Travelling the World Essay -- Literary Analysis, Jules Verne

In the nineteenth century, it seemed impossible to circumnavigate the world in only eighty days. That, however, was exactly what Phileas Fogg did in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. This novel follows the journey of the eccentric Englishman, Phileas Fogg, after he bet he could race around the world in just eighty days. Accompanied by his faithful servant, Passepartout, and a scheming detective, Fix, he encountered and overcame many challenges in order to return in time to win the bet. In Around the World in Eighty Days, Jules Verne demonstrated how industrialization profoundly impacted travel, technology, and business. In addition, Verne showed how industrialization contributed to the rise of nationalism and European imperialism. Industrialization was an important economic development of the nineteenth century. Industrialization was the process of turning an agricultural society into an industrialized one, based on the manufacturing of goods and services. This meant new technological innovation and economic development. Industrialization was important because it led to new technologies and inventions that vastly improved life, such as the steam engine and the water frame. Industrialization also impacted businesses by stimulating and enabling their expansion into new markets for raw materials, consumers, and investments. Industrialization also impacted Fogg’s journey. Phileas Fogg’s journey was made possible by the growing industrialization of the time. One example of industrialization in the novel was the extensive use of trains. During the nineteenth century, nations all over the world built rail lines. When Phileas Fogg reached India, for example, the change from old forms of transportation to ... ...gh the eyes of their domestics† (24). In this case, Fogg was not concerned with learning the natives’ culture. Like many European governments, he only cared that his country obtained the land, but did not care about the people in it. Ultimately, imperialism had a worldwide impact in the nineteenth century. In Around the World in Eighty Days, Jules Verne demonstrated how industrialization profoundly impacted travel, technology, and business. In addition, Verne showed how industrialization contributed to the rise of nationalism and European imperialism. Verne’s novel showed how industrialization, nationalism, and imperialism affected individuals. It also demonstrated how these themes interacted and influenced each other. Ultimately, Around the World in Eighty Days exhibited the important movements of the nineteenth century and their significance in history.