Satire In Gulliver's Travels

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Satire in Gulliver’s Travels The same goes for the new society he discovers. Gulliver finds an entire population of miniature people who are no more than six inches tall (2329). This again gives no room for connection between the reader and this absurd culture. Another theme portrayed in Gulliver Travels is Gulliver being God and the Lilliputians being humankind. This is a rational representation because Gulliver allows himself to be taken prisoner and even shot with arrows (much like Jesus submitting to being tortured/crucified). Instead of fighting or killing his wardens he simply sits there and allows them to do with him as they wish. This display of the Lilliputians being so violent toward Gulliver is a good satirical example of mankind automatically demonizing something they don’t understand. For a modern example one may look at senior citizens and their reaction when it comes to video games and rap/metal music. They automatically cringe in disgust and lash out at their grandkids for listening to “noise” or for rotting their brains on video games when they go into the next room and sit in front of a TV for hours on end watching Dr. Phil and Dancing with the Stars. A different approach in book 4 of Gulliver’s_ Travels_ satirizes human nature at its most basic form. In a land governed by intelligent horses known as the Houyhnhnm, humans are wild animals called Yahoos who are savage unclean creatures. Near the end of the book Gulliver develops this strong distaste for humans due to the years he lived with the Houyhnhnm. Upon making his way back home he can hardly look at his own family and tries to live his life as a horse. The Yahoos are portrayed as basically monkeys. They run nakedly in the wild, are a pest to their superior beings the Houyhnhnm, and they even throw their feces around. When talking with his
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