Monday, April 27, 2015

I need help understanding how to write an essay based on Gulliver’s Travels being a satire.How does this relate to utopia? Examples of satire and...

I am assuming you are referring to the world of the
Hyoughnyms as opposed to the other worlds which all clearly have problems.  The horses
are more reasonable, less violent, and Gulliver is genuinely impressed by the fact that
whenever these creatures come into another's company, it is necessary to be quiet for a
few minutes to gather one's thoughts before speaking, thus cutting out all the mindless
chatter, the slips of the tongue, the embarrassing faux pas that occur in Gulliver's own
country.  Of course, he then meets and later is mistaken for, a Yahoo.  They are dirty
creatures who only act on impulse and instinct.  They look like people, only care about
eating and mating (like some people), and are incredibly unpolished.  They do not
communicate in anything other than grunts and moans, they are anything but reasonable,
and they care for material goods like the diamonds they dig for which Gulliver also
wants badly.  The satire here is pointing at out the material and selfish side of human
nature.  As long as these instincts and impulses exist, there can never truly be a
Utopia such as the horses have.


As far as your thesis
statement goes, I would focus on the qualities of humanity that Swift is poking at...our
vanity, selfishness, greed, materialism.  These things are absent in the horse society,
but fully present in the society of the Yahoos which Gulliver most closely
resembles.

No comments:

Post a Comment

How is Anne's goal of wanting "to go on living even after my death" fulfilled in Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl?I didn't get how it was...

I think you are right! I don't believe that many of the Jews who were herded into the concentration camps actually understood the eno...