Blog #6

Ross Reed

2-28-11

Gulliver’s Travels Come to a Halt.. Finally. 

Gulliver has found his dream world which is full of happiness and without corruption, only problem is that his fantasy land is full of talking horses and barbaric human creatures covered in poop.  

What Gulliver loved so much about the talking horses, other wise known as Houyhnhnms, was that they had no understanding of war, lying, money, opinions, and disease. They were an untainted culture in terms of their views.  The reason he appreciated these values so much is because he has been traveling so much and seen so many cultures that he viewed as dysfunctional, so he can no longer go back to sanity. I like to think of it as a kind of shell shock, as if Gulliver was a soldier shipped off to war and he was in a different world with death all around him and when his time is up he goes back to normal society but he cannot adjust because he has seen too much corruption.  

It is clear to us that Gulliver has lost all touch of reality. He has dehumanized the yahoo’s and used their own skin to build a boat. The Gulliver we first knew at the beginning of this book would never do such a thing to any creature. Also, when Gulliver eventually finds his way home he realized he is disgusted with just about every aspect of his people, including his family. 

“My Wife and Family received me with great Surprise and Joy, because they concluded me certainly dead; but I must confess the sight of them filled me only with Hatred, Disgust and Contempt, and the more by reflecting on the near Alliance I had to them.” ( Gulliver’s Travels pg.265)

He ends up spending the majority of his days with his horses instead of his family. My conclusion on what his final thoughts were about his journeys is that Gulliver has seen what the true world was like and he was ashamed to be alike any of the cultures he saw, so he isolated himself away.

Blog #5

Blog #5
2/22/11
Ross Reed


Gulliver’s gone mad

      I has a suspicion before that Gulliver was going insane, but now I am sure of it. He has gone insane in many aspects, for example he does not enjoy people that do things differently than his way of life. Also he his attitude toward life just seems gloomier and I think he has been traveling for too long and its time to retire, kind of like Brett Favre with football he is just not the same anymore.
      I first had my suspicions confirmed when he was talking among the great ancient figures of the world in Glubbdubdrib and he was disgusted with what he was learning. I figured he would have been sufficiently impressed with the opportunity to learn. That is why I picked this passage as the most important:

“ I was chiefly disgusted with modern History. For having strictly examined all the Persons of great Name in the Courts of Princes for an hundred Years past, I found how the World had been misled by prostitute Writers, to ascribe the greatest Exploits in War t Cowards, to Wisest Counsel to Fools, Sincerity to Flatters, Roman Virtue to Betrayers of their Country, Piety to Atheist, Chastity to Sodomites, Truth to Informers. How many innocent and excellent Persons had been condemned to Death or Banishment, by the practicing of great Ministers upon the Corruption of Judges, and the Malice of Faction. How many Villains had been exalted to the highest places of Trust, Power, Dignity, and Profit: How great a share in the motions and Events of Courts, Councils, and Senates might be challenged byBawds, Whores, Pimps, Parasites, and Baffoons: How low an Opinion I had of human Wisdom and Integrity, when I was truly informed of the Springs and Motives of great Enterprises and Revolutions in the World, and of the contempitible accidents to which they owed their Success.” ( Gulliver’s Travels pg. 185)

      After he left the disappointing land of Glubbdubdrib he traveled to a land called Luggnagg, where he came upon another great discovery of immortal humans called Struldbruggs. These very rare humans were born with a spot above their eye and they would live forever except they would age like a regular human. Gulliver has a conversation with one of these immortals and they talk about how Gulliver would live if he was immoral. Gulliver talks about how he would be a great scholar and he would educate people constantly and he would be a great man, but thats no surprise we could have guessed he would say that by the first time we were introduced to him. I disagree with what Gulliver says about how great he would live because recently in his journeys he seems to be gloomier and I think as he got really old he would not want to live anymore because he would be sick of the human race.
      When Gulliver traveled to the land of Horse people I stopped and thought about what this signifies. I think He enjoyed being with these animals, besides the food, because they were not as corrupt as the humans.

Blog #4 Adventures

If Gulliver was a real person, I think he would remind us identically of that stereotypical grandpa figure we have that tells stories that are completely exaggerated just to make us ponder what if. This weeks reading was full of adventures, also it was the most informative chapter yet when it comes to describing every thing that Gulliver came across which became annoying very quickly.  

Gulliver had this bad habit in this chapter of strangely describing things as if he was a scientist writing down his observations in his lab. His intentions for this is to give the reader a better description of what he is experiencing but it is too hard to keep up with him and try to comprehend all the dimensions in our minds. In one of the chapters Gulliver describes to us some of the most absurd and unfortunate adventures he is forced to go through. 

        The first adventure Gulliver describes is when he is in the garden and the Dwarf shakes an apple tree and apples start falling on Gulliver and he must hide to avoid being smashed. A similar story is when a hailstorm brews up and hail starts pelting Gulliver’s body and he is severely hurt to the point where he must stay in bed rest for over a week. He goes through adventures of being attacked by birds, white spaniels, frogs, but most importantly he is kidnapped by a monkey. I chose the passage that describes Gulliver being kidnapped by a monkey because it is so random it therefore is an important point. 

“But, the greatest danger I ever underwent in that Kingdom, was from a Monkey, who belonged to one of the Clerks of the Kitchen.” ( Gullivers Travels pg.113)

On a serious note, Gulliver has many deep conversations with the King describing the government of his homeland England and the King is very interested.  The King even takes notes and asks questions on Gulliver’s description, in the end the King concludes that Gulliver’s people seem like a very dangerous and mean race that suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth, even I thought that was a little harsh. 

Blog #3 Gulliver Leaves The Little People

        In this weeks reading Gulliver the great gave us “ the reader” a deeper description of the customs of the inhabitants of Lilliput, his encounter with being accused of treason, and his journey home. I also noticed in these few chapters his dialect was much more formal aka harder to read. A significant passage I thought was his thought of revolt against the little people because it shows that he knows he could own these people in a fight but choses to respect the oath he made to the emperor which I think is intended to tell us a lot about Gulliver’s integrity.

“Once I was strongly bent upon Resistance, for while I had Liberty, the whole Strength of the Empire could hardly subdue me, and I might easily with Stones pelt the Metropolis to Pieces; but I soon rejected that Project with Horror, by remembering the Oath I had made to the Emperor, the Favors received from him, and the high Title of Nardac he conferred upon me.” ( Gulliver’s Travels, pg. 69)

      I think Gulliver told us this thought because he wants the readers to think of him with higher respect, and envy him for not going around like Godzilla and ravaging an entire civilization. Instead, It makes me think of Gulliver as an attention craver that wants people to like him, which in return makes me not like him more.

      When Gulliver was being secretly accused of treason, the punishments the officials of Lilliput came up with were strangely very brutal for what seemed like a peaceful civilization. For instance, one of the punishments they came up with was setting fire to Gulliver’s house at night, then with twenty thousand men to shoot him in the face and hands with poisoned arrows. Along with that they would put poisonous juice on his shirt which was would make him tear his own flesh off and die a painful death. Another punishment they came up with was making him blind by shooting sharp arrows into his eyes while he lay on the ground. Another was to starve him to death and then when he was dead to cut his flesh from his bones and take it away and bury it in the ground leaving only his skeleton as a monument. These ideas seem uncharacteristic coming from a community that resembled such a prestigious civilization like his native land England.                                          

      Towards the end of the reading I found it interesting how convenient it was for an empty boat to randomly show up for him to leave, and also how convenient it was for him to randomly run into another ship out in the middle of the ocean to save him. When he got home I’m not surprised he turned his travels into a money making scheme where he went around showing wealthy important people his miniature farm animals for money.

      I am looking forward to part two of his travels because I’m sure they tell the stories of some really unexaggerated and truthful events...