Structure in Underworld (feature posted by Charlie)

This is a really interesting, engaging and well-structured piece. I recognized several elements and devices in this piece that are dealt with in Telling true stories and Writing for story.
The piece draws scene. The reader feels grabbed in the piece thanks to the first scene that shows the everyday life of this coal miner and his environment. This “zoom in” is a clever technique to get the reader involved. This focus on one particular worker makes us feel engaged; we can identify with him. Moreover, through the piece the writer uses dialogs to show that the coal miners belong to a low social class and to give the reader insights of the workers’ personalities (“I asked Pap’s wife, Nancy, the woman he called “the old bag I live with”).
The lede is clear (“We still have coal mines? I got that question a lot when I told people that I was hanging out in a coal mine.”). The article answers the following questions: What is it like to work in a coal mine? What are the working conditions like? How can someone still be willing to work there?
Then, the complication seems to be the following one: coal miners have harsh working conditions and one can wonder how they manage to accept such a life.
Throughout the piece, the author brings the resolution showing which kind of life workers really have and dealing with the reasons that motivates them to work in the mine (wages, family tradition…).
The piece is divided into several small stories which all have their own complication-resolution structure. For example, one part deals with the reasons why the workers the journalist has met are working in the mine. The writer underlines the complication in each of them’s lives that made them decide to work in the mine.
I think that this piece has a strong structure. However, on the overall the writer is too intrusive. We are given too much of the author’s inner thoughts. For me, the piece is between the profile style and the personal journalism one.