Wednesday, March 14, 2012

2. Around the World in Eighty Days

          I am reading the book Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. Right now I am on page about 150 of 210.
   
         When we met the characters last  they were on a elephant on their way to Calcutta. When their reached Calcutta they met a new member to their group named Aouda, an Indian women refused to be in an arranged marriage, so Phileas Fogg saved her. Then they headed to Bombay and Passepartout, Mr. Fogg's servant, got into some trouble with some priests. They had to pay a bail so then they could head to Hong Kong.. In Hong Kong the detective following them around drugged Passepart so he couldn't tell Mr. Fogg that the ship to Yokohama. So then they miss the ship and somehow Passepartout makes it on the ship and is on his way. Then Mr. Fogg finds a boat captain to take him to Shanghai where he can catch the ship going to Yokohama and then the States. Then in Yokohama Phileas and Aouda finds Passepartout working as a clown. Then they get back on the ship together as a group and head off on a long journey to the United States. Where I have left off they were all boarding the train from San Fransisco to New York City. All the while the detective is trying to ruin their voyage so he may have time for warrant to come so he may arrest them.
      
         To me this book is just okay, but it has its ups and downs. I don't think that the stories pace will pick up really unless something major happens and causes a last minute arrival of the clan in London. A reason I think the author chose to write this book to show how many different cultures there are in the world and how different they really are. Like how some places their is pretty much only one type of people like in India, but in Japan their were all types of people from all parts of the world.A theme to this book could be traveling and the technology of the late 1800's. An example of the technology is they all had to go by either train or ship unlike taking an airplane in today's world. Today there are jets that travel around the world in just hours. Then they were making bets on if you could make it around the world in eighty days.

       My favorite character is still Phileas Fogg. He is always calm and cool. Even when things are at their worst he never reacts badly or in anger. Everyday of the trip though he seems to get a little bit more excited because he is right on time for his calculations. To me it doesn't seem like that their is any really good quotes in this book it is mainly just normal talk or a narrator. My only aggravating question is are they going to make it in time. It took them fifty-two days to go half way around the world and now only have 28 days to do the rest.

By: Michael Kline

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