Young Goodman Brown4
Gulliver's Travels - Gulliver's Crushed SpiritAlthough Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift has long been thought of as a children's story, it is actually a dark satire on the fallacies of human nature. The four parts of the book are arranged in a planned sequence, to show Gulliver's optimism and lack of shame with the Lilliputians, decaying into his shame and disgust with humans when he is in the land of the Houyhnhmns. The Brobdingnagians are more hospitable than the Lilliputians, but Gulliver's attitude towards them is more disgusted and bitter. Gulliver's tone becomes even more critical of the introspective people of Laputa and Lagado, and in Glubbdubdrib he learns the truth about modern man. Gulliver finds the Luggnuggians to be a "polite and generous people" (III, 177), until he learns that the Struldbruggs' immortality is a curse rather than a blessing. Throughout the course of Gulliver's Travels, Gulliver's encounters with each culture signify a progression from benevolence towards man to misanthropy, resulting in Gulliver's final insanity.In the first part of the book, Gulliver arrives on a strange island and wakes up tied to the ground by a culture of six-inch tall Lilliputians. Gulliver is amazed by the skill of t
However, Gulliver complies with every inconvenience that the Lilliputians bestow on him, because he allows them to take him prisoner even though he could destroy them with one stomp. he Lilliputians in handling him, but he is offended by their disrespect: ". in my Thoughts I could not sufficiently wonder at the Intrepidity of these diminutive Mortals, who durst venture to mount and walk on my Body, while one of my Hands was at Liberty, without trembling at the very Sight of so prodigious a Creature as I must appear to them" (I, 8). His opinion of the Yahoos contrasts with his opinion of the Houyhnhnms, in that the Houyhnhnms are rational and logical, whereas the Yahoos are the debase and corrupt side of human nature. This finding is essential to Gulliver's attitude towards man, for the only joy he can extrapolate from life is knowing that some people never die, which turns out to be negative. Gulliver also behaves in a more shameful way about his bodily functions around the Brobdingnagians, for while he shamelessly urinates on the palace in Lilliput, in Brobdingnag he hides in a sorrel leaf. I gave Tokens to let them know that they might do with me what they pleased" (I, 9). By noticing this, Gulliver has in effect become as petty as the Lilliputians, because the outside of a person is the most trivial aspect to their much larger nature. Gulliver's attitude towards the Lilliputians shows that he has respect for humanity, no matter how small, even though the respect is not returned. The floating of the island is a metaphor of the side of humanity that is the mind, which often floats away from the body and becomes isolated, which is a stark contrast to the previous two books which describe the more physical side of humanity. Gulliver then decides to summon modern people, such as royal families, and he is genuinely disappointed: "I was chiefly disgusted with modern History. As Swift satirizes the people who absorb themselves so much into the scientific world that they cannot communicate with others, Gulliver as a character becomes more aware of the dark side of human nature. From this statement it is apparent that the Brobdingnagians are as symbolically huge as the Lilliputians are small: they represent true moral human nature, but Gulliver is too small to see it. No matter how respectful Gulliver is, however, it is negated by his lack of shame. PerhapsGulliver's attitude is a result of the dehumanizing way in which he feels small and insignificant in an otherwise huge world.
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Acceptance Essays
