Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Around the World in Eighty Days, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Modernity, Time, and Control
Imperialism
Chance, Adventure, and Human Connection
Honor, Reputation, and Duty
Summary
Analysis
After three days on the train, Fogg is still on schedule to make it to New York within another four days. They pass through Nebraska, where the Union Pacific Railroad was inaugurated in 1867 as “a mighty instrument of progress and civilization” and an imitation battle was performed by the local Sioux and Pawnee Indian tribes for the occasion.
Although Verne portrays the railroad as a positive sign of progress for everyone in the United States, the reader can infer that the local tribes were forced participants in this ceremony and were likely driven out of their land to accommodate construction.
Themes
Fogg, Passepartout, Aouda, and Fix continue to play whist. Suddenly, Colonel Stamp Proctor appears and makes himself known to Fogg. He challenges Fogg to a duel with revolvers at the next stop, but the conductor prevents them from getting off since they are behind schedule and suggests that they fight as the train goes along instead. Just as Fogg and Colonel Proctor draw their guns and prepare to fight, they hear “savage cries” and see that the train is being attacked by a band of Sioux Indians armed with guns
Fogg and Colonel Proctor’s mutual interest in the duel demonstrates the importance of masculine honor in both British and American cultures; both are willing to risk their lives in a gunfight merely to prove that they are not subordinate to the other man.
Themes
The Sioux chief mistakenly opens the steam valve instead of closing it, and the train moves forward rapidly. As the Sioux pillage the train and shoot at passengers, the conductor is wounded, so Passepartout climbs under the moving train cars in order to reach the front. He detaches the train from the engine, and it comes to a stop. The Sioux flee the train as soldiers from the nearby Fort Kearny rush in to help. At the station platform, a headcount reveals that three passengers are missing—including Passepartout.
The Sioux’s attack of the train implies that there is a considerable amount of cultural and racial tension at play in the United States. The tribe is likely motivated by the injustice of having their land taken by the government. Passepartout’s actions during this conflict are courageous—he goes above and beyond his duty as Fogg’s servant and potentially sacrifices himself in order to save his friends and the other passengers.
Themes
