I have always found that while reading books, I will zone out of everything going on around me and put myself into the shoes of the main character. While doing this I allow myself to widen my horizons by putting myself into new situations and trying to solve problems I do not really have to face. I was able to really start to understand mental travel this semester through Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Huck is a young boy trying to escape from his abusive father down the Mississippi River. He winds up going on this journey down the river with Jim, a runaway slave from Miss Watson’s. Over the course of the trip down the river Huck and Jim grow close and become friends, and Huck must decide whether to stick with Jim and be a friend or to turn him in as a runaway slave because that is what society says. I was able to travel mentally with this book because this was not my first encounter with the story. I read this book in high school, however, in high school I did not understand it quite as well and did not feel as if I was travelling with Huck on his journey. This second time through I was able to really put myself into the journey and open my mind to the obstacles Huck went through. I used my prior knowledge on the book to help me get a better grasp on the story and form more ideas and make interpretations this time …show more content…
In another example from Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle, we can see Darwin making scientific discoveries through his studies. This book is a narrative of his journey based on a research journal of his, and within the story he talks about his journey around the world and the effect it had on his life as a scientist. Darwin wrote this novel many years after his journey while looking back at the notes. His notes were all of his observations of different organisms he viewed on his trip. Darwin was a scientist before he went on his journey, so he already had many preconceived notions based on his prior scientific knowledge. He was able to use his observations from the different locations of his journey to formulate new hypotheses that led him to his theories of evolution and natural selection. Darwin discovered new truths (physical evidence) that backed up old truths (prior science knowledge) to better his ideas and aid him in his fame. This truth has nothing to do with race, but scientific discovery of new truths or