Tuesday, December 7, 2010
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.
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