Category: Gulliver’s Travels

In the story, Gulliver’s Travels, it shows insight into the understanding that humans are not meant to know everything in life. It shows that all we understand we have as humans has a natural limit and this theme is a very important one in Gulliver’s Travels. The author finds all these different worlds while traveling by ship who have their own set of knowledge and ways they live.

For example in the first meeting he found himself with the self-centered Laputans. These people show plain disregard for those who are not like them and very much in private theorizing. It is a clear banter against those who pride themselves on knowledge above all else. Practical knowledge is also mocked when it doesn’t show evidence that it is true, as in the academy of Balnibarbi. Here the experiments for extracting sunbeams from cucumbers amount to nothing.

The author stand firm on the idea that there is a dimension of knowledge and understanding of things which humans are simply not supposed to get into. Because of this, he shows his portrayal of rational societies, like Houyhnhnmland and Brobdingnag, emphasizing it’s not these people’s knowledge or understanding of abstract ideas but their capability to live their lives in a wise and steady way. The Brobdingnagian king knows very little about the breakdown of politics, yet his country seems to be flourishing and well governed. Just like them, the Houyhnhnms know hardly anything about arcane subjects like astronomy, though they know how long a month is by watching the moon. Because of their already found knowledge, striving to find a higher level of knowledge would be meaningless and would also disrupt with their happiness they have now.

In this context, it’s apparent that living a happy and well-ordered life seems to be the thing that the author thinks knowledge is useful for. They also emphasizes the need of self-understanding. Gulliver at the beginning of the story lacks in self-reflection and self-awareness. He chooses to not talk about his emotions, passions, dreams, or aspirations, and he shows no interest in describing his own psychology to us. Because of this, he may strike us as empty, but by the end, he comes close to a kind of twisted self-knowledge in his irrational belief that he is a Yahoo. His disgust with the human condition broadens to himself as well. Because of this, the story ends with him having a disguised state of self-hatred. The author may therefore be stating that self-knowledge has its necessary limits just as theoretical knowledge does, and that if we look too closely at ourselves we might not be able to carry on living happily.

Rev J. Martin once said: ‘Words are free. It’s how you use them that may cost you’. Often our society communicates so freely that before thought is even put into the context of our words it has already been spoken. Language has developed from a sophisticated way to communicate to now being whatever is on our minds. A prime example is “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver by the end of his four journeys surely has evolved to see the importance of words and communication. The direct comparison of the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms demonstrates our greatest communication flaws. Emotions will cloud our judgement much like the Yahoos and our intentions become misconstrued.

There are many types of communication, verbal communication is the one most impactful and most misused. Houyhnhnms are a race of intelligent horses whose reason and rationality. Throughout his journey, Gulliver learns a great deal from the inhabitants from many of the islands he visits but none made quite an impact as the Houyhnhnms. He begins willingly abandoning any desire to return to England because of his infatuation with the morals the Houyhnhnms have taught him. When he is eventually in the position where he has to do just that, he loses the ability to communicate with the rest of his family and peers. Instead of returning to normalcy, he prefers to sleep in the stables once he return and pass his days in a pit of despair because of his newfound hatred for humanity. As stated in the travel log, Gulliver said the following which depicts the depth of this disgust: ‘in such a solitude as I desired, I could at least enjoy my own thoughts, and reflect with delight on the virtues of those inimitable Houyhnhnms, without any opportunity of degenerating into the vices and corruptions of my own species’ (Swift, p. 493).

Gulliver began to harvest a self hatred for himself once the Houyhnhnms constantly compared and identified him as a Yahoo. A Yahoo, Gulliver describes as human in appearance, but unlike the Houyhnhnms do not have any rational feelings. Yahoos are described mostly as wild animals which are controlled almost entirely by instinct and emotion. Gulliver states that he fears: ‘degenerating into the Vices and Corruptions’, – which are Yahoos. It can be inferred that Jonathan Swift wants to show that humans are not rational animals. The interactions and agreements between people are what many believe shapes society as a whole, as a result, Swift raises the question is this possible because of how irrational the Yahoos are. Gulliver’s begins to have a similar perspective of the Houyhnhnms by the end of his journey which creates a problem once he returns home. He does not just simply adopt only a single belief from the Houyhnhnms, he also adopts their principles. While the English can be characterized as explorers and conquerors, the Houyhnhnms are nothing of the sort. It proves that human beings are not the rational animals that they are assumed to be, but in fact only animals that are capable of reason.

Gulliver’s British perspective is gone by the end of Gulliver’s Travels. However, surprisingly after learning a great deal from the Houyhnhnms society he does not try to better human society by introducing them to his new found knowledge. In summation, Jonathan Swift notes all the communication flaws such as their inability to think before they speak. Swift plays out the Houyhnhnms society as a utopia. However, he does not give humans the credit for their utility of human characteristics such as emotion. The Houyhnhnm society is so solely focused on reason, which makes them miss a lot of emotional life aspects. Gulliver did not want to return to humanity after his fourth adventure because of his newfound knowledge. With this knowledge he only witnessed the bad of humanity and did not see the flaws the Houyhnhnms also had. English society to Gulliver was disgusting and he’d much rather stay with a bunch of horses because he believed he had much more to learn from them.

Gulliver’s Travels – Reading Response

1. What are your reactions to reading Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels? Did you find it interesting, surprising, amusing, challenging? Why?

I find it interesting and amusing as Jonathan Swift very creatively swapped human nature with that of animal nature and gifted the animals a privilege to be human like. Swift portrayed animals to be better than humans as they didn’t even know about words like war, power, lie and many more. He sarcastically used his satire nature in the writing.

2. What do the Houyhnhnms see as the main point[s] of difference between Gulliver and the Yahoos?

Gulliver seemed weaker to the houyhnhnms as he did not have strong nails and couldn’t walk on four feet and Gulliver’s clothes were also a symbol of weakness as he had to use his protective clothing. But after interaction with the master he came to know about the hold humans have in their country unlike Yahoos. The Yahoos were primitive creatures obsessed with ‘pretty stones’ that they find by digging in mud, thus representing the distasteful materialism and ignorant elitism Swift encountered in Britain. The main difference was that the Yahoos were enslaved by the horse-like Houyhnhnms unlike Gulliver. Although they were human in form and feature, the Yahoos were indeed, animals.

3. Why does Gulliver like Houyhnhnm land so much, and not want to return home to England?

Houyhnhnms were corruption free and godly creatures. As there was no such thing as war, hatred, power over others, and government. Being such a peaceful and loving land Gulliver wanted to stay there. It is actually a satire by Swift to show our society how cruel we have become. Further, the horses were so intelligent that Gulliver even concluded that they are magicians who have transformed themselves into horses. It was quite a wonderful experience for him on this magical land that he didn’t wanted to return to his home in England

4. When Gulliver returns to England, how does he act? How does he treat his family?

When Gulliver returned home he never wanted to leave his home and he even made vows not to leave his country he treated his family with love and more care. He also shouted at everybody as he had to do this in his last adventure when he became very small. He loved being in the company of the family but soon was ready to leave for another adventure because of his adventurous nature and willing to explore more.

5. In your view, are the Houyhnhnms and their society appealing? Are they likable? Why? Why not?

Yes, they are indeed appealing. Their way of living is what we need right now to be at peace. Swift wrote this amazing adventure that showed the negatives of humans perfectly and though animals being low witted enjoy much better life free of lies and war and the lust for power. These creatures are actually the ones to learn from and are quite likable.