Have you read the french short story "Le Grand Michu"?

Question

its by a guy named emile zola. can you just give me a short summary of it if you've read it?

ive googled it and stuff, but i cant find anything. all i found was this one website which i think has the summary, but its entirely in french.

Answer 1

It's the story of 13-year old schoolboys who protest the bad food served in their school by going on a hunger strike at every meal.

They choose le Grand Michu, an older boy known for his insatiable appetite, as their leader, because he is big and impressive (although he looks like a big bully he is actually a nice guy). Unlike most of the kids in the school, Michu doesn't come from the privileged and educated ruling classes, he is a Republican farmer's son and is happy with any food he is being served. He accepts to lead the rebellion anyway.

The hunger strike starts the day they are served the dish they hate most: cod in red sauce. They all agree to only eat dry bread and nothing else although he is the only one not to cheat outside meal times (because he doesn't have any parents in town to bring him treats like the other boys).

After a few days, as beans in white sauce (the second most hated dish) is being served, the school decides not to give them any more bread. The kids start throwing the beans, plates and glasses across the dining hall as a protest. After a few hours the other kids let Michu down and he ends up being the only one punished and expelled from school. Years later he meets one of his former schoolmates (the narrator) and tells him that cod and beans had actually been his two favorite dishes!

Michu's sacrifice is an allegory of the Republican ideal and values (altruism and solidarity) being crushed by the egoism of the Monarchists (represented by the school and his schoolmates). Zola expresses his political views there.