How can I compare this story with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe? More specifically, the passages I need to compare are as follows: Defoe€”When Crusoe...

The most
marked likeness between the two stories is the rational approach the men take to their new
environment. Otto the scientist provides the scientific background to explain what is going on
at the center of the earth. Axel, in the chapters involving the volcano that spews them back to
the surface of the earth, is most concerned with the workings of his compass, which seems to
have gone crazy.

Crusoe's main and urgent concern is survival. He heads back
to his capsized ship to retrieve supplies. In the chapter on the volcano, Axel too is primarily
concerned with survival; in his case, he needs to survive the volcanic eruption that will hurl
his companions and him to Italy.

The books are very much alike in their
attempts to frame extraordinary events within the context of a realistic universe. Axel and
Crusoe are not going to be saved by fairies or supernatural creatures. They both need to use
their logic and commonsense. Both are in a "new world," but it is one that adheres
minutely to the physical laws of the universe.

Both men experience a similar
fear of death in the new environment. Crusoe reflects:

I
had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I was not cast away upon that island without being
driven, as is said, by a violent storm, quite out of the course of our intended voyage, and a
great way, viz. some hundreds of leagues, out of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind, I
had great reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven, that in this desolate place, and
in this desolate manner, I should end my life. The tears would run plentifully down my face when
I made these reflections.

As he encounters the volcano,
Axel thinks:

The mineral crust was about to burst, the
heavy granite masses were about to rejoin, the fissure was about to close, the void was about to
be filled up, and we poor atoms to be crushed in its awful embrace!

"Uncle, Uncle!" I cried, "we are wholly, irretrievably
lost!"

Yet, in both cases, approaching the situation
rationally provides the answerand logical thinking rules both men. Axel is preoccupied with
determining what part of the earth they are under, and he thinks it is Iceland. Crusoe's mind is
riveted on his survival through gaining supplies and finding a safe place to sleep.

Despite the life-threatening dangers, both men also take the time out to experience
the pleasure of their new environments. In Crusoe's case, it comes years later from the way he
has mastered his environment and become the lord of his own domain:

At the end of this march I came to an opening where the country
seemed to descend to the west; and a little spring of fresh water, which issued out of the side
of the hill by me, ran the other way, that is, due east; and the country appeared so fresh, so
green, so flourishing, everything being in a constant verdure or flourish of spring that it
looked like a planted garden. I descended a little on the side of that delicious vale, surveying
it with a secret kind of pleasure, though mixed with my other afflicting thoughts, to think that
this was all my own; that I was king and lord of all this country indefensibly, and had a right
of possession; and if I could convey it, I might have it in inheritance as completely as any
lord of a manor in England.

In chapter 27 (in my
text, the volcano episode is chapter 42), Axel experiences a deep sense of wonder and awe at the
landscape and, like Crusoe, also experiences solitude. Crusoe is all alone through much of the
book, while Axel has his companions, but both are in places that seem solitary and untouched.
Axel thinks as he looks at the Central Sea:

I looked
round a bay formed by projections of vast granitic rocks. At the extreme end was a little port
protected by huge pyramids of stones. A brig and three or four schooners might have lain there
with perfect ease. So natural did it seem, that every minute my imagination induced me to expect
a vessel coming out under all sail and making for the open sea under the influence of a warm
southerly breeze.

But
the fantastic illusion never lasted more than a minute. We were the only living creatures in
this subterranean world!

I hope this helps. I would focus
on the idea that both stories have a very strong grounding in reason, rationality, and , despite
the extraordinary circumstances they describe. The main characters deal with life logically. We
are drawn to both stories because they seem realistic.