Analysis of Novel: Journey To the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne

1.      INTRODUCTION

This book consists of 20 chapters. This book is about the quest to the centre of the earth. The expedition is led by Professor Otto Liedenbrock and includes Axel and their Icelandic guide Hans. Liedenbrock stumbles upon this discovery when he was going through a runic script. In the runic script he discovers a coded message written by an Icelandic alchemist Arne Saknussemm, saying that he has been to the centre of the earth. He goes on to describe how exactly he did it. So Professor Otto Liedenbrock, Axel, and Hans go to Sneffels where they are let down by cloudy skies. But on the last day the sun comes out and they enter the correct crater.

Jules Verne was born in France (1828) and died (1905), spending his life writing many books. After his first book was published in 1863, he devoted his life to writing. Verne had no formal training in science. His passion was geography; everything else he learned from his reading, which included about fifteen newspapers a day. He took voluminous notes giving him a good sense of the emerging knowledge in many fields. He was very modest about his ability to predict inventions, saying he only extended what was already happening at the time.

From a scientific point of view, this story has not aged quite as well as other Verne stories, since most of his ideas about what the interior of the Earth contains have since been soundly refuted. However, a redeeming point to the story is Verne's own belief, told within the novel from the viewpoint of a character, that the inside of the Earth does indeed differ from that which the characters anticipate. One of Verne's main ideas with his stories was also to educate the readers, and by placing the different extinct creatures the characters meet in their correct geological era, he is able to show how the world looked a long time ago, stretching from the ice age to the dinosaurs.

2.      SUMMARY

This novel began when Professor Liddenbrock found a strange parchment in an old book, and he saw a code of manuscript that he could not read. Although he had tried to read it, but he still could not understand. Actually Axel, his nephew understood what the code mean, but he didn’t want to tell to his uncle. The code had mean about journey to the centre of the earth was possible, and he knew that his uncle would interest to do it. So, he just stayed calm. But, because he saw his uncle like a frustrated man where never eat and just learn about the code, so Axel didn’t bear and told about what the code means. After that, his uncle immediately was willing to make the trip as what has been done by Arne saknussemm, previous adventurer.

Then, Professor Liddenbrock invited his nephew to accompany him in the journey to the centre of the earth and prepared for the journey. They started the journey in May and pass through some areas like Copenhagen and many village in Iceland. In Iceland, they had a mountain guide, namely Hans that accompany them along their journey. And then, they climbed Sneffels, a five thousand high mountain (dead volcano). They headed to the base of the mountain through the chimney by using a rope. They found many wonderful things such as caves, underground sea, big mushrooms, strange creature like a monster, and traces of wear and hand carving knife by Arne Saknussemm, and also other things that they had never seen in the surface. Besides, they experienced stressful events such as when they didn’t have water anymore and more over when the storm came and broke their raft.

After they pass through various obstacles, they arrived at a place which is only four thousand miles from the centre of the earth. The place is very hot and they blow up the gun powder on the walls of underground caves until the hot water out of the wall. Then, the water that brought them out up to the surface and arrived Stromboli in Italy. When they saw the mountain Stromboli erupted, they descended the mountain through to a farm. They were confused where they were, and then there was a little boy who said that they were in Tromboli and they realized that they were in Italy. After that, they stayed for a few days there. Then, Professor Liddenbrock returned to Jermany while Axel and Marry returned to Iceland and get married.

4.      CONCLUSION

The setting in this novel is so clear. Like as:

a)      Setting of time, where they wrote the time when they did something and experienced events, time the story is taking place like year, minutes, hour, day, month, week, etc. It tells us something about the story as details as possible. Then it made the story easier to understand every event that happened.

b)      Setting of location, they have many different of location in this novel with stressful experienced. Where they taking place in the sea, on the mountain, in the cave, in a city, etc. the author mention the setting of location so clear and details modify the setting of location.

c)      Setting of circumstances, there are many situations in this story that bring us to feel what the actors felt. Such as scary situation when they looked strange creature like a monster, when the storm occurred, and when Axel lost alone. We can feel the same frightened feeling like them. Besides that, a happy situation when they were saved from the dead, we feel happy too. And then, when their problems were solved, we feel roomy.