“‘I don’t want any troublemakers’ Jones went on. ‘In the Rhondda Valley they’ve been on strike for forty-three weeks because of people like your fathers stirring them up.’”

Perceval Jones, the chairman of Celtic Minerals, which owns and operates the Aberowen mines, warns young Billy and Tommy against causing “trouble.” In this quote, the antagonism between the management of the mines and the workers is made clear. Workers strike for safe working conditions and fair pay while management tries to cut costs and suppress uprisings. This anecdote also alludes to the boys’ fathers’ socialist beliefs.

“Fitz cherished tradition […] It was only a century or so since the French nobility had been driven in carts to the guillotine, and the same would happen here if some of those muscular black-faced miners had their way.”

Fitz is characterized as a privileged member of the aristocracy who cherishes traditional and conservative values. His fear of social unrest and uprising and his lack of sympathy for the miners who extract the coal that brings in his huge fortune is made clear.

‘“When I was a girl, I was made to watch three peasants being hanged,’ she said. ‘My mother didn’t like it, but my grandfather insisted. He said: ‘This is to teach you to punish your servants. If you do not slap them or flog them for small offenses or carelessness and laziness, they will eventually commit larger sins and end up on the scaffold.’”

Bea refers to the hanging where Grigori and Lev’s father is killed after grazing his cattle on land that technically belonged to Bea. The quote illustrates the cruelty of the Russian aristocracy and foreshadows the uprising of workers and peasants in the Russian revolution.