Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan swift is a about a man named Gulliver traveling the world by sea. Throughout his journey, he finds many interesting nations and countries, including the island of Lilliput inhabited by little humans, the country of Brodindnag, inhabited by giant humans, and the country of Luggnagg, inhabited by Struldbrugs who are immortal, yet depressed from age 30, and seeks death by the age 80. In the land of Glubdubdrib, where a large percentage are magicians, he meets a magician where he meets a magician that can show ghosts of the pasts. With every nation he visits, he faces crisises, but every time he escapes before it is to late. In my opinion, I like his voyage to Lilliput the best.
The voyage to Lilliput always have constant criseses that makes it enjoyable to the reader. When Gulliver first woke up, he was tied down tightly to the ground by nails, with tiny soldiers armed with bows. The reader does not know who these tiny humans are, and what they’ll do to Gulliver since he was perceived as a threat, shooting arrows that stung like needles. After he gained their trust and loyalty, he heard about the war between the Lilliputians and the Blefuscudians. Later on in the story, Gulliver was then charged with multiple crimes, and the consequences of his crimes is to be blinded and death by hunger. With all these crisises happening, there is always tension, making the story more enticing.
The island of Lilliput has its own feature that makes it interesting. On the island of Lilliput, there are very miniature humans, no bigger than six inches. Even the animals,plants, buildings and boats there are scaled down to their size, showing the uniqueness of the island. Gulliver could eat more than one thousand Lilliputians combined, and the Lilliputians risk famine in the land by feeding Gulliver, expressing the tinyness of the humans. Their customs are also different from the ones in England. For example, they bury their fellow Lilliputians upside down, for they think that the world is flat and one day will flip upside down. The Lilliputians are alsonot taken care of one parent alone but by the whole community. Children are sent to live in schools.
Jonathan Swift is known for his satire(a genre that criticize the flaws of human nature) writings and the voyage to Lilliput is a perfect example of it. It shows the pettiness of the human heart, and how we argue over pointless things just for the satisfaction of winning the argument. When as shown when the Lilliputians declare war on the Blefuscudians because of their way of cracking eggs. Jonathan Swift also writes about how they gain their position in the government by jumping through hoops on a tight rope, completely irrelevant to their job in the government, showing how ridiculous we can be at times. Greediness is shown when the king wishes for Gulliver to take all the fleets of Blefuscu to leave the nation with no naval defense, making it easy to invade Blefuscu. When he rejected the kings’s command, he was charged with treason, showing Gulliver’s goodness versus the king’s greediness.
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift is a very satirical piece of literature, expressing the problems we have and gives the reader more pleasure while reading this novel. This book is filled with countless crisises that create tension and uncertainty weather he’ll escape, with many features for their country. I personally believe that Voyage to Lilliput is the most enjoyable adventure because it is one of the only journey that does an outstanding job of including all these elements.
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