Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Journey to the Center of the Earth, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Discovery
Maturity and Independence
Intuition vs. Evidence
Nature vs. Civilization
Adventure
Summary
Analysis
Lidenbrock and Hans bring Axel to their campsite, and Lidenbrock instructs Axel to rest. Before he falls asleep, Axel asks the date. Lidenbrock answers that it is late at night on August 9th, meaning Axel had been on his own for four days. The following morning, Axel wakes and finds that his companions established their campsite in a large grotto lit by natural light from an opening above them. Lidenbrock celebrates Axel’s improvement, but Axel expresses concern that he is imagining daylight in the grotto. Lidenbrock says that the light is real, but he cannot explain it because it is inexplicable, and “geological knowledge is far from final.” He tells Axel that they will embark the next day.
The men have made a remarkable scientific discovery, but they cannot explain the science behind it. Even Lidenbrock, the book’s greatest mind, can only tell his nephew that their understanding of their field is “far from final.” The quest to keep learning is never over, in a sense, and the adventurers will never find concrete answers to all their questions.
Themes
