The timeless tale of Gulliver’s Travel’s, by Oliver Swift, uses the problems and his criticisms of his time to write a satirical piece tearing at the “perfect” world the English thought they created. He expresses the English as puny, insignificant, and dense. He displays his disgust through the characters that Gulliver meets in his travel and even in Gulliver himself. From the extremely small people in Lilliput to the amazing race of speaking horses, the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver’s strange experiences teach him and subsequently the readers that the human race is not as magnificent as they believe.
When Lemuel Gulliver stumbles into the land of Bobdingnag he is met face to face with giants. The size of the people is not the only thing that leads to confusion between the Bobdingnagians and Gulliver. Swift uses these giants as a symbol for a true Communist government. When before the king and queen, Gulliver ironically states the idea of the English republic and the idea of a capitalist
. . .
This is proof of Swift’s belief that there is a certain limit to a human’s learning ability. The giants disregard him as an irrelevant traveler because they have no need for these ideas. The Houyhnhnms are an exaggerated society comprised of horses that have the ability to read and interact with Gulliver. Swift exaggerates the grotesque nature of humans comparing them to animals who have no regard for emotion. He picks apart the problems and criticisms of human existence reducing human emotion to rubble. Another form of understatement appears when Gulliver travels to the academy and the “Room of Answers”. This is an exaggeration of Swifts confusion of why scientists study the things they do. The giants are part of a completely communist government modeled after (but Predates) Karl Marx work in Das Kapital. He uses imaginary life forms to prove that the human lifestyle is one of selfishness and disarray. Another form of satire is the view these scientists have of Prince Munodi. This utopian government has no need for a debt or a republic because all those in the Republic are seen as equal. They are free of war, violence toward one another, and also rid of thieves. The people of Laputa study impractical things just because they don’t know the answers.
In his last travel before returning home, Gulliver is tossed to the shore of the Houyhnhnms.
Approximate Word count =
669
Approximate Pages =
3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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