel and became a boss, which was quite influential among the workers. He opposed the oppression and exploitation of capitalists, but he did not advocate excessive action and open struggle against capitalists, but advocated compromise. He believes that mutual understanding should be established between capitalists and workers. He doesn't support strikes, and he is more opposed to violence. Reisenna is firmly opposed to changing the whole world. He always believed that mines could not be the property of miners, just as spinning machines could not belong to weavers. It would be very foolish to ask workers to stand on the side of factory owners and share wealth equally. As can be seen from the above political views, Reisenner is a typical advocate of reformism.
Germination is an excellent critical realism work with high cognitive value. Zola's greatest achievement is that he is not only the first bourgeois writer who portrays the proletariat in his own works and takes the proletariat as the protagonist, but also the first bourgeois writer who finds the irresistible force of unarmed workers and expresses deep sympathy for them. Unfortunately, none of the four leaders of the workers' movement portrayed by Zola in Germination is a typical proletarian revolutionary. This is the inevitable reflection of the writer's world outlook, especially social reformism. In this regard, Qu Qiubai, a Chinese proletarian writer, has clearly pointed out that the fundamental thought expressed by Zola in Germination "has never escaped from the utopia of social reformism".
Zola accepted Comte's and Turner's positivism philosophy in literary theory, followed the French naturalism pioneer writer Gungel in literature, and applied the genetic law in Darwin's evolution theory in creative practice, thus forming a complete set of naturalism theory to guide his creation. In this way, in many of his works, there are different degrees of naturalism. Although, unlike Zola's other works, Germination is a work that criticizes realism. Even such works are not completely free from the influence of naturalism. The work inappropriately emphasizes the decisive role of genetic laws and the animality of human beings, puts the characters under the absolute control of physiological factors and explains the laws of social development from the perspective of biological evolution. Ai Tianna is the positive figure of the author. However, in shaping this image, the works used naturalistic methods in some aspects, which damaged this image to some extent.
When describing a conflict between Ai Tianna and degenerate Savar in the mine, the work is completely explained by animal instinct, which is believed to be caused by hunger and "sex", especially the genetic alcoholism that broke out in Ai Tianna. Therefore, he killed Savar in great anger. This completely obliterates the social causes of the conflict between them.
In addition, when the work describes Ai Tiannan leading miners to the mine to destroy, it describes a person who has completely lost his rationality and is full of pitfalls. This work also explains that Atina's behavior is caused by hereditary alcoholism in his body. This will inevitably damage the image of the leader of the workers' movement and greatly weaken the ideological significance of the works. This naturalistic technique is also manifested in the outstanding female worker Jia and the old worker's father who died of natural causes to varying degrees.
Although Germination truly describes the awakening, resistance and struggle of miners, it shows the continuous growth of the working class and shows that capitalism is bound to collapse and perish. However, the author uses Darwin's view of evolution instead of Marxist view of class struggle to examine and explain that the working class will replace the bourgeoisie as the law of socialist social development. He replaced the theory of class struggle with the theory of "survival competition" and "species continuation" in biology, and regarded it as the fundamental reason for determining social development. In his works, he particularly emphasized that "for the beauty and continuity of species, the strong will eat the weak" and "the strong will eat the weak bourgeoisie." Social problems are extremely harmful from a biological point of view. Objectively, it will inevitably lead to hostility and opposition to the theory of class struggle and lead the revolutionary struggle to the wrong path.