The Mysterious Island

Analyze Cyrus’s character and his role as a leader in the text. What does Verne suggest makes a good leader? Are there any examples of poor leadership in the text?

What is the role of nature and the island setting in The Mysterious Island? How do they help to illustrate characterization and/or the novel’s key themes and ideas?

How are animals depicted in the novel? What are the similarities and differences between the domesticated animals—Top and Joop—and the animals that the men use for food or encounter in the wild? What is the wider significance of human-animal dynamics in the novel?

Is the novel more idealistic or realistic in its depiction of human nature and endeavor? How does it reflect 19th-century ideas about humanity, progress, and/or Western civilization more generally?

While the men spend most of the novel on the island, their identity as Americans shapes them in important ways. How is America represented in the novel? In what ways do the men reflect American ideals and/or stereotypes?

How does the novel treat technology? Does the author present what one might call a philosophy of technology, or is it simply a plot device?

Do the various interventions by Captain Nemo merely serve as instances of deus ex machina that weaken the plot, or do they have a wider significance? What does Captain Nemo represent, and how does he illustrate some of the novel’s key themes?

Explore the novel’s representation of both individual agency and notions of divine providence or fate. How is each element depicted in the novel? In what ways, if any, can these elements be reconciled?