department store, men and women depended on each other for survival in the workplace. Such interdependence is a microcosm of the bourgeois French society during that time, which Emile Zola wrote of in The Ladies’ Paradise, the eleventh book of the Rougon-Macquart series detailing middle-class life. According to Professor Brian Nelson, “The department store in The Ladies’ Paradise is a symbol of capitalism, the experience of the city, and the bourgeois family” (Zola x). Through his usage of characterization
Matt Groening’s quote, “Here’s to alcohol: the cause of, and answer to, all of life’s problems,” describes the thought process of most of France’s working class during the late 1800s. In Émile Zola’s L’Assommoir, Zola explains the many different ways the working class abuses alcohol and the impacts it has on people’s health and the relationships with people around them. Zola focuses specifically on the short and long term effects that spirits have on the Coupeau and Goujet families. Gervaise and