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Chapter 27
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
Passepartout and Detective Fix are both impatient and weary of delays as the train continues on. Aouda realizes that Colonel Stamp Proctor, the man who insulted Fogg in San Francisco, is also a passenger on the train, and warns Passepartout and Fix about this while Fogg is asleep. Worried that a conflict with Colonel Proctor will throw off Fogg’s schedule, they agree to distract him by playing whist.
As Fogg is nearing the end of his journey, Fix and Aouda start to adopt a similar antagonism toward time that Fogg and Passepartout have held all along. Rather than accepting obstacles as they come, they are committed to maintaining a tight rein over Fogg’s environment in order to keep him on schedule.
Themes
Literary Devices
Just after the train crosses the Rocky Mountains, it suddenly lets out a loud whistling sound and stops. Passepartout rushes out of the car with some other passengers and sees a red signal blocking the train due to a broken suspension bridge ahead. At the suggestion of an American passenger, the conductor decides to put the train on the highest speed in order to cross the bridge before it breaks.
Verne pokes fun at several different cultures throughout the novel. Here, the American’s risky suggestion reflects a caricaturized view of the country’s people, in contrast with the more conservative British. Americans here are bold, adventurous, and willing to take risks even if it means putting people in danger.
Themes
Passepartout points out that it would be safer for them to cross the bridge on foot and for the train to come after, but the conductor and other passengers ignore him. Moving at the highest possible speed, the train “leaps” safely across the river, and the bridge collapses into the rapids below just after they make it over.
Though Passepartout is usually the first among Fogg’s companions to deviate from the group and go on adventures, this plan seems too far-fetched even for him. Whereas gambling is important to Fogg and other Brits, Americans are portrayed as taking this faith in chance a step further.
Themes
