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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: the salt marshes. These men, or rather this clan of Bretons, wear a
special costume: a white jacket, something like that of brewers. They
marry among themselves. There is no instance of a girl of the tribe
having ever married any man who was not a paludier.
The horrible aspects of these marshes, these sloughs, the mud of which
was systematically raked, the dull gray earth that the Breton flora
held in horror, were in keeping with the gloom that filled our souls.
When we reached a spot where we crossed an arm of the sea, which no
doubt serves to feed the stagnant salt-pools, we noticed with relief
the puny vegetation which sprouted through the sand of the beach. As
we crossed, we saw the island on which the Cambremers had lived; but
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