I
have to say I am admittedly a little miffed with Mother Nature for
her role in preventing further discussion on Gulliver's
Travels as
I have been looking forward to this text all semester! So, I have
resolved to continue the discussion in some proportion.
As
I prepare to face this final, I am pondering all the connections and thematic similarities that
can be made across the texts we have covered this semester. And I
have been thinking about Swift's potential motives when writing this
narrative. We've spent a fair amount of time discussing utopian and
dystopian thought and this has made me think more about how Swift may
have been engaging in a sort of utopian pun. While we've talked
about how he is satirizing England society, it seems he uses the
different societies Gulliver encounters, such as that of the
Lilliputians
and the Houyhnhnms,
as conversation starters for his contemporaries to question the way
things are done in their own
society. Personally, I find these “civilizations” bizarre and
unattractive, which brings me to the question: is he intending to
open the floor for new ideas to inspire change or does this story serve to repel us
from the idea of a utopia (a perfect society) and perhaps even those cultures who are different?
I'm not really sure if this going to answer your question, but I think the idea is to repel people from their societal behaviors, and probably inspire change. When Swift made commentaries about government and religious rule and war with ideas from the Lilliputians like the high and low heels. I think his motive is to repel society from a ridiculous culture, but then realize the parallels in their own, and maybe be aware of changes they could make. I think there is an attitude to motivate and inspire change because why write something like this without some purpose? The writing, to me, sounds like rebellious commentary.
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