2024, Nov. 23rd

Most people have read Gulliver’s Travels, a fictional travel journal narrated by a man called Gulliver. Most believe the book to be nothing more than a children’s book full of imagined, faraway lands-Lilliput and Brobdingnag. With all means of respect, those people are ignorant, probably didn’t even read the book, but merely glanced at reviews also written by uninformed
people like them. Initially, Lilliput and Brobdingnag are only two of Gulliver’s four trips to undiscovered countries. And, more importantly, Gulliver’s Travels represents a message to the reader by the author (Jonathan Swift). Today, I’ll discuss the full contents of Gulliver’s Travels and
the secret meaning written in between the lines.

To begin, some background information on the main character, Lemuel Gulliver. Gulliver is an English man of decent rank. He has a wife and daughter, but left them behind as his job as a seaman insisted upon it. At first, Gulliver believes humankind, especially England, his home country of which he is so devoted to, is superior and more fortunate. However, as the saga continues, he changes his perspective, occasionally disappointed in humans, and, at the end of this book, completely repulsed by the species. Here’s a brief summary of the whole story.

Part I: Gulliver is shipwrecked and ends up in Lilliput, a remote country where miniscule people, about as tall as his index finger live in civilizations. Gulliver, seen as a giant amongst them, is first treated as a prisoner, but then earns the king’s trust and earns appropriate treatment from the royal family. Lilliput itself is in the midst of a war with the neighboring country of Blefuscu about whether you should crack eggs from the upper/lower part. It also faces internal conflict concerning shoe soles.

Part II: Gulliver travels to Brobdingnag, a land of giants. He is invited to live in the royal palace with a girl, Glumdalclitch to care for him. He faces many dangers, like being stomped on or eaten. Brobdingnag is peaceful, not having unnecessary ambitions to conquer other countries. That’s why the king scorns Gulliver when he boasts about England’s advanced but deadly weaponry

Part III: Attacked by pirates, Gulliver escapes to a floating island called Laputa. In Laputa, arithmetic and music is advanced, but citizens are not familiar with those pieces of knowledge, so clothes don’t fit, houses are drafty and slant to one side, and everyday life is a mess. Gulliver visits several countries on land too, owned by Laputa. There’s Lagado, where there’s an Academy of science. There were labs with people conducting experiments to convert human excrement to food, to build houses starting from the roof, to use cucumbers to make sunlight, and so on.

Part IV: Gulliver went to the land of horses, Houyhnhnms. The Houyhnhnms were also sticklers for peace and frowned upon war. They raised Yahoos, an abominable, deplorable, wild species shockingly similar to humans. That is why Gulliver was disgusted by the human race upon returning to England, and came to realize our faults-violence, falsehood etc. He refrained from letting his family even touch him, claiming they reminded him of those gruesome, uncivilized Yahoos.

So, what’s the secret message inside this seemingly innocent story? For one, the author, Jonathan Swift wrote this book to look down upon England’s government. He wanted this book to inform English citizens of the government’s faults, and possibly to enlighten the government itself.

At the beginning of Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver visits Lilliput, where people are fighting over insensible matters like how to crack eggs and shoe heels. This represents how political leaders are fighting over stupid things, and how it seems they’re pretending to do something, but actually have no idea how to do their job, so are just wasting time. In Brobdingnag, the author compares them to the peaceful giants by writing about how the king chastises Gulliver and England for focusing on war and war only. In Laputa (and Lagado), the government concentrated on math, music, science etc. However, their examinations and experiments were of no use in real life-study for the sake of study. While those obsessed scientists stayed stuck inside their laboratories, the citizens starved and ailed from diseases. Last but not least, the Yahoos living under the Houyhnhnms represent humankind as a whole. Smith is hinting people are just lucky atrocious beasts, making enemies between themselves and of nature.

There’s one other way Smith shows his disapproval of England. ‘Gulliver’, who used to love his home country, means ‘gullible’!

If you read this article and had a guilty, nagging feeling in the pit of your stomach while reading the introduction, I hope you finally learned something from reading this, and don’t become one of those impossible people who don’t even read Gulliver’s Travels and write a review saying, “Great book for kids~”! If you didn’t read the book, please do! I hope this article helps you break down the text and it didn’t give away too much spoilers!