Gulliver’s Travels Exploring Gulliver’s Journey - 1886 Words

Through metaphors in Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift showed that the self-indulgence of humanity will lead to their ultimate failure unless they learn to become kinder and more selfless. Each island in Gulliver’s Travels shows a different trait standing alone causing it to be just as bad as being self-indulgent. This type of failure will cause separation and isolation, which could lead to mental instability. The book, Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, starts off with a young surgeon who has been recently married. This young surgeon, Gulliver, is a family man who begins working as a surgeon on a ship. Gulliver at the beginning of the book is just like any other man during this era as seen in this quote from Gulliver’s Travels, â€Å"But,†¦show more content†¦But when some confessed they owed their greatness and wealth to sodomy or incest, others to the prostituting of their own wives and daughters; others to the betraying of their country or their prince; some to poisoning, more to the perverting of justice in order to destroy the innocent; I hope I may be pardoned if these discoveries inclined me little to abate of that profound veneration which I am naturally apt to pay to persons of high rank, who ought to be treated with the utmost respect due to their sublime dignity, by us their inferiors. (Swift 215) The idea of such inferior people holding power changes Gulliver’s perspective of humanity; this is one of the most ultimate changes that Gulliver goes through. There are a lot of contradictory words and antonyms seen in this passage that makes it seem as though Gulliver is almost arguing with himself whether the actions of the past rulers are acceptable or not. â€Å"Perjury, oppression, subornation [sic], fraud, panderism [sic], and the like infirmities, were amongst [sic] the most excusable arts they had to mention,† is a very powerful sentence that sets a negative tone. Association of such words that are along the lines of disgust, Gulliver has begun to lose his respect for past rulers. Swift’s use of phrases had to mention and confess they owed, shows that Swift felt as though the past rulers wereShow MoreRelatedGulliver ´s Travels by Jonathan Swift: Biographical Summary1982 Words   |  8 PagesGulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift – Biographical Summary Jonathan Swift was born on November 30, 1667 in Ireland to English parents, Jonathan and Abigail. His father, Jonathan, died shortly after his birth, leaving his mother to raise him and his sister alone. In Ireland, Swift was dependent on a nanny for three years because his mother moved to England. The young man was educated because of the patronage of his Uncle, Godwin Swift. Godwin sent him to Kilkenny Grammar School at age six, whichRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 PagesGrave, and John Updike’s AP may also be said to deal in common with the theme of initiation, the rite of passage into the world of adulthood. Or, we may speak of theme as a familiar pattern or motif that occurs again and again in literature, say the journey theme found in works as different and similar as John Barth’s Lost in the Funhouse, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s My Kinsman, Major Molineux, and Flannery Oâ€℠¢Connor’s The Artificial Nigger. When we speak of theme in connection