A major theme in the section of Gulliver’s Travels that we read is human nature. I think something Jonathan Swift was trying to convey was how ridiculous our human nature is. We are sinful and greedy and even war-hungry for the most part. But are the human indulgences necessarily worse than the boring life of intelligent cattle? Perhaps not. Gulliver really just wanted to be like the Houyhnhnms because of how civilized they were and even when he was forced back into the real world, he wanted nothing but to go back to them.
We look at him wondering if maybe he’s mad but in a way, we all act like him sometimes. When things start to get interesting or out of our hands, we want to go back to having order and control over how our society works. But because of sin, we can never really have this, no matter how much we try to control our lives.
I think Gulliver’s Travels is a lot like Rape of the Lock in that both authors were kind of mocking the people that wanted to indulge in their own selfish desires as well as the people that wanted peace in every aspect of life. Like what Amanda said in a comment under Samantha’s post how we need balance between the two.
PS commented under Samantha
ReplyDeleteSwift is definitely into questioning the human nature... and humanity itself. We see this A LOT in A Modest Proposal. We think we are so developed as a species but we walk past people on the street as if they are bugs and not the same type of creature as we are! He definitely is challenging the way one views his or herself personally and the way he or she views the rest of humanity. If we want to be a civilized people- let's end world hunger.
ReplyDelete#challengetomyselfandall