Snobbery
Despite his indignant denials, Zola was a snob, and looked down on the lower classes as trashy, drunks, wife beaters and prostitutes. He maintained that he was not a snob and that he merely wrote about the world as he saw it, but the novel is nevertheless about a woman who wants to be viewed as an equal to her neighbors despite their disdain and their tendency to look down on her.
Gervaise's goal is not only to keep up with the neighbors but to outdo them. She throws flashy feasts and splashes money around in order to maintain the appearance of being well-to-do even though the more she does this the worse off she becomes. She is in relative awe of her neighbors; they do not care particularly for her as she has working class roots and works for a living, although as a business owner she has raised herself up above her husband, who is a roofer.
The story suggests that the working classes are shiftless and lazy; cannot be trusted; cannot understand how to save their money and that they are given to violence and abusive behavior - basically, all of the behaviors that are undesirable are attributed to this one group and it speaks volumes about the snobbery of the author that he considers this a window into real life rather than an account that is biased or snobbish.
The Demon Drink
When Coupeau is a teetotaler, he is a kind, loving and reliable man who works hard and knows how to be a responsible parent and husband. When he begins to drink, his life spirals out of control and he starts to lose all that has previously mattered to him. Alcohol is not just a beverage in the story, it is a substance that changes a personality in the most alarming way. Alcohol makes it easier for Coupeau to become idle. It makes him angry and violent towards a woman he loved so much. He loses his ability to have fun. He becomes melancholy, depressed and loses the will to live at all. This entire downward spiral is attributed to drink.
Lack of Family Structure
Nana's life also spirals out of control because it mirrors that of her parents'. They fight constantly and she is uncomfortably placed in the middle. They do not take proper care of her. They do not encourage or nurture her and towards the end of the novel there is no money for food or day to day necessities. She feels that there is no option other than to run away from home, but she also has no way to support herself either, and so is forced to work as a prostitute. This theme shows that the lack of a supportive home structure can impact the way in which the next generation live.
