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
On August 20th, the men are still at sea. They hear a distant sound, and a few hours later Hans sees a jet of water rise above the waves many miles away. Axel fears what kind of creature could produce a stream so huge and unceasing. They sail towards the water and discover that it comes from a geyser on an island. The men carry the raft across the island, and Axel pauses to take the temperature of the geyser water. When he finds that it is well past boiling, he concludes that the water must have come from a burning center, disproving Lidenbrock’s theory about the center of the earth. He points this out, but Lidenbrock insists the evidence has no relevance to his theory. Axel measures their location and finds that they are now underneath England.
Axel and Lidenbrock continue to debate their respective theories regarding the center of the earth, and that debate continues to revolve around what pieces of evidence they accept as valid. Lidenbrock’s dismissal of Axel’s evidence here comes across, somewhat oddly, as Lidenbrock cherry picking evidence that supports his theory and discarding evidence that disproves it.
Themes
