The book Gulliver’s Travels, written by Jonathan Swift, is a satire to somewhat criticize the English Society. The book talks about a gullible seaman Gulliver venturing into four different societies, including Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the Land of Houyhnhnm, each with their own social problem. Swift skillfully uses the character Gulliver’s travels to create the satiric criticizing style by pointing out the same flaws of contemporary English society through the above-mentioned four societies to make the social ills apparent to the reader. Among his travels, the voyage to Lilliput stands out to me the most. In the adventure in Lilliput, Gulliver is shipwrecked on an island because of a storm. When waking up, Gulliver found he was a prisoner of the Lilliputians, a tiny race of people, tied to the ground and could not move. He gains permission from the royal court of Lilliput to move around in their capital city. Lilliputians provide hospitality in trade for Gulliver’s help to defeat Blefuscu as well as daily matters. Lilliputians reveal themselves to put great emphasis on trivial matters. At the end, they charge Gulliver with treason for some crimes, but in truth Gulliver was trying to help them. The reasons why this is the most attractive adventure of Gulliver’s Travels is because of the twist of the plot, the ridiculous Lilliputians’ behaviors and thoughts, and the interactions among Gulliver and Lilliputians.
A plot with a slight twist delivers a sense of surprise into the story, making the development of the story richer and engaging the readers more. The twist of the plot is an unexpected and sudden change in the direction or outcome of a story that surprises and challenges the readers. Gulliver was first viewed as a stranger so the Lilliputians imprisoned him with a bunch of small ropes tying him down on the ground. Later, He became a hero to many Lilliputians because he aided Lilliput in the war against Blefuscu by stealing their fleet. Lastly, Gulliver was mistaken as a traitor to Lilliput because he refused to steal the rest of Blefuscu’s fleet and turn it into a province of Lilliput. Reading this book, for many people, at first it doesn’t make any sense. The book gives the reader the feelings of “ What? No way! How come that would happen?”. This is because the flow of the plot does not proceed with logical thinking. Guliver’s experience from a stranger, to a hero, and then a traitor is very unpredictable to the reader. Such big twists enrich the plot, making the story much more interesting and engaging readers want to read more to know what would happen next. Think deeply, the twist of the plot symbolized human nature and the English society where Jonathan Swift was. Different people with huge power or authority will have different viewpoints on the same thing. Even the very same people during different time periods could have different opinions on the same matter. When Gulliver didn’t follow the King’s directions, some people around the king said Gulliver was a traitor. So the king changed his viewpoint toward Gulliver from a hero preventing an invasion from Blefuscu to a traitor who was biased toward Blefuscu. Plot twists could take place at any time in a fictional story to add shock and surprise to grip the audience’s attention.
The design of the character as well as their ridiculous behaviors and customs bring irony into the story, acting as a satire through the symbolism of different customs. Swift’s satirical descriptions are very subtle, while making three interpretations of the text, including a real-life story, an all-out fairy tale, or in the middle, a satirical description of England and the rest of Europe. Jonathan Swift designed the character of the Lilliputians as little people who are no more than six inches tall, but Gulliver is a normal size of Englishman. He describes the actions of the Lilliputians as very arbitrary and weird, while Gulliver is very truthful about what he sees. Jonathan Swift makes Lilliput resemble England and Blefuscu represents France. At that time, England and France had many conflicts and wars, but the citizens of England didn’t like them. Similarly, Jonathan Swift writes the Little Endians and the Big Endians representing religious parties of Catholics and Protestants. He uses the conflict between the Little Endians and the Big Endians to symbolize the religious war between Protestants and Catholics at that time. Jonathan Swift depicts the egg-cracking event to satirize the conflict between the Catholics and Protestants, but he does not approve of this petty war. The religion in English society back then was very restricted, and only one religion in England was allowed, which is Christianity. There was no religious freedom at all. They don’t let other people perform their own religion. Also, the rope dancing is arbitrary and weird. This event asks Lilliputians to jump through a lot of hoops as high as possible in order to get a position in the government. Swift uses this event to satirize the situation in England that the king gives absolute power to people who can obey his decision. Apparently Swift believes that it is not fair for a person to have absolute power over a large group of people. Although the characters and their actions may look unique and funny, Jonathan Swift is actually satirizing the English Society at that time.
The ironic and comical interactions between characters draws the reader into the world of entertainment. The interactions between Gulliver and Lilliputians as well as Guliver’s tone make the story very laughable because of the ridiculous actions. When Gulliver gets washed up on the shore, Lilliputians tie him up with the rope on the ground and think he will not escape. But Gulliver could just get the ropes off himself. The Lilliputians overestimated their ability. They thought they could bind Gulliver with ropes very tightly, so that he would not get out. But they are just little tiny people. How much strength could a Lilliputian have? How could Lilliputians, little people, win against Gulliver, normal people? They underestimated Gulliver’s ability that he could just pull out the ropes from the ground. This criticizes human nature. The Lilliputians symbolize humankind's widely excessive pride in its own puny existence because, in spite of the small size of the Lilliputians, they do not consider the notion that Gulliver is enormous compared to them and could kill them with just a flick of his finger. They put themselves in front of all other creatures and make themselves the king. Another feature of human nature, greediness, is to think that they don’t have enough and want more. This is demonstrated when the Lilliputians king wanted to make Blefuscu a province of Lilliput. Human’s endless flow of wants will never end. Sometimes we need to control our desire so that we can survive in the real world because we cannot get everything we want. Also, Gulliver has some kind of sense of justice to everyone. The entertaining parts of Gulliver’s Travels is genuinely laughable, in which also satirizes human nature.
Gulliver’s Travels is Swift’s masterpiece. It is a novel in four parts recounting Gulliver’s four voyages to fictional lands. The first part of Gulliver's Travel, the Voyage to Lilliput, is the most attravie adventure to me because of the plot twists, the design of the characters and its symbolic meaning, and entertainment caused from the interactions between characteristics. Plot twists are included to describe Guilliver’s experience from a stranger, to a hero, and then a traitor in Lilliput, surprising the audience and engaging the audience to read even more. Jonathan Swift uses satire as a way by designing the characters of 6-inch-tall Lilliputians and their ridiculous actions to shed light on the political situations and criticize the shortcomings and flaws in England. Swift’s writing about interactions between Gulliver and Lilliputians brings audiences to think about human nature itself, the main object of the satire, specifically Man’s pride.
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