Gulliver's Travels Part 4: Guest Post from my Mom!

When my mom found out I was hosting a few read-alongs, she decided to participate as well. She is a big reader as well and I probably got my love of reading from her. She always has a book ready and waiting. And even though we have very different taste in books, I have gotten some wonderful suggestions from her.

I am glad she decided to join in and I offered to post her thoughts here, since she does not have a blog of her own. So her are her thoughts about the last section of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift:

Book 4 of Gulliver’s Travels takes him off again, this time as a captain of a merchant ship. He hires replacements for his crew who became ill and they turned out to be pirates and organize a mutiny on his ship. They end up setting him free on the Island of Houyhnhnms.

Here the Houyhnhnms are horse’s who run the Island and they are clever and sweet smelling. Gulliver again learns to converse with the Houyhnhnms. They live a good clean life with no lies. They are a rational, uncorrupted, innocent, polite and moral society. Gulliver likes it here and doesn’t want to ever leave.

The slaves are human creatures called Yahoo’s. They are filthy and smell. They eat meat and garbage. He sees them as vulgar and they throw their excrement at one another. He compares the two and places himself somewhere in the middle. His clothes are what makes him different from the Yahoos and helps the Houyhnhnms accept him as different. Gulliver tries to become more like the horse and not like the human Yahoo’s.

Gulliver explains his society and war and the reasons for it. He basically is explaining the justification of reasons countries go to war, take over land and its people. He also explains how lawyers use laws and reasons to justify their means. Gulliver goes on to explain how money can corrupt; how the rich can buy gourmet food and then become unhealthy.

Gulliver lives with the Houyhnhnm’s for three years and he starts to imitate the horse by walking, speaking and acting like them.

The Houyhnhnm hold an assembly every 4 years, which shows that they have no problems living peacefully together. The horses become frightened with Gulliver trying to be like them, he is more a Yahoo and they want him to leave.

They help him build a boat and he ends up eventually being taken aboard a Portuguese ship where the captain convinces him to return home to his family.

His family is happy to see him again, they thought he was dead, but he cannot stand the sight or smell of his Yahoo-wife and children. He sees himself in the worst way and his pride is in disarray. Over time he reasons to change his thinking and starts to come back to normal.

Gulliver swears he’s telling the truth about his journeys. Are countries, politicians, authors telling the truth? The end comes down to Gulliver’s pride, just as those he mocks throughout the book.

This book makes you stop and think about ourselves, our own society, country and world. He takes a look at himself in different situations throughout the book where any one of us could see ourselves dealing with moral, political and societal issues today. The truth and pride we each have is what Gulliver himself is struggling with in his adventures.

In the end, I really like the book. It was thought provoking. You can read it for the enjoyment of the story as it is, but when you look at what issues he is raising, it also becomes much more, which I am sure is what he wanted.

Gulliver's Travels Part 2: Guest Post from my Mom!

When my mom found out I was hosting a few read-alongs, she decided to participate as well. She is a big reader as well and I probably got my love of reading from her. She always has a book ready and waiting. And even though we have very different taste in books, I have gotten some wonderful suggestions from her.

I am glad she decided to join in and I offered to post her thoughts here, since she does not have a blog of her own. So her are her thoughts about the second section of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift:

I really liked Book II where Gulliver finds himself in Brobdingnag and now he is the “small” person with the Giants now 12 times larger than he is, just the opposite of Book I and Lilliput.

The main difference in the two books is that Gulliver is looked at as more of a pet to the Giants. Where in Lilliput, Gulliver seemed to look at the people there as people.

He is also repulsed by the human body of the Giants-being able to now look at it up close and the vermin that prey upon the body. So it gives you a perspective of what is really revolting, the Giant people or the vermin who prey upon them, or both. Does this mean the Government and Royalty and then the regular society of people?

Gulliver thinks the society as mostly a moral people with just a few that are jealous or corrupt, the King’s jester, with a little malice at times. Just as Governments and Kings have also been at times.

Gulliver discusses the English society and government with the King and he then gives Gulliver his view and judgment by comparing them to Brobdingnag. This then causes Gulliver to take a different look and view point at the English. So it looks that if you take a step back, or remove yourself from a situation, you just may be persuaded to a different perspective of what you now think is what your government and society really are.

Gulliver is also knocked down literally by hailstones, and a few other things. He is also stripped of his clothes by the maids and is just a plaything to them. He is offended, but the maids do not see him that way and are just curious about him. Then a monkey takes him captive and treats him like a baby monkey. He has been reduced down, is this representing that the Giants are morally superior? Does this also mean that royalty and governments can do what they want, and the people are treated like pets, or do the people become a society where the corruption is low as that of Brobdingnag.

Gulliver escapes Brobdingnag. He is pampered by the royal family, but he is also treated as a pet. He misses being part of a society. He escapes by being at the sea shore in his traveling box and it is picked up by an eagle. An English ship finds his box in the ocean and he is rescued and brought back home. Everyone there now seems tiny to him and he is a giant. How his perspective has changed at first and as time goes on, it goes back to where he started.

I really liked this book. It helped to put both Books I and II together for me. Not having read Gullivers Travels before, it is really starting to come together. Thanks Allie for inspiring me to read this. Didn’t know what I was missing. There is so much you can compare and insinuate in all of his situations he comes into. You can really look at today’s world and put it into this book.

Gulliver's Travels Part 1: Guest Post from my Mom!

When my mom found out I was hosting a few read-alongs, she decided to participate as well. She is a big reader as well and I probably got my love of reading from her. She always has a book ready and waiting. And even though we have very different taste in books, I have gotten some wonderful suggestions from her.

I am glad she decided to join in and I offered to post her thoughts here, since she does not have a blog of her own. So her are her thoughts about the first section of Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift:

Okay, this is my first read-a-long and commentary on any given book. What a book to start with. As I have told Allie, in person, my literature education is sadly lacking. I have not personally read very many ”classics” either as a student or during my adult life. That is one of the reasons why I just love that she is doing this blog on the classics. Her reviews are filling in so many blanks that I’ve had when references in other books I read mention quotes from many of the “classic” literature. I’m also having a bit of trouble remembering my history from the early 1700’s when the setting of the satire of this book takes place. Trying to remember the political parties and Royalty of Europe was not one of my personal strong suits back in my days. I heard of Gulliver’s Travels, when I was younger, but it was not something that was required to read and I really had no idea what this book was about before starting it.

So what I’ve basically got out of Book I of Gulliver’s Travels is the correlation of the little people being Politicians and Royalty of the time. I also think many of the references have to do with the different religions that were a big part of politics back at that time and the influence they had on both the Royal families and politicians. England and France are represented by Lilliput and Blefuscu. The people of these countries will do basically whatever is necessary to get what they want and change the rules or manipulate to justify getting rid of those who do not fit what they believe in themselves or serve their purpose.

I have to say that I truly enjoyed many of his settings, especially, his method of putting out the fire. I can’t help but feel that he was really ingenious in his writing of the many ways to represent people and actions that he is taking his shots at. I think making the little people represent the politicians and royalty is his way of showing that normal people are more moral. Being little is making you small in your thoughts and actions. What also really points out to me, is how this behavior will always be there. Isn’t that how we perceive politicians and Royalty today?

I am looking forward to Book 2.