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Chapter 22
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
An hour later, Hans returns and wakes Lidenbrock with the news that he has found water. Lidenbrock and Axel follow Hans for an hour and a half. They can hear the subterranean spring flowing in the wall, but they cannot find it, and Axel begins to despair. Hans puts his ear to the wall, finds where the water is loudest, and chips away at the rock with his pickaxe. After an hour of labor, Hans’s patient, continuous strokes open a hole in the wall, producing a jet of water.
Hans saves Lidenbrock and Axel’s lives with his simple and patient pragmatism. When Axel is despairing and ready to give up, Hans breaks through their obstacle with brute force. Lidenbrock and Axel are men of science, but Hans’s strength, perseverance, and practicality are just as useful as their geological expertise.
Themes
The water is boiling, but it soon cools, and the men drink. Axel insists they should fill their bottles and then try to stop up the hole. The men attempt this, but the water pressure is too strong. Lidenbrock suggests they let the water flow, so that it follows them down and provides a constant source of water. Axel agrees that this will enable them to make the journey, and he tells Lidenbrock that he has come around to his way of thinking.
The men try to exert their will over nature, but it is too strong for them. Only when they stop resisting it do they realize that allowing the stream to flow freely will provide them the water they need. This realization suggests that trying to tame nature is futile; cooperating with nature is easier and ultimately more fruitful.
Themes
