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Chapter 21
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Around the World in Eighty Days, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Modernity, Time, and Control
Imperialism
Chance, Adventure, and Human Connection
Honor, Reputation, and Duty
Summary
Analysis
The narration reveals that Passepartout, having awoken in a stupor after his opium high, made it onto the Carnatic just as it was embarking. He worries what Fogg will think of him for getting drunk and whether he should tell his master about Detective Fix’s revelation. Passepartout is even more distressed when he learns that Fogg and Aouda are not on the Carnatic and realizes Fix’s plan of getting him intoxicated so that they would miss the steamer.
Passepartout’s stress over Fogg’s potential judgement of him shows that his master’s opinion is valuable to him. Even though he is Fogg’s subordinate, Passepartout is motivated by a similar sense of gentlemanly honor and duty; failing Fogg means tarnishing his reputation as a faithful servant.
Themes
Arriving in Yokohama’s European quarter, Passepartout finds that the city, like Hong Kong and Calcutta, has a diverse population. He decides to venture into the Japanese quarter and marvels at the “motley crowd” he encounters with different appearances and manners of dress than he is used to seeing.
