Then there are dystopias. The exact opposites of a utopia. Everything is going wrong in this dysfunctional society. Broken, Evil, Terrible are just some of the adjectives to describe them. This is what many people think our world will become in the future.
But what do these terrible places have to do with four men and their canine friend stuck on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Lincoln Island is a direct dystopia, in that it is just simply an undesirable place to be in; a small, uninhabited isle in the middle of nowhere. Most fictional dystopias have a deep controversy behind them, a certain dark problem like a tyrannical ruler or a lack of understanding. But Lincoln Island is nothing, and while the band of castaways manage to survive, and meet most of their basic needs, it's still far from the pleasures of the Industrialized America of which they were thrown away from.
Speaking of which, shows a message which most of us are familiar with, "Don't take what you have for granted."
How their lives went from being prisoners of the Confederates to prisoners of nature, where they were forced to survive with nothing but themselves. It shows how one day a businessman maybe doing great business, the next day stocks are crashing and he is bankrupt. How one day an athlete is performing way-above standard, the next day a career-ending injury befalls him/her. It all happens oh so suddenly, and Jules Verne touches up on these aspects of life.
One thing I noticed about the book was the way in which Verne portrayed the freed black slave Neb, who stayed with his master even after he was freed. This style of writing, portraying black slaves as wise, loyal and thankful people, was very common in the pre-Black Rights Movement era. It almost seems as if Verne wanted to portray slaves as people who liked being servants, a very ignorant view in my opinion.
Whether that is true or not cannot be found, as Verne has long been 6 feet under. However, not all the hidden messages are negative. One more important aspect that he is trying to show is something that is too often absent in our separated, jealous world, and that is teamwork and co-operation. This was a fitting message to put in the book in Verne's time; America was on the rise as a global power, but for it to truly succeed it needed the whole American populace to work for mutual good. Jules Verne was trying to point out how important it is to anybody's success. His characters were essentially role models for the ideal American citizen; loyal, intelligent, resourceful and eager.
I think Verne did a great job in pointing out some of society's inadequacies, and how important it is to resolve those inadequacies. As it is commonly said, the moral of the story is without the ability to look past one's differences and without teamwork there will be no success.
But what do these terrible places have to do with four men and their canine friend stuck on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? Lincoln Island is a direct dystopia, in that it is just simply an undesirable place to be in; a small, uninhabited isle in the middle of nowhere. Most fictional dystopias have a deep controversy behind them, a certain dark problem like a tyrannical ruler or a lack of understanding. But Lincoln Island is nothing, and while the band of castaways manage to survive, and meet most of their basic needs, it's still far from the pleasures of the Industrialized America of which they were thrown away from.
Speaking of which, shows a message which most of us are familiar with, "Don't take what you have for granted."
How their lives went from being prisoners of the Confederates to prisoners of nature, where they were forced to survive with nothing but themselves. It shows how one day a businessman maybe doing great business, the next day stocks are crashing and he is bankrupt. How one day an athlete is performing way-above standard, the next day a career-ending injury befalls him/her. It all happens oh so suddenly, and Jules Verne touches up on these aspects of life.
One thing I noticed about the book was the way in which Verne portrayed the freed black slave Neb, who stayed with his master even after he was freed. This style of writing, portraying black slaves as wise, loyal and thankful people, was very common in the pre-Black Rights Movement era. It almost seems as if Verne wanted to portray slaves as people who liked being servants, a very ignorant view in my opinion.
Whether that is true or not cannot be found, as Verne has long been 6 feet under. However, not all the hidden messages are negative. One more important aspect that he is trying to show is something that is too often absent in our separated, jealous world, and that is teamwork and co-operation. This was a fitting message to put in the book in Verne's time; America was on the rise as a global power, but for it to truly succeed it needed the whole American populace to work for mutual good. Jules Verne was trying to point out how important it is to anybody's success. His characters were essentially role models for the ideal American citizen; loyal, intelligent, resourceful and eager.
I think Verne did a great job in pointing out some of society's inadequacies, and how important it is to resolve those inadequacies. As it is commonly said, the moral of the story is without the ability to look past one's differences and without teamwork there will be no success.
