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Chapter 41
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Journey to the Center of the Earth, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Science and Discovery
Maturity and Independence
Intuition vs. Evidence
Nature vs. Civilization
Adventure
Summary
Analysis
The next day, August 27th, Axel lights the fuse and hurries to the raft, where Lidenbrock and Hans are waiting. When the gunpowder explodes, the force propels the raft down the tunnel. The sea rushes to fill the abyss that lies behind the rock, and Axel realizes they are following Saknussemm’s path but have “brought a sea along with [them].” The raft speeds through the tunnel at what Axel estimates to be 90 miles per hour, forcing the men to hold on to the mast.
Axel sees that the raft has lost most of the men’s provisions, leaving them with only enough for one day. He decides to keep this to himself for now, since Lidenbrock has other concerns. The raft continues to fall for too long to Axel to define, until suddenly it intersects with a massive waterspout, which upends the raft and its passengers. Lidenbrock and Hans grab Axel, and they remain on the raft as it stops on something below them.
In rapid succession, the men face both a dramatic disaster fit for an adventure novel (the waterspout) and a more mundane disaster (the loss of provisions). Positioning these two events so close together as two dangerous outcomes of the same fall highlights that they are equally threatening to the men’s survival. Axel’s decision not to inform Lidenbrock of the lost food also speaks to his growth. At the beginning of the story, Axel concealed information from Lidenbrock for his own sake; now, Axel conceals information from his uncle to help Lidenbrock manage the group’s problems.
Themes
