The houyhnhnms! These horses
were one of my favorite parts to read about when I first read Gulliver’s Travels. However, the Yahoos
were among my least favorite parts of reading the novel. Either way I found
myself marveling at the genius of Jonathon Swift using these stories to display
his discontent with England. When Gulliver first gets to the land of the
Houyhnhnms he meets the Yahoos first which are ugly creatures that look part
goat and part human. The worst part of this though was when they tried to
defecate on Gulliver. I think Swift has a slight obsession with bodily
functions…
But
anyways, based on what Gulliver says in the text, comparing the Yahoos to the people
that run the government at home, it is clear that Swift doesn’t like the people
in charge of England either. Another aspect of book IV that I found interesting
was the part where Gulliver and the leader of the Houyhnhnms were talking about
Gulliver’s homeland and the leader had a hard time understanding a lot of his
customs. Such as horse riding, “My Master, after some Expressions of great
Indignation, wondered how we dared to venture upon a Houyhnhnm’s Back, for he was sure, that the weakest Servant in his
House would be able to shake off the strongest Yahoo, or by lying down, and
rolling on his Back, squeeze the Brute to Death.” (222- Penguin classics
edition) He made such a good point that I hadn’t thought of before and I think
that was Jonathon Swift’s aim, to get the reader to think about our own
societies actions.
Another part of that instance that I found interesting was the stark contrast between the strength of horses and the strength of men. It is crazy the amount of horses that kill people, but that is also why we as humans, or Yahoos, ride horses. They can accomplish much more than we as humans can, and so it is a double-edged sword. I never really thought of it until reading this part of Gulliver's Travels, and I think Swift does a great job of making people think about it. Growing up more involved with horses than the average person, I found this fascinating.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how Gulliver idolizes the horses compared to his own race, despite how the horses carry that same haughty egotistical attitude that humans are most notorious for. The only difference is that the horses, at least to Gulliver, have good characteristics that make them more desirable.
ReplyDeleteI also thought it was interesting that the horses were used as being superior to humans. Like you said, the horses were very egotistical and looked down on the Yahoos. But isn't that what Swift was trying to get across? That people have a way of being demeaning and viewing themselves as superior? I don't understand why he would give the horses those same characteristics and then have Gulliver idolize them.
DeleteI think it has to do with the same idea as "the noble savage". Look at him! He's a horse. He's awesome, sure he's a jerk, but he's a horse!
DeleteWhich kind of makes it make more sense within the realm of satire, because, really guys, the natives who don't speak English are totally people too. Just because you've got a great history so far and in the future of totally rocking the whole "killing people who don't speak English" thing, doesn't mean that they aren't technically "people".
Though, honestly, even in parody, I couldn't take the Horse bit seriously.
I kept coming back to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_PZPpWTRTU
I love your blog post because we have very similar ideas. I feel that Swift definitely feels some type of animosity towards England. I also believe he wanted his readers to look at the flaws in their own societies as well. Book IV is very interesting because who would ever think to create a society of intelligent horses? That's actually kind of cool..I guess. Great blog post!
ReplyDelete