Argument Essay: The Story Of Marco Polo

‘The Story of Marco Polo’ is a book that has been debated upon for centuries. Marco Polo, a thirteenth century explorer that claims to have traveled to China and beyond, is said by some to be a liar. However, there are multiple claims that can prove this to be wrong and instead peg the famous explorer as a wonderful storyteller and exaggerater.

One of these claims is that Marco Polo himself did not write his book. Instead, another man wrote it for him. This quote states that “Marco commanded a ship in a war… He was eventually captured and sentenced to a Genoese prison, where he met a fellow prisoner and writer named Rustichello… Marco told Rustichello about his time in Asia… (Polo Bio).” This quote remarks support to the claim as it is stating that Polo himself did not write his own book, but yet another man (and a writer at that) did. As writers

These omissions alone may seem like enough reason to claim that Polo indeed lie, but their are counter claims to be had. In the document The Fabulous Fabulist, by Lewis Lord, a passage endorses that “In his day, the Great Wall wasn’t that great… much of it had crumbled by the thirteenth century… almost everything… today was built in the sixteenth century... Tea drinking was popular in Southern China… but had yet to catch on in the north and central regions, where Polo resided… Foot binding… was limited to upper class ladies… confined to their houses…” This quote provides the backing reasons to why Polo hadn’t recorded these events- that a person wouldn’t see the foot binding process, that the Great Wall was not that great, and that tea drinking simply had not reached polo’s part of China yet. This quote provides multiple reasonings about how Marco Polo was not a liar but an