Section 3

Pictures

The Rescue of Captain Harding             The Discovery of the Chest                             Captain Nemo                              The Last Hope

 

The Rescue of Captain Harding

The Rescue of Captain Harding is the name of my first picture because the other characters have found him and are bringing him of the beach back home to the Chimneys on a stretcher of sticks and seaweed. This is the first of the unusual and unexplained events that happen to the colonists. It is also the first close escape by the men. Without the engineer, the other men would have likely lost Neb out of grief and would’ve had an immense more difficult time living on the island, without Captain Harding’s skills and Neb’s determination.  The picture sheds light on how the colonists care for the Captain so much that they, instead of carrying him between their arms, gave him a stretcher which they made with no tools other than their hands! It also shows that the colonists will rise to any occasion. They searched day and night for their master and found him and almost immediately brought him back to their camp.

The info in the picture that is cannot be shown in the text is how everything actually looks on the island. Whenever you read a novel without pictures, you are always imagining what the scene looks like in the real world. Often, you miss details such as the sky, the colour of the ground, and what the characters look like. I didn’t picture a sky with clouds but some spots of blue sky when I was reading the book. I didn’t picture sandy bluffs with small plants on them. Pictures show what the story would look like if it was a movie.

The Discovery of the Chest

The Discovery of the Chest is the name of my second picture. It shows the adventurers finding the chest, full of supplies from knives to guns to cooking utensils. It is a turning point in the novel. It gives the colonists many items it would be impossible or almost impossible to come by, such as a bible or a telescope. Of course the engineer would eventually make a gun with his amazing skills, but this was a godsend to them, so to speak. It was Captain Nemo who gave it to them, although this is not explained at the time. The picture sheds light on the reaction of the colonists when they found the chest. It shows one man waving his hat in delight with the others coming running. While reading the book, the reader never thinks about what the characters are doing to get to a special item of importance. When I read the passage where the colonists find the chest, if you made a movie of what I imagined when I read that, you would see a group of men walking towards a chest on a beach. Very unlike what the picture is portraying.

The info in the picture that cannot be shown in the text is again, the reaction of the colonists and the landmarks in the area. The reader, when reading a book without pictures, pays much more attention to the text than imagining what the story would be like as if you could see what was happening. It shows a background, some boulders and outcroppings. It shows looks of elation on the faces of the men. The reader does not think about the landscape when reading this part; they are so excited about what might be in the chest. I never thought about the scenery on the beach much when I read this section; I was too focused on the text.

Captain Nemo

Captain Nemo is the name of my third picture. It is a picture of Captain Nemo with a long white beard sitting on white pillows in front of tapestry with a peacock and many flowers on it. It portrays him as an old man wearing a white robe with gold collars around the wrists and waist. This picture would take place around when the colonists find Captain Nemo in the  Nautilus to their surprise and relief. They are surprised because they had absolutely no idea that Captain Nemo was alive,(they mention the book ”Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea")and they are relieved because they have finally found the source of all the strange happenings on and around the island and they now know that someone was always watching over them, from that they found Captain Harding on the beach to when they found the pirates on the ground dead of unknown causes. I chose this picture because I like Captain Nemo the character myself for many reasons, and I like that it shows what Captain Nemo looks like, what he wears, and what the inside of the Nautilus looks like. Of course the picture only shows a small fraction of what the inside of the Nautilus looks like but it gives me a mental picture what it looks like everywhere else.

This picture sheds light on what Captain Nemo looks like, what he wears, and what his decorations are inside the Nautilus, like what I said before. It shows him like a King, he was a Prince before building the Nautilus, wearing a regal white and gold robe with a magnificent beard  and a very detailed tapestry of a peacock behind his bed of white pillows. It helps the reader see Captain Nemo in detail and gives the reader ideas of what else there is in the Nautilus. The info in the picture that cannot be shown in the text is everything in the picture except Captain Nemo, more simply said as all the details in the picture such as the tapestry, Captain Nemo's clothes, his pillows and his beard. When you read the book, you are immediately shocked and surprised by the fact of Captain Nemo in the cave that you forget to think about what he looks like. You don't imagine that he has a beautiful peacock tapestry behind his bed of fluffy pillows, or that he is bringing his hand up as if to say something, or that he has golden collars around his wrists and a golden belt around the waist.  The picture adds many details that are usually not added by the reader's imagination.

The Last Hope

The Last Hope is the name of my fourth and final picture. It is a picture of Captain Harding, Gideon Spilett, Pencroft, Herbert, Neb, Ayrton and Top lying, exhausted, on their small chunk of rock that is all that is left of Lincoln Island after the volcano erupted. In the sky there are clouds breaking apart, like a storm had just ended, and a sunset (or a sunrise) disappearing, (or reappearing),turning the sky yellow. There are small waves lapping at the shore of the tiny island. This is the very end of the novel, right before the Duncan picks them up. The tiny island is literally the colonists last hope, without it they would have drowned if they survived the explosion, and the Duncan would have searched in vain for Ayrton and never found him or anyone else. With the sun setting (or rising), it gives the picture a feel of unexpected peace, with the storm breaking and the waves gently breaking on the sides of the rock. This is strange after such a violent eruption and ensuing chaos trying to escape the fury of the island. I chose this picture because it the sudden peace after the storm seems surreal, and the gentle waves and low sun help establish that.

This picture sheds light on the world after the eruption, which is a small hunk of rock with 6 survivors (plus Top)and peaceful waters. It sheds light on what the colonists might be seeing, all the softness of the sea, the storm ended, they were thinking that this must be a dream after such a disaster. It helps the reader understand what the island really looked like after the eruption, nothing but a hunk of rock. It also helps the reader understand how exhausted the men are, they are all splayed out all over their tiny island. When I read this part, I didn't imagine them as tired, I just went on with reading. The info in the picture that cannot be shown in the text is the state of the colonists (exhausted), the peaceful sky and sea, and the size of the island. The novel does give dimensions, but you don't imagine them when you read them, 20 by 30 feet is a very small area to have six people living in. The book does not mention that the sea and sky were a peaceful as it gets, with breaking storm clouds and a low sun. It gives the feeling of a surreal environment, very  dreamlike. The novel does not say that the colonists are exhausted,(it could by having someone say, "I'm exhausted,")but the reader can easily infer that fact, it is obvious that a person would be exhausted after such an ordeal. The picture adds details that the reader could not really imagine as they are pulled into the suspense and possibility of rescue.

Map/Chart

I included this chart/map of Lincoln Island for many reasons. First of all, I always thought about what all of Lincoln Island would look like on a map, ever since I read the part when Neb told his story about finding Captain Harding and searching for him. When he said that he had walked for several hours on a beach, I wondered if he was walking on a peninsula  or on a beach on a larger landmass. When I obtained this map I studied it to look at the whole island in general, matching the captions to the names of the land structures like Lake Grant and Mount Franklin. Second, I wanted to find where Lincoln Island would be if it existed today. This is simple because Captain Harding figures out their longitude and latitude. Third, I wanted to find their path from Richmond to the island. All these reasons helped me decide how to make the map/chart.

What is shown in the image is Lincoln island in the left panel, the balloon route from Richmond to Lincoln Island in the centre panel, and the legend on the right panel. The map of Lincoln Island also has its own legend. The centre panel has Richmond, Virginia in Black, Lincoln Island in white, and the journey in red. The red line showing the journey is not exact, but it is a general idea of where the balloon might have gone. This map/chart shows many details and facts that are not mentioned or mentioned very briefly, not enough for a normal imagination to dream up a map. This map was created by someone with a very strong imagination. Since the coordinates are mentioned, it is easy to find where the island would be. There is no map in my book, so you must guess where the island is.