Well, to be fair to Monsieur Verne, Captain Harding was one of his most BENEVOLENT American stereotypes…a practical and intelligent Yankee, whose engineering skills and general savoir-faire made life on the island bearable and even pleasant for the castaways.
Heck, given MY background as a liberal arts major, I’d’a probably have been worshipping him, too.
Of all ethnic sterotypes created by Jules Verne, the one that rankles me the strongest is the Hindu princess “Aouda” (actually, the whole depiction of Hindus). Edward Said could have really shredded this typical Orientalist fantasy of the intrepid White Man rescuing the passive Oriental damsel-in-distress and all that (allegorical for European imperialists ravishing the passive, feminized Oriental nations). When they diss Kali, that really ticks me off. As a lover of Kali Ma, I really take offense. Jules Verne, mangez moi.
Jomo, I don’t know if it is correct, but in my edition, the final notes say that the Aouda part was added at the insistence of Verne’s editor to add some female character. If you want, I can check out which edition of the book I have(it is a Spanish translation).