Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Overview of the Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels

Satisfactory Essays
335 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Overview of the Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels
Fred Baxter
Prof. Bogart
English 215
2/15/14
Gulliver Travels

From reading the satire Gulliver Travels, some of the elements that made him feel like he experienced a utopia among the Houhynms were that he felt that they were more honest as society, everything was truthful. He felt as though they didn’t have many flaws as a society compared to where he came from which was full of war, disparity, and dishonesty. These elements of perfect utopia are what made Gulliver feel that this was ideal place to be and he wanted to model himself as Houhynms.
Gulliver began to imitate everything they did from there language to just about anything he saw Houhyhnms do. Inside he felt as though he was Houhynms but they saw him as yahoo, Because of the way he looked but Gulliver thought different. But to the Houhynms Gulliver is still a yahoo to them, even though he’s smarter than the average yahoo and doesn’t model exactly what yahoo look like.
There are definitely a lot of aspects from modern perspective he is missing due to fact that in the real world Houhynms do not model a utopia if they bash yahoos for not being like them. When in all reality Utopia means a society that would be perfect but when the Houyhnms are first described, it is stated from the text that they know no evil butt yet they bash yahoo for being different. Though the perfect view of a society amongst Houhynms thrived on Gulliver I believe he got caught up in what he thought was perfect but in the end made him look foolish by turning his back on his wife and children because he thought they were yahoos in sense that were brash just horrible creatures to be around but instead he got lost in his own society forgot where he essentially came from. Aspects of modern perspective where totally missed in this satire by Gulliver but also showed his unsociable feeling toward his own mankind.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Gulliver is going to 4 places that didn’t exist. One of the things that will be satired in Gulliver’s Travelers would be the government. He would describe the government he comes from and how much he respects it. There is no need for law and government officials…

    • 383 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In part one of the book, Gulliver travels to the island of Lilliput. As Gulliver sails to the country of Lilliput, which is a land of small people, he is ship wrecked and comes across people who represent quite the opposite of what he is. Upon arriving mysteriously on Lilliput, Gulliver was tied down and his weapons were taken away. To his surprise the people who captured him were only six inches tall, which to him was a relief because he didn’t feel threatened by them. The Lilliputians did not come to realize that they could use Gulliver to help them with things they could not do himself, “This great prince received me at my landing with all possible encomium, and created me a nardac upon the spot, which is the highest honor among…

    • 565 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The adult reader can easily identify with the ludicrousness of the scene. Politics, rationality and morality do not seem to be compatible in Lilliput. “The Role of Gulliver” by John Brooks Moore argues that “Swift, obviously enough, desires to communicate his own thoughts and passions regarding human beings to the readers of his book” (451). Moore feels that Gulliver is the medium through which Swift is able to comment on the Lilliputian systems of government and electoral processes as a method of commenting on real life scenarios of the same…

    • 2116 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s adventures and experiences satirize many aspects of human nature. Pride and arrogance are reoccurring themes that make up the most of Swift’s satire. While pride and arrogance is currently demonstrated by athletes such as Usain Bolt, it is also show by the characters in Gulliver’s Travels.…

    • 722 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Satire means irony. People use satire to expose folly or vice. Interestingly, in Voltaire's Candide and Swift's Gulliver's Travels, they both use satire to express their profound observations. They have some similarities; such as they both criticize the human weakness. They also have many differences between them. In "Candide", Voltarie offers sad themes by jokes and criticism. The story itself presents a distinctive outlook on life through author's satiric tone. Candide's experiences reveal to us that the world is a terrible place. Human beings are born to suffer in this world. On the other hand, Swift has continuously criticized the human race. He has never mentioned one of the good qualities of the human beings. Compare to the Houyhnhnm ? a horse society that the main character Gulliver admires the most, Swift satirizes the bad characters and behaviors of the human beings.…

    • 920 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The differences between two novels are significant. Although both novels are about characters’ travel, they are different styles. In ‘Gulliver’s travel’, Swift emphasizes the process how Gulliver realizes that he is a yahoo. No matter Gulliver description about the war among the princes of Europe, Queen Anne, and a first minister in the courts of Europe, or master’s observation about the characteristics of…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    First of all, Swift claims that Gulliver’s size symbolizes misplaced human pride. He uses the Lilliputians, Houyhnhnms, Yahoos, and Gulliver to point out the misplaced pride of humans. Swift writes, “...and the promise of honour I [Gulliver] made them [Lilliputians], for so I interpreted my submissive behaivour, soon drove out those imaginations.” Swift is insisting that the Lilliputians, the tiniest race, show excessive pride in themselves. He makes the argument that even Gulliver respects the Lilliputians. Many will disagree with this assertion that Swift is emphasizing misplaced pride between higher authorities and lower authorities. Although other critics have interesting analyses on this topic, Swift emphasizes the wrong use of pride of humans who are “higher” than others, such as kings or the wealthy. Also, according to Swift, “My Master [Houyhnhnms]…was sure that the weakest servant in his house would be able to shake off the strongest Yahoo…” Swift makes this argument to dispute that the Houyhnhnms, the horse race, show excessive pride in animals rather than humans. Those unfamiliar with this belief may be interested to know that it basically boils down to the enormous, misplaced pride of the Houyhnhnms. Although not all readers think alike, some of them will probably dispute the claim that Swift shows the misplaced pride humans have for animals; however, the animals are showing misplaced pride in themselves. It is important to recognize Swift’s use of satire of Gulliver’s and the other inhabitant’s sizes to show the misplaced pride…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gulliver uses his humanistic ability to analyze events and thoughts to dissect his own life among the native inhabitants. The Houyhnhnms and the Yahoos represent polar extremes of human beings with their own flaws and mishaps as well. The Houyhnhnm race represent the happy and peaceful nature of human beings. Without fear of reason or doubt, the Houyhnhnms are able to live freely without enslaving themselves to their mind and body. On…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gulliver's Travels

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Part I of Gulliver’s Travels reveals the abuse of power that recurs throughout the novel. Gulliver is on a boat called the Antelope. The Antelope runs into a storm causing Gulliver and 6 of his crewmates to make their escape on a small rowboat. Soon enough the storm causes the rowboat to capsize. Gulliver safely swims to shore but loses track of his crewmates and never sees them again. That night, Gulliver lies down on a patch of grass and falls asleep. When Gulliver awakens he notices that he is tied to the ground and cannot move. When Gulliver looks down he notices miniature people that couldn’t be more than just six inches tall. One of them was standing on his stomach and the rest were scattered along the ground. The people bring him to their capital city. Gulliver soon learns that the name of this city is Lilliput. Gulliver is then introduced to the emperor of Lilliput. The emperor gives him food and drinks, but he has Gulliver chained up. The emperor commands some of his soldiers to guard Gulliver in case he breaks out of his chains. When Gulliver begs for his freedom, the emperor will not grant him his freedom, but he tells Gulliver to be patient. Soon enough the days comes when the Lilliputians decide to unchain Gulliver, but in order for this to happen Gulliver must obey to the articles that the Lilliputians have put forth. The articles state that Gulliver must help with the construction of buildings and help the Lilliputians in times…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Using the first person narrative, Swift creates an odd empathy for the story’s hero, Lemuel Gulliver. In the rounding out of the protagonist, Swift creates a wholly relatable character for the reader: an unremarkably average man with an unremarkably average life and an unremarkably average self-image. Within our own minds, we are all hard pressed to see our own lives as anything aside from average, regardless of our spheres of influence. It is this lack of reference that allows the reader to empathize with the mediocrity of the story’s hero. We all long for something amazing to happen in our lives, without really understanding that through our mere existence, we are already experiencing the amazing.…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Each of the four books of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels discusses one aspect of human nature. The discussions’ language is rather satirical than an earnest tone. The first book is about the physical aspect, the voyage to Brobdingnag focuses on the “Homo politicus”, the political man. The third book is about intellect, while in the land if the Houyhnhnms we can “meet” the moral man. Now I am going to discuss the appearance of the intellectual aspect in the figurative language of book three.…

    • 1574 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the second part of the book, Gulliver finds himself living with a group of giants called Brobdingnagians. During his stays with the giants, he is very pleased with their society and the long conversations that he is able to have with the queen. Since he is so tiny, he finds himself defending himself against animals and one man that is upset that he is no longer the smallest man. During his fights, we see Gulliver turning into a fighter because his life depends on how well he can protect himself. In addition, most of all we see Gulliver's attitude towards England change. We start to see this in his talks with the queen. He defended England because he does not want to admit that the queen is right, that her country is better than his is and that England does not have its country set up so that everyone is equal. Gulliver does know about his change in talk about England, he even admits it to the reader. He says,…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Gulliver’s Travels, Swift uses the yahoo’s behavior to portray the European preoccupation with material goods. In the Houyhnhnm’s country the yahoos are very attached to the brightly colored stones, while the Houyhnhnms on the other hand, have no interest in these stones in the least. The Houyhnhnms cannot begin to understand the yahoo’s preoccupation with finding, retrieving, and hiding the stones, which are found throughout the countryside, sometimes partially buried in the ground. The yahoos will go to great lengths to possess these stones.…

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Jonathan Swift’s satire, “Gulliver’s Travels”, the representation of women can be seen, at a superficial level, as offensive and extremely misogynistic and in broad lines corresponding to the image of the woman in Swift’s contemporary patriarchal society. The woman was almost objectified, thus reduced to her physical appearance and its status as obedient wife, whose sole purpose was to attend to her husband’s need. This perception of women was what triggered the emerging feminist movement. With pioneers as Mary Wollstonecraft with her XVIIIth century “A Vindication of the Rights of Women”, the philosophy of feminism has reached its peak in the XXth century, starting with Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex”. Using a parallel between Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir’s concepts of the image of the woman in canonical thinking, the aim of this essay is to discuss feminine representations in Gulliver’s Travels and the way in which Swift’s view of the nature of women coincided or not with the existing ones in his contemporary society. In this manner, we can conclude that perceiving Swift as a fierce misogynist is rather a hasty conclusion and, in fact, he used his masterpiece as a way of emphasising the wrong perception and cultivation of the female nature in the Augustan Age. Published as Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts; by Lemuel Gulliver in 1726, Gulliver's Travels is a satire against the Augustan society, focusing its tirade on institutions such as government, arts, education and individuals alike. His vehemence in illustrating each of the book’s sections has lead to the conception that Swift is a misanthropist and a misogynist in particular, given the fact that he often used women to illustrate the most appalling aspects of human decadence. Nevertheless, taking into account the fact that being both a convinced religious man (he was an Anglican clergyman) and a humanist (he…

    • 2342 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Gulliver’s Travels begin Gulliver is described as being just an ordinary man with no real special or heroic qualities. He doesn’t come from a rich or powerful family, he didn’t complete extensive education, and didn’t hold a rather highly sought after or favorable job. Gulliver is rather just a simple and normal man. When reading epics such as the Odyssey, by Homer, the hero is described as being strong, masculine, powerful, and many other valiant traits. The character of Gulliver essentially pokes fun at the classic idea of what a hero who is traveling to far off lands encountering strange life should be. In a classic epic tale the main protagonist is always portrayed as almost a supernatural being who can overcome more than the ordinary man. Gulliver on the other hand seems to show signs of…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays