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...