The Orient as a Wonderful Place Worth Exploring
The Travels of Marco Polo is a travelogue describing Marco Polo's travels in Asia between 1271 and 1295 CE. The major theme of the book is that the Orient is a wonderful place that is worth exploring. The description of the oriental countries Marco Polo traveled to, including Kublai Khan’s giant kingdom, primarily focuses on the economic perspectives. The book tells in great detail things that reflect the economic prosperity of many places Polo visited, such as splendid palaces, silk, gold and many other treasures, numerous exciting new inventions, to name just a few. Some of the description was later questioned and believed to be exaggerating and deviating from the facts.
Cultural Traditions and Tolerance
While exotic cultural traditions and customs are also presented in this book, it seems the purpose of including that type of content is to serve the main theme by adding to the appeal to readers and demonstrating the cultural tolerance of the Oriental countries, exemplified by Polo’s note to the readers that Kublai Khan highly revered Christianity.
Orientalism
One theme of The Travels of Marco Polo is Orientalism. This is a literary discourse often employed by scholars and explorers to the so-called "Orient," particularly the Middle East and South Asia. Marco Polo depicts many of the people he comes in contact with in caricatured, stereotyped ways. His writings about China, for example, while not entirely derogatory, helped shape European opinions of its people.
Blurring of Legend and Historical Fact
Another theme is the blurring of legend and of historical fact. For example, Marco Polo claims to have come near the kingdom of Prester John on his journeys. Prester John was almost certainly not an actual person, but was a Christian king of legend in the region.
The Fantastic
Another theme is the fantastic. Marco Polo consistently portrays the supernatural and the mysterious in his narrative. He describes "spirit voices" that travelers can hear as they rest on the way through the vast Gobi Desert and monstrous creatures that, to be fair, no other European had ever seen before. So while his mistaking a rhinoceros for a unicorn was understandable, it adds to the air of the fantastic and the exotic that is found throughout the book.
Admiration for Asian Cultures
A major theme of the book is that Asia is very different from Europe but in a way that should be admired. It is not, as will later be the case, depicted as backward and thus in need of guidance and control. Polo, instead, describes it as comprising a series of places with goods, medicines, natural features, and even supernatural powers that the Europeans do not possess.
The account, strictly speaking, is hardly factual, but it does make entertaining reading. Polo lists a long string of differences between Asian countries and Europe.
In east Persia, the Karaunas have mastered the art of shrouding themselves in darkness or invisibility so that they can attack unseen. Polo witnesses a wind so hot it kills people and a pillar that can stand without any means of support. Bengal is full of the spices much coveted by the Europeans, while Kin-sai, also called Hang-chau is a beautiful, advanced city with 12,000 bridges over its canals and firefighters on constant duty.
What is interesting in this account is the admiration Polo displays for many Asian cities, practices, and technologies. Asia is a place to respect, not simply a group of lands to conquer and control. Polo's theme of the worthiness of Asian cultures makes the book a fascinating glimpse into a time when Asian and European culture met on the ground of equality, not within the context of an ideology of superior and inferior cultures.
The Challenges of Travel
Another theme or message the book conveys is that traveling to these Asian kingdoms is a long, dangerous, and arduous journey. It is not for the faint of heart, such as the two priests the pope sends with the Polos as missionaries. They turn back, fearful of the dangers ahead. The glories of Asia are open only to those with the courage to make the trip, a reward for fortitude.
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