Will+T

=__T____he journey to the center of the earth__=

__Plot:__
The story begins as a story with a professor and his nephew. The professor comes across an ancient piece of Icelandic literature. His nephew Harry (the narrator of the story) deciphers the Icelandic language first, but doesn’t want to tell his uncle because he knows how he can be when he finds a adventure. Eventually he tells Professor Hardwigg that he found it out and two days later they set off to Mt. Sneffels Iceland \. When they arrive they stay at Icelandic homes along the way. Soon after telling people of their present adventure, Hans a native to Iceland who has scaled Mt. Sneffels before offers them his services. They soon start going down the volcano and when they finally do get down they find all sorts of prehistoric things such as 40 foot tall mushrooms and prehistoric plants and animals. After several days Harry collapse from dehydration but Professor Hardwigg begs that the group goes on for at least one more day if they find no water. The next day they find water and come across an ocean and they take several days to cross it. Along the way across the sea Professor Hardwigg becomes impatient and gets a crowbar attached to a steel cord and throws it over board and finds that the sea in hundreds of feet deep and the crowbars had all sorts of teeth marks on it. The next day two sea monsters fight and almost swamp the raft. When they reach the shore they find human and animal skeletons at the shore and they wonder if the humans preexisted under the earth or above it. Harry soon after finds a dagger that Professor Hardwigg says is from the 16Th century and they find the letters A.S. inscribed on the cave wall. They find a cave blocked by granite then soon after they blow open the cave and pushed the raft in it to leave. The giser of hot air pushed them to the top out of the volcano and they slid down the mountainside to find they are in Stromboli, Italy. Once they arrive back in Germany they are treated like heroes.

__Characters:__
Professor Hardwigg: this man is the main character of the story and knows a lot about geology, biology and many other ogy’s. This character leads the other characters of the story despite his old age. He is also the uncle of Harry another main character and his personal aide. Harry: this character is the Narrator of the story and is the personal aide of Professor Hardwigg his Uncle. He is well educated and knows many sciences but not near as many as professor Hardwigg. Hans: this character is a main character and he is a native to Iceland. The reason Professor Hardwigg and Harry allowed him on the trip is because he knows his way up Mt. Sneffels and he knows his way around the land, so he would be a valuable asset on the adventure. “Was I to believe him in earnest in his intention to penetrate to the centre of this massive globe? Had I been listening to the mad speculations of a lunatic, or to the scientific conclusions of a lofty genius? Where did truth stop? Where did error begin?” this quote is in the beginning of the book in the 2nd chapter where they just deciphered the Icelandic piece of literature. This quote means basically; Harry is asking himself how can this be right? This is so crazy to even imagine something like this let alone do it! Was he all this time listening to a man who rants of insane ideas or is he just that much of a genius "Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth." This quote is in the first chapter and is referring to science of course. This is saying that science is all mistaken no matter if you think it is truth it is a mistake because theories are all flawed since they cannot be proven or proven absolutely wrong. " . . . as long as the heart beats, as long as body and soul keep together, I cannot admit that any creature endowed with a will has need to despair of life." This quote says that so long as one lives with a moral sense it cannot not want life.

__Themes and symbols__
One major theme of this book is Adventure. An example would be the old Professor Hardwigg despite his age wants to prove this theory of his correct and if he would have died then it would be all worth it. Evidence from the book shows that when Harry collapse from dehydration the Professor begs Harry that they not turn back and they keep going for at least one more day or not at all if they find water. The reason professor Hardwigg pushes himself to keep going is because he feels he still needs to prove himself. A symbol would be the raft they traveled on. The reason the raft is a good symbol it represents quick thinking. The raft of course was used to get across the sea they called the central sea. The raft also was used to get back to the surface by using it to shoot up the volcano and riding it all the way down the mountain side, a good idea thanks to quick thinking. Water, another symbol in the story that is very important. The reason it is important is because it sustains all life not just the main characters lives but all life they are discovering. If there were no water in the center of the earth this book would get very boring. Water sustains the life they are discovering and helps them keep their own, an example would be that when Harry becomes dehydrated water saves his life simply.