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Situational Irony
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:
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.
Fogg's wager is built on the idea that modern technology and industrialization have made the world much faster to circumnavigate than ever before. When he discovers that part of India has not yet been penetrated by train tracks, one of the industrial technologies that is most important to his hypothesis, Fogg confidently finds another mode of transit. Having gained two days earlier in the journey, he is not worried about this setback. Still, it is ironic that Fogg relies on an elephant to transport him through this part of India. Native to India, elephants are a resource that would have been available to travelers long before the railroads existed. Moreover, the elephant is arguably more effective than Western technology at crossing the terrain. Whereas the railroad company still has to clear the way and build tracks through this region, the elephant can cut right through the "dense forest of palms." Even if the elephant helps Fogg stick to his itinerary, his reliance on this traditional mode of transport challenges the idea that railroads and steamships are what allow a quick journey around the world.
The limitation of modern technology comes up again later in the journey, in Chapter 31. When snow prevents the trains from moving along the tracks in the American Midwest, Fogg and company take a sledge instead:
During the winter, when the trains are blocked up by the snow, these sledges make extremely rapid journeys across the frozen plains from one station to another. Provided with more sail than a cutter, and with the wind behind them, they slip over the surface of the prairies with a speed equal if not superior to that of the express trains.
This moment confirms that it is not only India where modern technology isn't as reliable as traditional transportation. These repeated instances of traditional, regional knowledge prevailing over modern, imperial knowledge contributes to the novel's satire of industrialization and imperialism. Fogg manages to travel around the world in 80 days, but he would not have succeeded if he had insisted on using only the most "cutting-edge" industrial technologies that Europe is exporting all over the world.
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