Marco Polo: The Travels

2 Pages 554 Words

Marco Polo: The Travels

Marco Polo, born in 1254, is one of the most famous travelers in the world. “The Travels of Marco Polo” summarizes the adventures Polo experienced across Europe and Asia. According to history, Polo was the first European to cross the entire continent from Europe to Asia. As an individual analyzes the book, it is hard to determine what is exaggerated and what is not. An individual must keep in mind that Marco Polo lacked the average knowledge of a college graduate.
The point of view and the bias references that are made all contribute to the possible exaggerations that are within the book. Every event that Polo encounters is altered because it is in his own point of view. This causes the reader to create two different ways of interpreting the text. It can be stated that “The Travels” is a good primary source due to his point of view.
There are two main topics that Marco Polo tends to be bias on. They are religion and racism. Marco Polo tells about the Muslims praying and nothing happens after they pray. When the Christians prayed, according to Polo, two mountains moved implying that his religion is better. Polo is so proud of his religion that he puts down the Muslim religion. (Polo 54) He also assumes the leader of the Muslims is
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Mohammed Ali. Allah is the leader of the Muslims. He was prejudice towards the Cathays. All of the men would have an image hanging on their wall representing the High God of Heaven. They pray to God everyday to live a long life; however, they contradict themselves by worshipping Natigai, the god of earthly things. Polo portrays Blacks as ugly while he believes that the Chinese were the most beautiful people. (Polo 122) This remark implies he is bias towards individuals of different races not necessarily racist.
Marco Polo exaggerates almost every event and adventure that he encounters. Polo describes a gryphon bird that appears to be half lio...