Molly Rathert
Mr. Higgerson
Science Fiction
May 4, 2023
How Did Motivations Change in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? In the Novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, written by Jules Verne, many of the main character's motivations changed during their 10 month underwater excursion on the Nautilus. These characters' motivations were modified for many different reasons, but their ultimate cause of change was because of a huge action Captain Nemo took. After Nemo sunk that ship and killed all of those innocent people, no one looked at him or the Nautilus the same. For example, Professor Arronax loved being on the Nautilus. He used this amazing opportunity to do a whole bunch of research, which ultimately motivated him. The text states, “Thanks to
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His main motivation in the Nautilus was getting revenge on the people that have wronged him. He got his revenge by running into and sinking the ships with the Nautilus. The text states, “‘How did he get this wound?” I asked him.“That’s not important,” the captain replied evasively. “The Nautilus suffered a collision that cracked one of the engine levers, and it struck this man.” Although we don’t know for sure what caused the collision, we can infer that it was Nemo running into a ship because he was trying to hide it from the rest of the crew. Despite the fact that Nemo still wanted to get his revenge on people from the land, at the end he started feeling remorse and empathy for those he killed in the sinking of the battleship. The text states, “On the rear paneling, beneath the portraits of his heroes, I saw the portrait of a still-youthful woman with two little children. Captain Nemo stared at them for a few moments, stretched out his arms to them, sank to his knees, and melted into sobs.” This evidence shows that after Nemo got his vengeance on the ship and everyone saw who he really was, he broke out in tears. Nemo always was getting revenge on these ships, but he didn’t realize his wrong until the