Journey and Discovery

Journey and discovery form an important theme in the novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne. At the time that Verne was writing, great scientific discoveries were being made. New theories were being advanced or challenged –with many of them being noted in the novel. For example, the theory that the center of the earth is not actually composed of magma is challenged by the very idea of a journey to the center of the earth (though, as it is later revealed, the journey does not actually reach the center of the earth, leaving the theory up in the air). The nineteenth century, as a whole, saw not only new scientific discoveries and theories, but remarkable journeys as well –journeys intended to discover new places, peoples, and things, from the Earth’s North and South Poles to the American West...