This book is called 20,000 leagues under the sea. It was a classic novel written by Jules Verne in 1870, before submarines were a reality and invented. The story begins with everyone in Europe and America spreading rumors about a giant mysterious creature sinking ships on the sea and destroying surface vessels. Due to this mystery that haunts every sailors and people that involved, the United States government decide to send out Abraham Lincoln to search and capture the creature. On board the ship are a marine biologist and a protagonist, Professor Pierre Aronnax along with his servant, Conseil. And in addition, Ned Land , the king of the harpooners. They had join a task force to rid the seas of a monster terrorizing shipping lanes which also known as the "monster".
And so, the journey starts at the Alantic Ocean. Traveling across the sea for a long period of time, the team still has not find the sea monster, but little they know, they find out the creature in the Pacific Ocean and they chase it along to where it goes. But unfortuntely, the monster is far beyond faster than the Abraham Lincoln to catch its prey. During the long chase, the Abraham Lincoln is damaged badly and sinks to the bottom of the sea the three characters have fall overboard into the ocean. To their surprise, they eventually become conscious and find that they are on top of the mysterious creature that they are hunting for. And on top of it, they realize that the creature is not alive at all, its actually an underwater vessel controlled by the commander of this vessel, Captain Nemo. Under Captain Nemo's acknowledgement, the vessel is called Nautilus. It is powered by electricity and is a highly technoligical submarine. Captain Nemo is also a scientific genius, he created the vessel. In order to "escape" the real world and seek for adventure. He recruited his crews and live his life alone under the sea.
Later, Aronnax, Conseil and Land were captured and were told to stay in the vessel and enjoy the freedom . And also they were permitted to leave the ship and were treated as prisonners. In the vessel, Captain Nemo treats the men very wel, especially Aronnax. They are clothed and fed and could wander around the vessel for their pleasure. However, Ned Land remains firm and promised that he will try to escape the vessel. In the vessel, they almost spend all their time in the vessel observing the mysterious sea life . Arronax who are guided by Captain Nemo was fascinated by the wonders of the sea, as well as Conseil. Meanwhile, Aronnax also studies and writes about every sea creature that he sees and observes. Despite the amazing sea life surrounding the Nautilus, that was difficult to be found by man in a hundred of years and the captain's continous generosity and servings. Ned still want to escape the vessel and was losing impatience day by day. Sighting Ned's impressions, Arronax gave his words to Ned that if there are chances to leave, they will leave. But because of the greatness of the captain's genourisity, he does not want to least anger the captain and was still hesitating about his promises to Ned and Captain Nemo.
Years in the submarine, they experience exciting adventures like travelling to barbarian lands, the lost city of Atlantis,trapping underneath a gigantic iceberg and even the fight of an enormous squid monster. On the voyage to the South Pole, the Nautililus was stuck in an iceberg. At that moment, everyone was told to take turns to break the ice so that the vessel could work again. Because of the incident, The vessel almost runs out of oxygen and the men in the ship eventually grew tired. However, they manage to escape under the hardworks of the men. After about one year on the Nautilus, the submarine was in the North Atlantic, the vessel met an incident again, it was attacked by a giant squid. The three main characters and the men in the vessel were forced to fight the squid with axes and spears because they cannot kill the squid with bullets. Along the great fight, a crewmember is killed by the squid and Nemo was depressed and in tears. Finally, the men drived off the squid. After the attack of the squid, the three main charcter decide to take the chance to escape from the vessel. But on their way, they got trapped in a whirlpool that no ships had ever survived through it. But amazingly, the small boat they boarded manage to overcome the whirlpool and emerge safely.
At the end of the story, Aronnax is awaiting his return to France and rewriting his memories of his journey under the sea. After reading this classic novel, I feel that this book is incredibly amazing and interesting to read as it had lots of science-fiction and a space of imaginations. I also feels that this book inspired me alot to think more creative and in depth when writing a story. And more importantly, the pleasure of imaginating unbelievable stuff.
Monday, August 9, 2010
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