The tragic fate of a welltodo farming family is the focus of the dramaticnovella <strong>The Flood</strong> by Emile Zola. From the perspective of the familyspa... » 

The tragic fate of a welltodo farming family is the focus of the dramaticnovella The Flood by Emile Zola. From the perspective of the familyspatriarch the seventyyearold Louis Roubien Zola provides the reader withemotionally charged and detailed descriptions of the large familys desperatestruggle against the rising flood waters and of the destruction of their farm. Emile Zola is considered to be the most important representative of theliterary school of Naturalism. In this novella which is thrilling to the veryend his literary theme is the helplessness of human beings and theirdependence upon the unpredictable and indomitable forces of nature. «