Gulliver's Travels Dialectical Journal

719 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Written analysis of gulliver's travels

ISU Journal #3 - Gulliver’s Travels Theme A major theme that is seen during the Gulliver’s final adventure is the reversal of roles. For the first time in the novel, Gulliver’s crew forms a mutiny and throws him overboard. On this island, we are introduced to Houyhnhnms and Yahoos. Gulliver first meets the Yahoos; a group of humans that act like farm animals and have the brain equivalent of a horse. Meanwhile, the Houyhnhnms are an intelligent race of horses that have their own language and use the Yahoos as cattle. When reality is presented with a different face it allows the reader to make less biased opinions based on previous beliefs. Most people are completely fine with how people treat cattle as a source of food, but when we see the …show more content…

The land of the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos is a little different compared to the previous cities that were presented. The Houyhnhnms are an intelligent race of horses that use Yahoos which are the equivalent of primal humans as livestock. In their society, the Houyhnhnms lives are partially decided based on their ethnicity at birth. In the novel Gulliver’s master states, “Among the Houyhnhnms, the white, the sorrel, and the Iron-grey, were not so exactly shaped as the Bay, the Dapple-grey and the Black; nor born with equal Talents of Mind, or a Capacity to improve them; and therefore continued always in the Condition of Servants,” (Swift 193). Although it might seem unfair that the civilians’ lives are partially chosen at birth the horses are content with the system. To some, their society seems as a utopia as the horses live “perfect” lives where they don’t question much, and therefore don’t need lawyers, and ministers. Their society is so well made that they don’t even have a word or understand the concept of lying. Not only this but none of the Horses judge have any sympathy for the Yahoos and use them as slaves. The Yahoos are at the bottom of the society and will never have a chance of moving

Show More
Related

  • Utopia In Gulliver's Travels

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jonathan Swift wrote his book Gulliver’s Travels in the first half of the 1720’s. At the time he was writing much more of the “new world” had been explored and colonized, giving Swift with the ability to create a traveller to poke fun at and critique the men who had previously made themselves out to be heroes by creating a fiction often more believable than the supposed truths. Gulliver’s admiration for other societies resembles that of Hythloday and his experience in Utopia. Both of these book show how writers back in Europe wished the explorers would have been more earnest in their descriptions of societies in the new world. Swift especially used his book to comment on the current state of Europe and its politics in the new world.

    Read More

  • The Great Gatsby Dialectical Journal

    503 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chapter one introduces Hafid, a wealthy and successful salesman and his assistant Erasmus, a trusted worker and friend. Hafid lives in a beautiful palace with every type of luxury imaginable. He understand that he would die soon and askes Erasmus to estimate the value of his properties and to distribute them among others. Erasmus is now asked to give half his fortune to the poor as he did annually and sell his belongings in for gold. Hafid only intends to keep enough money to last him for the remaining of his life and the rest disturbed to the people who need it and to his emporiums. In doing this, Hafid promised Erasmus to share a secret that he had only told his wife. In Chapter 2, Erasmus does what he is told and when returning back was

    Read More

  • Great Gatsby Dialectical Journal

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    4. Describe and explain why you would/would not like to have lived in the time or place of the story.

    Read More

  • Dialectical Journal For The Kite Runner

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    “African american. 5’8. Female. Brown eyes”, I read the words off a passport only to realize that it belonged to me. I couldn’t get over the little girl that had no smile present at the time. I realized at that moment how much I changed from then to now. I still identify myself as “African american, 5'8. Female. Brown eyes”. Most importantly I know that I’m more than just descriptions in a small book. I would consider myself to be a woman who is sophisticated, intelligent, poised, and blessed. Many people can’t even come up with a list of adjectives to describe themselves, as a result they usually ask the people that are close to them to do so. Not knowing who you are other than what people tell

    Read More

  • Great Gatsby Dialectical Journal

    494 Words  | 1 Pages

    The New York Times article, Editorial Observer; Jay Gatsby, Dreamer, Criminal, Jazz Age Rogue, Is a Man for Our Times, highlights the actions of characters such as Jay Gatsby, Atticus Finch, and Holden Caulfield to the 21st Century. The article discusses how all three characters were listed by Book magazine to be names the Top 100 fictional characters since 1900. The character, Gatsby, was selected because of his trait to be the “cynical idealist, who embodies America in all of its messy glory.” The article continues on by stating how Gatsby would relate to a current American in today’s day in age. Many believe that Gatsby would be able to survive, and thrive, in today’s age knowing what readers know of his life in the 1920s. The author begins by

    Read More

  • Puritans in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

    1426 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nathaniel Hawthorne opens his most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter, in the midst of the action. The novel begins with a crowd of Puritan Bostonians waiting anxiously outside the town jailhouse, hoping to see convicts, sinners, and their overall hated fellow citizens be publicly punished and shamed. This is a classic example in medias res, which translates from Latin to mean “in the middle of things,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The concept of introducing a plot while it is occurring and letting the reader infer about the past through context clues and flashbacks developed during the popular phase of epic poetry in ninth century B.C. as seen in Homer’s Odyssey, according to Murray. In medias res is a technique that helps create a more dramatic atmosphere and helps the author captivate the reader from the beginning. Hawthorne indirectly introduces the protagonist, Hester Prynne, in the second chapter when the crowd discusses and criticizes the punishment she has received for adultery. At this point, the reader can construe that Hester Prynne is a woman who fell to the temptation of sin, and in the Puritan society, she will have to face punishment. The reader eventually finds out greater detail of what leads her to be in the situation aforesaid. However, the few pieces of background information do not explain her past in full. This is where the reader’s imagination and logic must participate to describe in greater detail how her life has taken this certain path.

    Read More

  • Jack London Essay

    1051 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fang the main character is a gray cub wolf. Wolves in this novels were used

    Read More

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter

    541 Words  | 2 Pages

    Setting in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a powerful symbol used to support the theme of the novel. The first setting is the city of Boston. In this setting, the lives of all are on display to the public. As the story opens, the townspeople here await Hester Prynne’s appearance from her months in jail. In the city, the people’s private lives and moral actions are the topic of much discussion and observation. The people are particularly interested at this time with the moral failure of Hester. The matrons of the town have a particular “boldness and rotundity of speech” regarding Hester’s appearance before them (38). However, Hester is not the only person under the constant observation and judgment of the Puritan population. In reference to the situation surrounding Hester’s love affair, the people say that Dimmesdale “takes it very grievously… that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation” (39). Others still complain that Dimmesdale and the town’s leadership are too merciful, and that “at the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron o...

    Read More

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    In every generation there are certain rules and etiquette that play a large role in dictating the appropriate behavior for the time. An individual may choose to live his or her life according to this code of conduct and do fairly well, or in contrast live a life full of trials and hardship as a result of their transgression. This is especially true for the early inhabitants of 17th century colonial America, a period rife with the religious zeal and harsh castigation carried out on behalf of the Puritans who settled the area. During this time, as is still the case today, offenders of this societal moral code were made examples of and forced to suffer so that they may serve as a warning to the rest of the population. This is the case in The Scarlet Letter where the protagonist Hester Prynne is ostracized from her conservative community after committing the then unforgivable sin of adultery. In his novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses both themes of guilt and redemption to create trials that test his character Hester Prynne and in the process transforms her from a pitiable sinner, to a symbol of strength.

    Read More

  • Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    Everyone has secret sins that we don’t want anyone else to find out about. Yet, when these secret sins are revealed, we discover that these sins were holding us back. Hester Pyrnne returns to her home in the last chapter of The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and willingly puts the scarlet letter back on. This letter bears the pain and guilt of her secret sin, adultery, and the town that she lived in thought that the letter would make her deal with, and be redeemed from her sin. Through her trails, we can learn about ourselves, and how to deal with the secret sins inside each of us. Hester Prynne saw the Reverend Dimmesdale’s embrace of his sin on the pillory led to his salvation. Even though she preached that she was unable to be saved, she was drawn back to the place of her sin so as to let the scarlet letter do its job and save her. Secret sin is something that we want to hide, but only after we deal with it in the place that it occurred, can we move on.

    Read More

  • Pride And Prejudice Dialectical Journal

    413 Words  | 1 Pages

    Two cheerful children ran down the hallways of the (Insert Last Name Of Isamu's Family) family home.A fire red haired girl slammed the door behind her and it was open again by her best friend.Without looking back the girl loaded her vow with a regular arrow and shot it backwards towards her unsuspecting friend.A quick slice later and the arrow was cut in half by Isamu's sword.Daylight danced around them as the true neck wearing boy pulled ahead and ran full speed to the door of their school.

    Read More

  • 12 Angry Men Dialectical Journal

    449 Words  | 1 Pages

    a) Juror Three argued that the switchblade knife was swung down and in, which was ideal for the defendant considering he was shorter than his father. Juror Three stated, “‘Down and in. That’s how I’d stab a taller man in the chest and that’s how it was done.’” (Rose 61). This quote basically accounts for Juror Three’s beliefs with handling the knife.

    Read More

  • Johnathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels

    1624 Words  | 4 Pages

    Past the political satire and laughable motifs in the book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, the purpose of this story is to show everything ignoble and tactless of the human species in general and that humans are truly disgusting. Also exploring the idea of a utopia. Swift uses the literary device of political satire to show how childish and ignorant human acts were. This is because during Swift's time in the eighteenth century, Britain was modernizing at this time. The reader follows the four narrative travels of the main character, Lemuel Gulliver. Each of the four voyages Gulliver has traveled to, is a different society that portrays one of the main ideals of the eighteenth century in Britain. The four places Gulliver has traveled to were Lilliput; being Gulliver's first voyage, Brobdingnag; his second voyage, Laputa; the third voyage, and lastly to the land of the Houyhnhms; being his last voyage and afterwards traveling back home to England. The experience from being exposed to these four societies has had a huge impact on how Gulliver now sees humans.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Lemuel Gulliver's Dream

    543 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Gulliver's dream, he observes that his “teachableness, civility, and cleanliness” (2436) astonishes the Houyhnhnm, who initially takes Gulliver for a mere Yahoo. He also goes...

    Read More

  • The Houyhnthhnms: A Race Of Individuals Who Live By Reason?

    869 Words  | 2 Pages

    The peoples (horses) of the Houyhnhnms were created by Swift to show how man should live by reason and not be overcome by their own passions. He uses the Yahoos to show the complete opposite of a society ruled with no reason, but with only their own ugly desires. The Houyhnhnms do have their good sides and their bad sides, but the Yahoos are rotten through and through. The clash of the two types of peoples does seem to reflect much of the world of Swift’s era; the good….the rational, and the bad….the irrational.

    Read More

More about Gulliver's Travels Dialectical Journal

Open Document