Gulliver's Travels once again...

This blog is somewhat about the last two parts of the book Gulliver's Travels but it's also about comparing the parts. In the third part Gulliver goes to many different places. He starts in the land of Laputa where all the citizens have great appreciation and intelligence about music and mathematics. The capital of Laputa is a floating island that uses a lodestone to float over different parts of the mainland. The king of Laputa is not a allowed to leave the floating island but when he is mad at a village on the mainland he makes the island float over that village so it doesn't receive any sun or rain. The inhabitants only believe music and certain math to be useful and don't have knowledge on anything else. They consider practical geometry a bad thing so have no 90 degree angles in their buildings. Later Gulliver goes down to the mainland and visits a university. Each of the students and professors there have ridiculous and (to us) impossible ideas. One person tried to get sunlight out of cucumbers and store it in a jar for future use. Gulliver travels to many other places throughout this section, he travels to Glubbdubdrib where a magician summons up spirits of famous dead people so that Gulliver can talk to them. Then he travels to Luggnagg where certain people have the ability to live forever. Gulliver finds this so fantastic to be able to talk to people that have been around for so long and to learn from these elders, but it turns out that over the years the Struldbrugs(the people that live forever) turn crazy, forgetful and selfish and are only a burden on society. In the fourth section he travels to the land of the Houyhnhnms or horse people. In this land he is considered a "yahoo". A yahoo is the more animalistic version of the human race. They are covered in hair, have long tough nails and are vicious and unable to reason. He views the yahoos as disgusting creatures and soon views the entire human race that way. Yahoos get into fights that are very similiar to how humans act, but to the houyhnhnms it doesn't make any sense. Houyhnhnms are moral creatures and treat everyone equally and with courtesy. They are rational and intelligent yet have no way to describe a lie. It is impossible for them to lie and altogether don't understand the point of saying what is not.
I personally think these two sections have more of a fantastical and fairytale feeling to it. But these sections are so full of strange ideas and people that it is sometimes hard to see the point Swift is trying to get across. In the third section he mocks the ridiculousness of strange sciences that do no one any good. The Struldbrugs are capable of living forever, the dream of many individuals, and yet cannot enjoy it and are doomed to a terrible and depressing life. The fourth section however shows how Gulliver has given up on the human race. He wishes to stay with the horses and not return to England. He finds the human race disgusting and irrational. He no longer wishes to be a part of it. This is really a turning point for the character and for the reader. It sums up all of his adventures and all he has learned from the other races about them and humans in general. I feel that the fourth section may be the most important, but why is the first and second sections the only ones remembered? More specifically, why is Lilliput the story people identify with? I feel that the message of the the third and fourth section is a little obscured because of all the fairytale like qualities associated with them. I also feel that people may not want to remember the fourth section and the big revelation that Gulliver has. People don't want to think of themselves as yahoos. It makes them uneasy and that may be why the fourth story is less recognizable, because of human's dislike of seeing the bad in ourselves.

Gulliver's travel to Brobdingnag

Gulliver's second travel is the the land of Brobdingnag. In Brobdingnag it is the exact opposite of Lilliput, instead of being bigger than everyone else he is much smaller than the inhabitants. The author seems to use this as a way to show the opposite side. Instead of worrying about trampling on people as Gulliver did in Lilliput he has to worry about being trampled on! In the beginning of the second part Gulliver is saved by a farmer whom he calls "master". His master saves him from the outside world and keeps him to do tricks. His master practically works him to death doing what are "little tricks" to the inhabitants of Brobdingnag even though they are great feats for him. His master uses him in the meanest way just to make a bit of money. Gulliver was almost equal to a god on Lilliput, but in Brobdingnag he is nothing more than a curiousity, an oddity. The same way Gulliver used the small sheep and goats from Lilliput, his master used him. Eventually he is so exhausted that he cannot continue and his master sells him to the queen of the land. His master's daughter which Gulliver calls Glumdalclitch or "little nurse" in the Brobdingnag language, comes with him. He has many other experiences in Brobdingnag but each experience really is used to show how small he is. He runs into problems fighting rats, mice, and bugs. He's kidnapped by a monkey and has many fights with a dwarf. The dwarf seems to dislike Gulliver because he was always used to be the smallest and got used to the attention of being smaller than everyone else. Gulliver is so much smaller than the dwarf and sort of "steals his thunder". Gulliver is also used by some of the ladies in waiting as sort of a sexual plaything. The ladies don't seem him as a person, just an object. Gulliver is very disgusted by the ladies and how they look. Because Gulliver is so much smaller his senses are so much more acute. The ladies look disgusting, their pores are huge, their skin imperfect. These ladies would be considered very beautiful if he had been their size, but if you look at anything close enough you will be able to imperfections. This story has a good message about the nature of pride. Gulliver loses all sense of pride and accomplishment because he is so small. Swift sort of ridicules pride and how easy it is the lose. What about this story makes it seem less important than the first part of the story? Why do people remember the first part? Both parts had very strong messages ridiculing human nature. I feel that the first part was more whimsical. It showed Gulliver's wonder of all the small things in Lilliput. The stories told in both parts had a message but the stories in Lilliput seemed to be more exagerrated and ridiculous. In Brobdingnag, all the stories told about the land seemed to be very serious and more to the point. In Lilliput the entire part was building Gulliver up. He felt strong, important, and powerful. Its the exact opposite in Brobdingnag, he feels useless, unimportant, and dehumanized. Although both parts were written in a similiar style, Gulliver's Travels contains no dialogue whatsoever, the first part was an easier read and maybe that is why it is more easily remembered. I think Swift's style of writing in this book is very interesting. It seems to be more of a journal than it is a book. Gulliver keeps track of his travels and adventures but he doesn't have any dialogue. He will sometimes tell you the general gist of what each character says and the conversations they have but quotations are never used. It seems more like story time that way and makes the story that much more childlike, whimsical, and more memorable.

Gulliver's Travels Post numero uno!

The first book I have decided to read for my senior project is Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift. The theme or idea I was going to try to go with for my project is how fictional stories survive the test of time. How certain ideas and themes show up in other parts of our culture. If you were to mention Gulliver’s Travels the first thing that is thought of is the island of the little people but that’s only the very first part of the book. There are three other parts, so why is the first part the only that anyone remembers or can identify with? I have only read the first part of the book but I’d like to compare the other parts later and see if there is something special about the first part that makes it the thing that sticks in everyone’s mind.

In the first part of Gulliver’s Travels the main character is shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput. He is awaken to being tied down to the beach and poked by tiny spears that feel like needles. The island of Lilliput is inhabited by little people about 6 inches tall. Gulliver is kept as a prisoner for awhile but when he finally gets the Lilliputians to trust him he is released. Because Gulliver is so much bigger than the Lilliputians, it takes a lot more of their food, drink, bedding, and clothing to sustain him. We soon learn that there is some dissent within the island of Lilliput. There are two groups of people in Lilliput that fight amongst themselves. There are the high-heeled and the low-heeled. The emperor of Lilliput is a low-heeled and only employs other low-heeled people. That of course makes the high-heeled people mad and they fight amongst themselves. This sounds a lot to me like political parties fighting over different issues. But it can also refer to the fight between the Whigs and the Tories.

There is also another island called Blefuscu. That island is also inhabited by little people. The people of Lilliput and the people of Blefuscu used to live and work together. Everyone opened their eggs from the large end. But then someone decided to open his egg from the small end. It caused a revolution. Soon small end openers and large end openers fought. The Lilliputians were outraged that people would open their eggs from the small end. They believed it was against their religious writings. But in the writings it says “That all true believers shall break their eggs at the convenient end.” This statement of course can be interpreted differently depending on who reads it. I feel the fight between the people of Lilliput and the people of Blefuscu is supposed to show how stupid it is for the Christian religions to fight each other. They fight over the interpretation of the Bible and no one is really wrong or right.

Gulliver soon helps the Lilliputians conquer the Blefuscuns and he is revered as a hero, but when he tells the emperor of Lilliput that he cannot in good conscience allow him to make the people of Blefuscu slaves he is accused of committing treason. His punishment is to have his eyes poked out. Of course Gulliver doesn’t like that idea so he escapes to Blefuscu. They treat him well enough until he finds a boat his size and is able to sail back to his family.

I feel the plight of the Lilliputians and a lot of their so called “crazy” customs were written to make fun of the world and how people fight over stupid things and no one really wins in the end. The Lilliputians have a strong sense of honor which we look at as a good thing but because of the honor their punishments are so much worse. Although people get rewards for doing good the punishments seem a little harsh. If someone were to accuse an innocent man of something, the accuser would be killed. The death penalty is very prominent in Lilliput somewhat mocking people about how easily we kill others. I look forward to comparing the merits of this part to the other parts to find out why this part is more “superior”.