Journey To The Center Of The Earth
Professor Otto Lidenbrock is doing some research trying to decipher a certain set of words from some old piece of paper. He gets his nephew; Axel invloed. Who was staying with him for a while and studying since just like his uncle. So why not ask him for help? Who else would be better suited for this task? Now Axel, who loved and cared for his uncle, sometimes found his uncle a little kooky. But he agreed to help decide the words on the paper. After all, being with his uncle was much more interesting than being with anyone else. After several hours of small breaks Axel began to complain. Not out loud, but his thoughts began to wander to food. He wanted to eat so badly but his uncle told him that they wouldn’t eat until they figured out what the paper said.
Axel began to give up hope, so to clear his head he went for a walk. Maybe he could try to figure it out again once his head was clear. When he returned he found that his uncle was packing, because he figured it out. He was going on a trip to the center of the earth. Axel was sure that his uncle had lost it. A journey to the center of the earth? He was joking, right? He wasn’t joking, he was dead set on going to Iceland where there was an extinct volcano that was the entrance to the center of the earth. So the next day they went on a train to Iceland.
Linderbrock told their host of his plans. The host thought that the professor was off his rocker. And maybe he was. I do question it throughout the rest of the story. So does his nephew. Their host said that he wouldn’t be joining them on their walk towards the mountains, but he did steer them in the direction of a good guide, he provided them with food, water, and 4 horses. Two for their luggage and two for them to ride. Hans, their guide, chose to simply walk. They traveled for a distance but stopped several times so that their horses could rest. Throughout their trip to the volcano they endured many hardships like terrible wind when they began to climb the mountain.
Finally they made it to the summit of Mount Sneffels. But not without some complaints from Axel. Of course he never voiced his thoughts out loud to his uncle or Hans. Once they made it into the crater Linderbrock found that there was a hole that led into the center of the earth. It was nighttime when they finally made it into the tunnel, the best plan of action was for them to rest then explore tomorrow.
They were in a lava cave for a while and the whole time Axel irrationally panicking. Eventually they made it out of the lava cave and found different structures ‘built’ just like the inside of Gothic cathedrals and Roman buildings. As their long journey continued they realized that they had to ration their food and water. Which Axel wasn’t too thrilled about. He was also worried about running out of water and then dying of thirst but he knew arguing with his uncle was going to be pointless so he kept quiet. The rest of their Journey down this tunnel led to a dead end so they decided to make a camp for the night, or at least they thought it was night, before heading back and trying a different direction.
Their first day back to the multiple tunnels they ran out of water. Linderbrock informed his nephew that there had to be water somewhere in these tunnels, he went to go look for water but then later came back to rest with the others. Hans decided to try and look for water. Eventually he came back and he said that he found water well, more like he heard it, but he wasn’t sure where to go from there. Together the party went off into this tunnel to search for water. They do find a spot to make a hole in the wall and they get water, since there wasn’t another way to get the water. They continued down that tunnel until they came to a steep spiral staircase and everyone decided to rest before they gave the staircase a try because their legs were sore from their long walk. They make it to the end of the staircase. Somehow Axel gets separated from his uncle and their guide and he is lost. He panics for a long while, but they eventually find him.
Axle passed out, when he woke up he saw that his uncle had dragged him onto a strange beach where the sky had strange stars and a weird moon. They took a walk and saw huge trees that were bigger than an average tree. Some had colorson their leaves.
Hans, Lidenbrock, and Axel make a raft to see the other side of the strange beach. While they were on the raft they caught fish for food and saw that some were blind and others had no organs and some were both blind and had no organs.
Later on they saw a serpent creature with a turtle shell on its back and a fish lizard. The traveling party was afraid that the monsters were going to attack them. But instead the monster fought each other. The serpent monster lost and died.
They were caught in a terrible storm and ended up on some rocks/an island. They explored until they found a dagger that belonged to someone that they thought came from the surface a long time ago. They had rebuilt their raft and were now continuing down a tunnel with water. Where they all saw these giant apes that wanted to attack them. Axel began to panic because no one else was making a move to stop the creatures. It turns out that Axel was dreaming.
They drifted down for a while until it started to feel real hot, and Axel’s uncle said that they might be entering another volcano. Which they did and somehow they were shot out of the volcano.
The whole way through the book Axel would panic about the worst times and right times. Because half the time I would agree with him that his uncle was completely off his rocker, and other times I personally think that maybe Axel was being melodramatic. Overall the book was very entertaining to read.
Shayly's School Work 