Saturday, August 4, 2012

What is Gulliver's Travels trying to say?

Through this satire, Swift is ultimately attempting to point out some of humanity's flaws, encouraging us to think more deeply about ourselves and our beliefs so that we are willing to make some changes. Often, Gulliver's conversations with the Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians highlight humanity's violent tendencies and the high premium we place on weapons and armies as well as how often we fight one another over religion or our basic ways of life. During the section on Lilliput, Swift especially draws readers' attention to the struggles between Catholics and Protestants and how these disagreements do not need to result in violent and brutal battles because one person's practice of Catholicism need not affect another person's right to practice Protestantism, and vice versa.


The third book points a finger at many of our ridiculous scientific experiments; they are ridiculous because they do not really serve us in any demonstrable or useful way. The fourth book points out our capability for greed, savageness and extreme emotionalism instead of rational thought, compassion and fairness.

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