Revenge Motif
Throughout the book there is an undercurrent of anger and the reason for this is Nemo's need for revenge. This need is perfectly understandable because his family, whom he loved dearly, have been murdered by the government of his old country. He wants nothing more than to avenge their deaths.
The first stage of his revenge was directed at people in general; by withdrawing from civilization, and living under the sea where there are no borders and because of that, no governments. He absolutely rejects this fundamental of civilized culture, and in this way is getting his revenge by his non participation.
The second stage is killing those who killed his loved ones; a vessel representing the government at whose hands his family was murdered comes on the attack, and the Nautilus overpowers them easily. Instead of taking the victory and moving on, Nemo sinks the ship. This is his direct revenge.This motif has been an undercurrent from the moment his character is introduced in the book.
War and Battles Motif
Despite the fact that the book does not really mention wars in particular, there are many warlike altercations between Nemo and others. We learn, for example, that he involved himself in the Greek uprising against the Ottoman empire on the island of Crete; the Nautilus is then attacked by a group of giant squid, coming off worse, and demonstrating that even in his favored environment under the sea, Nemo still finds a way to be involved in conflict. We do not learn why his government killed his family but his revenge, an attack that sinks their boat, comes from another attack by the government forces against him. Nemo is a confrontational man who seems to attract sudden outbreaks of violence both in the human and the natural world.
Nemo's Name Symbol
Nemo's name is a symbol of isolation, and of the fact that he is really a man that doesn't exist because he lives in a world outside of the human world. Nemo, in Latin, means "nobody". The fact that he is called "Captain Nobody" symbolizes the phantom-like quality of his life, as he travels the world undetected under the sea.
Toilers of the Sea Allegory
Victor Hugo wrote in his novel Toilers Of The Sea of a worker fighting a giant octopus. Verne allegorizes this with the attack of the giant squids that results in the death of one of the Nautlus crew members.
Nemo Symbol
Nemo is a symbol of political resistance, although this is a subtle addition to Nemo's biography that is an undertone rather than an obvious symbol. Nemo is a descendent of a Muslim ruler of Mysore who saw off the expansion of the British Empire by resisting the expansion of the East India Company. The British government killed his family after the Indian Mutiny in which he participated.The British Empire symbolized all that was bad about colonial expansionism and also symbolized the traditional dislike between the English and the French which Verne must also have subscribe to. Nemo himself is seen to be on the side of the revolutionary rather than on the side of the government and this symbolizes Verne's veiled political vision in which resistance overpowers existing governments.
