Bad Foundations

One image from the first few chapters of Emile Zola’s novel that stood out the most was the description of Caroline Hedouin’s death. Madame Hedouin death during a construction phase of Bonheur des Dames, greatly alludes to the effect that the store has on its neighboring businesses throughout its profitable existence. Her death occurred in the foundations of the great store, as if Madame Hedouin had been the store’s first victim in its growth from simple store into a competition killer. Madame Baudu’s disdain for the store is all too apparent when she describes that “her blood is under the stones of that shop.” The neighboring store owners who all fear the influence of such an all-encompassing store, build-up the owner, Mouret, and the very building itself, into a beast with an insatiable hunger for more goods to sell and more area to encompass. Even as the casual passerby and neighboring store owners are enthralled in the vast size of the shop, the owner continually feels the size to be insufficient and desires for growth on all fronts. In order for a desired expansion, the store must lay waste to other shops in its path, and its neighboring competition gets becomes crushed under new foundations of an enlarged department of Bonheur des Dames. One can easily draw parallels of this magnitude to the super stores of today, such as Walmart, which offer such an array of eclectic goods that many small specialized stores are put out of business.