When I first
started reading the book I thought its only purpose was to talk about the
political system in England. But after some pages I found that there could be a
deeper message concealed, between the lines somewhere. The book is divided into
four minor novels. The first is about the Lilliputian's the second about
Gulliver visits the giants, the third about the flying island and last about
Gullivers travels to the land of Houyhnhmland.
In the first book
Gulliver gets shipwrecked and ends up on the island Lilliput were some
inhabitans of the island finds him and ties him to the ground. The king hears
of the news and sends the army to stop the giant from escaping. Gulliver is
then taken to the king's castle were he is searched fore weapons or other
dangerous items. The Lilliputians are divided into two tribes. One is holding
Gulliver and the other lives on the second island which is separated from the
first by a canal (resembles of England and France) . Gulliver is at the littlenders
and the enemy is the bigenders which live on the island of Blefuscu. Gulliver helps the Littlenders
to defeat the bigenders. In this book Swift emphasises the stupidity in the war
between England and France and also every war which starts over a stupid
reason, he also points out the meaningless in courtlife were they do nothing
but waste the states money.
At he
lilliputians he builds a raft which he uses to sail back to England. But
instead he finds himself shipwrecked and washed upon the shores of Brumbidang
or the giants land. there he was found
by a farmer whom handed him over into his daughters care. The farmer uses
Gulliver for finical reasons and shows him up as a side-showfreak at all the
inns in the land. In the giants land there are no classdeffirences this is
something that probably Swift wanted to introduce to the British system.
In this book
Swift also attacks the British political and justice system with no mercy, He
also emphasises the meaningless of having an standing army in peace.
In the third book
Gulliver gets picked up by men of the flying island of Laputa.
There everyone is
striving to improve their environment in any way possible everything from
harvesting to building houses.
Gulliver visit
the towns academy were he sees some scientists
researching in almost everything,
inventing meaningless gadgets. In this third book Swift expresses his
opinions about the science which were achieving a much higher role in society
in those days, and he also wants us to strive backwards to the old customs of
life in the time of Aristoteles were science was not accepted by the ordinary
man.
In the fourth and
finial book Gulliver meets the disgusting creatures called yahoo's. His first
encounter almost cost him his life when the yahoo's attacked him. But the
horses came to his rescue which scared them away. He is taken to the horses
home were he is feed. The right name for the horses is hoyhnhnm which in their
language means natures perfection, Gulliver uses the nature to feed him self as
making his own bread.
Later in the book
he is questioned about his own society, here Swift's uses the horse as the
worlds common sense while Gulliver represents the England. In this book Swift
also shoes what he thinks about the human race that were are not as great and
beautiful as we think but according to him lower then the animals.
There is a topic
that runs through all the four novels, which is that the human race often takes
things for
granted not
considering that there could be some one or something getting hurt, and also
the injustice of the British law and political system which existed in that
time.
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