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Similes
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—Human Error:
In Chapter 1, the narration describes Fogg's reason for firing the servant Passepartout replaces. This moment is one of the first instances where the novel satirizes the industrialized world's expectation that human workers can and should behave like machines:
On this very 2nd of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—A Regular Machine:
Passepartout first agrees to work as Fogg's servant under the impression that the job will allow him to settle down in London and embrace a predictable routine. In Chapter 2, Passepartout uses a metaphor to describe Fogg's predictability as an employer:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“This is just what I wanted! Ah, we shall get on together, Mr. Fogg and I! What a domestic and regular gentleman! A real machine; well, I don’t mind serving a machine.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—A Regular Machine:
Passepartout first agrees to work as Fogg's servant under the impression that the job will allow him to settle down in London and embrace a predictable routine. In Chapter 2, Passepartout uses a metaphor to describe Fogg's predictability as an employer:
Unlock with LitCharts A+“This is just what I wanted! Ah, we shall get on together, Mr. Fogg and I! What a domestic and regular gentleman! A real machine; well, I don’t mind serving a machine.”
Related Themes:
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—Elephants and Sledges:
There is a moment of situational irony in Chapter 11, when Fogg and his companions must charter an elephant to cross part of India:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Provisions were purchased at Kholby, and while Sir Francis and Mr. Fogg took the howdahs on either side, Passepartout got astride the saddle-cloth between them. The Parsee perched himself on the elephant’s neck, and at nine o’clock they set out from the village, the animal marching off through the dense forest of palms by the shortest cut.
Related Themes:
Chapter 31
Explanation and Analysis—Elephants and Sledges:
There is a moment of situational irony in Chapter 11, when Fogg and his companions must charter an elephant to cross part of India:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Provisions were purchased at Kholby, and while Sir Francis and Mr. Fogg took the howdahs on either side, Passepartout got astride the saddle-cloth between them. The Parsee perched himself on the elephant’s neck, and at nine o’clock they set out from the village, the animal marching off through the dense forest of palms by the shortest cut.
Related Themes:
Chapter 37
Explanation and Analysis—Human Error:
In Chapter 1, the narration describes Fogg's reason for firing the servant Passepartout replaces. This moment is one of the first instances where the novel satirizes the industrialized world's expectation that human workers can and should behave like machines:
Unlock with LitCharts A+On this very 2nd of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving-water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.
Related Themes:
