Previous Next

Chapters 25–28

Summary: Chapter 25: A Short Stay in San Francisco

The group arrives in San Francisco with a few hours to spare before catching the train to New York at 6:00 that evening. Fogg and Aouda spend the day eating lunch and going to the consulate for a visa. On their way, they run into Detective Fix. Fix explains that he also traveled on the General Grant across the Pacific by coincidence and that he is now on his way back to England for business. Still unsuspecting, Fogg invites Fix to join them on the remainder of their trip. As they continue to walk, they run into a political rally on the street that has devolved into an outright brawl. The rally is for two candidates, Mandiboy, and Camerfield, for the position of the justice of the peace. The group finds themselves surrounded by angry protesters. One of the protesters throws a punch at Fogg, but Fix steps in and takes the blow instead. Fix’s clothes get damaged, and Fogg yells “Yankee” to the protester, an American named Colonel Proctor. Fogg takes the group away from the brawl but promises to come back to America someday to even the score with Colonel Proctor. Fogg and Fix meet up with Passepartout at a tailor shop where they’ve gone to get their crumpled and damaged clothing ironed. Passepartout, encouraged by Fix’s actions to protect Fogg, starts to believe Fix is really standing by his word to not cause any more problems for them.

Summary: Chapter 26: An Encounter with Buffalo

Fogg, Passepartout, Aouda, and Fix ride the train from San Francisco to New York. The train stops when it comes upon a herd of buffalo crossing the railroad tracks. Fogg remains calm, but Passepartout becomes furious and wonders if he should shoot the animals. He realizes this is a futile idea since the buffalo number in the thousands, and if he does kill any, their bodies will only crowd the tracks. Passepartout is aghast at a country such as America, where animals can interfere in people’s lives. After three hours, the buffalo finally pass and train starts up again. They arrive in Salt Lake City, Utah, just after nightfall.

Summary: Chapter 27: Passepartout Learns Some Mormon History

Passepartout finds himself approached by a Mormon missionary named Elder Hitch. Hitch boards train cars preaching about Mormonism, trying to recruit new members for his church. Passepartout feels mildly interested at first because he’s heard that Mormons can have several wives. However, when he finds himself cornered after everyone else has left the droning speech, he refuses Hitch’s pleas to join the church, and he walks back to Fogg’s train car. Suddenly, a stranger who claims to be running away from his wife after a fight jumps onto the train. When Passepartout asks him how many wives he has, the man replies, “one . . . and that is quite enough!”

Summary: Chapter 28: A Jump Across a Bridge

While still on the train to New York, Aouda spots Colonel Proctor, the man who hit Fix at the political rally. Worried that Fogg will fight him and get injured, she comes up with a plan to keep Fogg occupied with a game of whist in his train car. The engineer of the train announces that the train will be delayed for six hours because the Medicine Creek Bridge ahead is too fragile and will collapse. Fogg hears nothing of this, however, because his attention is so focused on the game of whist. Spurred on by Passepartout and Colonel Proctor, the engineer makes a daring move to “jump” the bridge by backing up the train and racing toward the bridge at full speed. The attempt is a success, and the bridge collapses just as they land on the other side. Fogg remains unaware of the entire event, still focused on his game.

Analysis: Chapters 25–28

When Fogg and his crew arrive in San Francisco, they have a new problem to face: the vast, open terrain of the North American continent and its people. Similar to the way he characterizes India, Verne describes the snowy landscapes and vast prairies that cover America as wild, untamed land that is full of danger.

The cultural clashes continue in America as well, just as they did in India. Verne’s portrayals of Americans in the political rally scene demonstrate the clash of British and American cultures and values in the nineteenth century. The people at the rally are rough, ready to fight, and loud, and the rally quickly devolves into a brawl. Fogg makes a remark that an Englishman does not belong in American politics, but even he is surprised to learn that the rally is over the election for the position of, ironically, the justice of the peace. The disorderly nature of the rally further suggests that the American political system might be ineffective, for all its prioritizing of egalitarian voter rights. The scene draws a clear line between Britain and America.

Fogg and Fix become inadvertently engaged in the fight, and Fix is hit by a “Yankee” protester, Colonel Proctor. This event gives Fogg a chance to prove his honor once again by vowing to “settle the score” with Colonel Proctor at a later date, a vow he stands by when he runs into Colonel Proctor on the train. This scenario contrasts English propriety with American ruggedness, showing the marked difference between values in each country. This contrast is further underscored by the fact that Fix and Fogg have gone to get their clothing ironed after getting rumpled at the fight. Fogg might be on tight schedule, but it would be unseemly for he and Fix to walk around in wrinkled clothing.

Passepartout, for all his worldliness, is still a European and joins in on the commentary as well. His passing remarks and consternation about America being a place where people’s travel plans are held at the mercy of a herd of passing buffalos seem innocent, and his fleeing from the Mormon minister lands as a slight on American culture. America is portrayed through Passepartout’s comments as still being undeveloped, backward, and a haven for “wacky” ideas like having more than one wife. At that time, America was a few decades into a concerted effort to prove itself as a sophisticated, cosmopolitan country that could rival Britain. As in India, the goals of expansion and progress are still to be fulfilled in this developing country.

Previous section Chapters 21–24 Next section Chapters 29–32

Take a Study Break