Gulliver’s Travel

Gulliver’s Travel

Jonathan Swift wrote a large part of the book Gulliver’s Travels, while he was in CountyLaois at Woodbrook House. The book is considered Swift’s masterpiece and though it is considered a children’s storybook, its themes are highly complicated and satirical in nature. It is a satire of normal human behavior based on the author’s personal experiences. Swift made a character, Gulliver, who is first a surgeon then becomes a captain in a few ships. Gulliver’s trips to several nations are what the author uses to portray different aspects of human nature that he feels should be addressed. He uses four stories or books to take the Protagonist and the reader through a long and interesting journey into the various civilizations and their nature. He tries to show how similar human nature is regardless of where one is.

Swift, though refuted by many critics, has managed to bring forth the theme of comparing the individual person and the society. He expresses the idea of imaginary models of the community that he would consider ideal. This literary feature is called utopia. Swift’s utopia is one where the community is taken with much more importance than the individual is. His ideal society is one that takes the individualism off the picture and lives like one big happy family. Some civilizations in his time used to do that and in his opinion, he viewed it as the ideal way of life. He views a society where the children can be raised without caring who their real parents are. This aspect is reflected in the book where the Lilliputians are seen to raise their children communally. However, they do not fulfill the total picture of the utopia since they acquire jealousy and hate amongst themselves (Swift, 2009).

The natives of the other country Gulliver visited, the Houyhnhnms also have a collective but strict mode of governing the community. They have a rule that in any family where there are two children of the same sex, they should be exchanged with another family with the same combination of an opposite sex. This means that if two boys were born in one family, one would be traded for a girl from a family with two girls. This was meant to maintain the male to female ratio. Swift portrayed the Houyhnhnms as having the closest approach to his utopia and they were wiser and more rational than the Lilliputians. The Houyhnhnms however are not without fault; they do not have names to identify themselves. They live without any individual identities and they have no individuality at all. Swift uses this example to show how Gulliver and the world where he is from have so much individuality that it lands him where he is now. Gulliver is portrayed as the modern typical earthly man who knows no one but himself. This shows how normal human societies are alienated and are antisocial.

Swift, when talking about Gulliver’s interaction, tries to satirically mock the excesses of both individualism and communalism. The concept about the individual in relation to the community is given when the story is plotted out as, Gulliver flees home in England due to lack of funds and boredom from his work. He goes on an adventure alone, which shows his individualism. He visits tribes that are so communist in nature that he finds it difficult to leave either of them when the time comes. Though he never complains of loneliness, he feels bitter leaving any of the communities that he visits (Nokes, 2008).

Another theme explained by swift in his book is the theme of comparing physical might and morality. The question swift highlight in this theme is whether physical might should govern social life or should moral righteousness. Swift cleverly explains his point by putting Gulliver in separate communities where he experiences different situation where he has advantage in size and where he does not. In Lilliput, he is a giant and he can conquer all but in Brobdingnag, everyone else is bigger than him, even the pets are. The Lilliputians tie Gulliver down when he first goes there and in Brobdingnag, he is made a slave by a farmer. The use of force rather than diplomacy is seen in the book where a community fights what they believe to not fit in their system of beliefs. for instance, when the Lilliputians attack Blefuscu which is a their neighboring nation. It is also portrayed where the Houyhnhnms use physical might against the Yahoos simply because they believe they are morally superior to them. Overall, Swift, through the novel shows that the claims societies make to rule based on moral righteousness are most of the time just disguises for physical suppression. The claims in society to be morally superior are eventually quite difficult to justify as how physical force is used to dominate others.

Swift believes that the human being is not meant to have understanding of everything. He believes that there should be a limit to what man understands and that this limit should be natural. He expresses this theme in the book where he satirically displays the self-centered Laputans. The Laputans despise anyone who does not have knowledge or those who do not see the importance of knowledge. Swift also satirically criticizes practical knowledge by showing how it does not bear any results in the case of the academy of Balnibarbi. Here, they were conducting an experiment that was aimed at extracting sunbeams from cucumbers. The experiment amounted to nothing. Swift uses this to explain his point that there is a point where human knowledge should not exceed and their understanding should not venture into certain realms (Burt, 2001).

He shows societies which are wise and rational and shows that they are not like so due to their immense understanding of nonfigurative ideas but due to the simplicity of their knowledge. Swift believes that humans should only have the knowledge that has a practical effect on them and he believes that knowledge is useful in order to live a happy and organized life is. He also lays emphasis on the importance of understanding one’s self. His character Gulliver is made to appear as to have no self-understanding and awareness. Nowhere in the book does the reader learn anything personal about Gulliver and this Swift does intentionally to depict an emptiness that Gulliver has. This is meant to show the reader that self-knowledge, just as theoretical and physical knowledge do, also has its limits and these limits are necessary. Swift suggests that they are necessary since if one looks too closely at him/herself, they might develop a self-hatred and this shall eventually make them miserable in life.

Swift uses the book, ‘Gulliver’s Travel’ to tell a story and to satirically criticize the aspects of life that he considers unfit. He does this rather well using Gulliver and the fictional societies he visits in his voyage to show how different people in society have different beliefs and practices. The accounts on Swift’s book were applied to the politics of his time in the debates that occurred in their parliament. All sides and parties had representations in the book and they all fitted well. Some critics said that that was his initial intention but he refuted the claims. His works in ‘Gulliver’s Travel’ have inspired the creation of vocabulary and have influenced many disciplines. Swift goes down in history as one of the greatest writers to have ever lived and his literary skills in prose writing have not been matched by any writer yet. Jonathan Swift died in October 19, 1745 at 78 years of age having written his own epitaph and was buried in his own cathedral. All of the four stories in ‘Gulliver’s travel’ are based on fictional lands where Gulliver travels and all of them have different themes. However, all of them are meant to criticize human pride and a satirical reflection of the disadvantages of knowing too much.

Works Cited:

Burt, Daniel S. The biography book: a reader’s guide to nonfiction, fictional, and film biographies of more than 500 of the most fascinating individuals of all time. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001. Print.

Nokes, David. Jonathan Swift, a hypocrite reversed: a critical biography. New York, NY: OxfordUniversity Press, 2008. Print.

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s travels. Dahlonega, GA: Jones & company, 2009. Print.