Gulliver's Travels Essay

     Jonathan Swift is one of the best known satirists in the history of literature. When one reads his works, especially something like Gulliver’s Travels, it is easy for one to spot the misanthropic themes, which emerge within his characterization. Lamuel Gulliver is an excellent protagonist: a keen observer, and a good representative of his native England, but one who loses faith in mankind as his story progresses. He ends up in remote areas of the world all by accidents in his voyages. In each trip, he is shipwrecked and mysteriously arrives to lands never before seen by men. This forms an interesting rhythm in the novel: as Gulliver is given more and more responsibility, he tends to be less

In Gullivers' Travel, Gulliver constantly lives in a state of fear from the immense size of all objects surrounding him yet he eventually overcomes this fear as the story progress. At the beginning of this excerpt, Gulliver is saved from shipwreck by a 72ft. farmer and his daughter Glumdalclitch. As the story progresses Gulliver and Glumdalclitch develop a liking for one another and build a very special relationship.

Our elected officials must now go on talk shows and dance with Ellen Degeneres or humour us with their comedic timing on SNL. Politicians today and of the past can gain office through family ties, wealth and political favors. There is no tightrope as in Swift's tale but elected officials know whom they need to keep happy if they want to continue or increase their position in office. Swift uses Gulliver’s Travels to criticize the political condition and silliness of English society during the 18th century and to make a satire of George 1 royal court. Even though the major players have changed the greed, corruption, violence and human practice of blindly following traditions is still alive today which makes this satire relevant. Money and titles still gives people the power to

As Lemuel Gulliver decides to go to sea again, a major storm hits causing most of his crew to die. Lemuel makes it to shore and passes out. At this point, he is being searched by two tiny people (Lilliputians). I chose this quote because it is demonstrating the satirical element in Swift’s writing. The irony of the small people becoming flustered by thes size of Lemuel’s belongings leaves readers wanting to laugh, but also makes them have human-like qualities (like being confused). This quote also illustrates the theme of no matter where you go and who you meet, you can’t get away from the social aspect of life. The kingdom is arranged by social class with soldiers and an emperor. These particular soldiers were ordered by the emperor to

The last part of the book has Gulliver facing an extreme different point of view that changes Gulliver into a mental state to which he may not recover. He encounter to cultures, the Houyhnhums and the Yahoos. The Houyhnhums are very intelligent horses that live like ordinary humans, and the Yahoos are humans that act like dumb monkeys that are only useful for manual labor, and have almost no intellect. To Gulliver he is not like the Yahoos but to the Houyhnhums people he looks like them but he is smarter. The whole idea of Gulliver looking like a Yahoo starts to roll around in Gulliver’s head and he starts to lose his mind. He changes his mind about what he looks like and believes that he must never congregate with people that look like them, for example, human beings from England and everywhere

In the novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, the influence that society has on Gulliver is very detectable in this book. Throughout the novel, Gulliver repeatedly, finds himself in predicaments because societal norms and the role of government in our society. Swift shows how the idea of who people are due to their position in society. Gulliver is an outsider to the society of Lilliput, he tries to fit into their world but fails, not only because of his size but because of their governmental treason. I believe, Swift wrote the story of Liliput to try and illustrate to us the idea that society and government corrupts individuals. This is shown by the relationships between Gulliver and self-oriented individuals and society-oriented individuals.

In detail, Gulliver gives descriptions of European manners, customs, philosophy, and religion that relies in England. Also, describes to the King the political positions of the Whigs and the Tories. Yet, the King mocks Gulliver’s praise of England, by asking him “if he is a Whig or a Tory?” This angered Gulliver because he felt the King was using the English customs, as a proof of human vanity. As seen in the line, “We all think our own politics and religion are so important, but from a wide perspective they really aren’t.” Yet, Gulliver’s praise of England in the conversation shows his feelings of devotion and respect of the society and hierarchy versus the Kings disagreements. Nonetheless, King Brobdingnag continues to insult him by saying, Europeans are “the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the Earth.” In short, Gulliver begins to see the King’s point of England and of himself as just being tiny and funny looking (Shmoop Editorial

The Lilliputians occupy the first island Gulliver visits. They all stand about six inches tall, with proportionally tiny buildings and trees and horses. The Lilliputians are ruled by an Emperor who appoints his high court officials according to their skills with rope dancing rather than their actual abilities. In other words, they're not exactly governed according to rational principles.

What’s more, Swift expresses some effective scrutiny on the government in the last section which refers to the vanity and pomposity and precariousness of European countries .These nations claim to civilize, through fierceness and persecution of indigenous individuals who were regularly mild and innocuous. Obviously, as Swift infers that the actual aim of imperialism is greed. The interesting ironic moment happens when swift renounces that Britain is excluded from this attack on imperialist nations. History shows that Britain was as cruel as its neighbors and European

Swift doesn’t care too much of humankind and speaks more negative about the ways of life than positive. He uses satire to express the insane nature of this story. In real life horses do not talk nor have civilizations, but Gulliver rather live with these horses than his own people and family. Swift shows similar characteristics that Gulliver has to the yahoos and houyhnhnms. Swift talks about England and how men kill each other for want and need and the acts of war his people adventure on for money and greed. Gulliver describes his people as intelligent but almost not worthy of this intelligence. Their work is used for bad and not to always improve society but bring it down sometimes. This is offensive to Gulliver and the most ironic aspect is that Gulliver is just like the people that he describes. In the beginning he leaves his pregnant wife and child to set out on the sea, once he is back he tends to his horses and holds conversations with the horses, he shows no interest in conversing with his family. He rejects them and this makes him to be cruel and unlike the houyhnhnms. In Gulliver’s mind he is just like the houyhnhnms and holds himself to a higher standard than others and this makes him more irrational. No one is superior to anyone and this quality is what begins wars and violence. The houyhnhnms seem more irrational that they believe themselves to be superior to everyone, they act more

Petty, vindictive, cruel, ill-informed, egotistical, these are just a few words that come to mind when describing the Lilliputians attitude in their “massive” world. At the beginning of the story the capturing of the “mountain man” is understandable due to his enormity and their incomprehension on the situation. However, their ridicule of Gulliver and “enslavement” of him, forcing him to do what they want in order for him to get his freedom, is completely inhumane despite his benefits to their society. The irony of the situation is that he can leave and overpower their whole community at any time, but Gulliver is a good person and is abiding to the rules imposed upon him by the people of Lilliput. Swift chooses to portray Lilliputians in an extremely negative light and at the end of the story they have not changed for the better, but have become even more petty, vindictive, and cruel.

In Gulliver's first travel where he visited Lilliput, Gulliver was faced with the minute people called Lilliputians. Now while this was the premise for a fantasy story, Swift used the events within to make severe criticisms of England between reigns of Queen Anne and George І. The people of Lilliput were about six inches tall and their size signified that their motives, acts, and humanity were the same dwarfish. The political parties of the British government were represented by the conservative High Heels who depicted the Tories and the progressive Low Heels, or Whigs. As their names, the distinguishing mark of the parties was the height of their heels. Within these two parties, Swift criticized the English political parties, and the Prince of Wales. Swift also mocked the religion war that was going on in England through the use of war between Lilliput and its nearest neighbor, Blefuscu. Swift also used terms High Heels and Low Heels to compare the meaningless battles of the Whigs and Tories, such as the height of heels.

One topic that this piece focuses on is the struggle between empowered men and unfortunate men. Gulliver arrives onto the floating island of Laputa which is filled with strange people who fail to make practical use of their knowledge. These people do have a king and Gulliver soon discovers that he is a tyrant. Below the island, is a region known as Balnibarbi which is in total control by the king. As a matter of fact, the king punishes any town in the region for their disobedience using two methods. “If any town should engage in rebellion or mutiny, fall into violent factions, or refuse to pay the usual tribute, the king has two methods of reducing them to obedience” (Swift #). These punishments include covering the town from above, or, in extreme cases, dropping the island on the town itself. “The first and the mildest course is, by keeping the island hovering over such a town, and the lands about it, whereby he can deprive them of the benefit

In the last voyage in Jonathan Swift's book Gulliver's Travels, "A voyage to the country of the Houyhnhnms," Swift describes his idea of an ideal society. There are many examples provided in this part of the book to convince the reader that Swift is indeed illustrating his idea of a utopia. By using horses as the most reasonable creature, Swift not only defaces human society by making a beast a more powerful creature, but also shows that humans are unable to attain this perfectly reasonable society.

The novel, Gulliver’s Travels, is just that, a novel about the main character, Gulliver who goes on many journeys. The part of this book that brings out the reader’s interest is Gulliver’s character and the ways his character changes as the story progresses. He begins as a naïve Englishman and by the end of the book he has a strong hatred for the human race. Gulliver shows that his adventures have taught him that a simple life, one without the complexities and weaknesses of human society, may be best, but the simple life he longed for should not have been the route he took.