Editor's Choice
List three adjectives that describe Phileas Fogg's personality.
Quick answer:
Phileas Fogg is resourceful, honorable, and surprising. He effectively overcomes obstacles, like buying an elephant in India and using extreme measures to power a ship, demonstrating his resourcefulness. His honor is evident when he rescues Aouda from a funeral pyre and later marries her. Furthermore, Fogg's surprising nature is revealed through his unexpected bet to travel around the world in eighty days, defying initial impressions of his character.
Resourceful: Phileas Fogg doesn't let unexpected obstacles deter him. For example, when the railroad tracks all of a sudden end in India before he gets to his destination, Fogg buys an elephant and hires a guide to take him and his party the rest of the way. Likewise, he buys, pilots, and even burns part of the Henrietta for fuel to get back to London on time to win the bet.
Honorable: Seeing that Aouda, the Indian widow, has been drugged, and thus is not going willingly to the funeral pyre, Fogg risks himself to save her from death, because it is the right thing to do. When he takes her back to England and finds out she is in love with him, he again does the right thing by marrying her.
Surprising: Fogg's new valet Passepartout expects his new employer to be as regular and unexciting as he always has been, only to find the seemingly unchangeable and unassuming Fogg has placed a bet that he can circle the globe in eighty days. This kind of wild adventure is the last thing most people would have expected of Fogg.
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