What Are Humans Simply Brute Animals?

1285 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Analysis of gulliver's travels

Are we humans simply brute animals, or are we capable of being rational, intelligent creatures? The satirical book Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift discusses this question, but the answer is primarily left up to the personal discretion of the reader. Both perspectives are analyzed. Much to his disgust, Gulliver bore an undeniable resemblance to the brutish Yahoos. However, he also showed the Houyhnhnm-like characteristics of reason and language. This satirical book is used to draw attention to how brutish and unreasonable humans can be, even though most of the time we don't recognize this about ourselves. The author gives both perspectives of the first question, and he suggests that humans have certain characteristics of both the …show more content…

Endlessly greedy, Yahoos would fight over a shiny rock that had no real value other than its attractive shine. “My master farther assured me, which I also observed myself, that in the fields where there shining stones abound, the fiercest and most frequent battles are fought, occasioned by perpetual inroads of the neighboring Yahoos” (272). This is obviously similar to humans’ greed for money and precious stones. Unfortunately, people do horrible things over trivial issues, similar to the Yahoos. In the land of the Houyhnhnms, Yahoos were the only animals to get sick. They made their own medicine, like humans, although the Yahoos’ crude cure was a mixture of their own excrements. The reason that the Yahoos became sick was because they did things that were obviously detrimental to their health, such as keeping awful hygiene and eating rotten food. On the contrary, the Houyhnhnms were perfectly rational, so they didn’t do anything that could endanger their health, unlike Yahoos. Gulliver confessed that humans as well Yahoos have bad habits that lead to …show more content…

They needed no laws, no government, and no discipline. Every action they performed was effortlessly reasonable, correct, and moral. Even the name of the species reflected their excellence. “The word Houyhnhnm, in their tongue, signifies horse,and in its etymology, the perfection of nature” (244). Because they were so rational, they were able to find truth. This book promotes the idea that there is only one truth, because all the Houyhnhnms reasoned to the same conclusions. They was no disagreement about what was right or wrong because they all instinctively knew the truth. Gulliver’s Travels is written to draw attention to the major flaws of mankind. When presented with truth and reason, Gulliver was able to see truth clearly. Gulliver was vehemently against returning to the imperfection of England because he had experienced the beauty of absolute rational. The virtuous Houyhnhnms represent an idealistic view of humans, and they expose the deep flaws of

Show More
Related

  • Utopia In Gulliver's Travels

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his travels, Gulliver found that other societies were better than European societies, especially that of the Houyhnhnm’s. Gulliver admires the Houyhnhnm’s, and believes their virtuous society is better than that of Europe, especially their lack of vices (Swift, 224). This admiration, of other societies has not been seen in the writings of real European explorers but the mythic Hythloday in More’s Utopia expressed it in More’s Utopia. Utopia and the Houyhnhnm’s societies had are similar in that they both express the writers idea of how a better society could be ran and are critiquing European society at the time. Both of these writings focus heavily on the virtues in foreign societies and the abundance of vices in European society. The lack of illness in the Houyhnhnm’s society is another way Swift uses his writings to discuss his frustration with the world (Swift, 231). In multiple societies Gulliver visited he saw cases where doctors were either working to fix illnesses or where there was no illness at all (Swift, 173) (Swift, 231). If Gulliver were to have come across Utopia in his travels he would have described it in a similar way to the way he described the Houyhnhnm’s, with respect and

    Read More

  • Gulliver's Travels Dialectical Journal

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    A major theme that is seen during the Gulliver’s final adventure is the reversal of roles. For the first time in the novel, Gulliver’s crew forms a mutiny and throws him overboard. On this island, we are introduced to Houyhnhnms and Yahoos. Gulliver first meets the Yahoos; a group of humans that act like farm animals and have the brain equivalent of a horse. Meanwhile, the Houyhnhnms are an intelligent race of horses that have their own language and use the Yahoos as cattle. When reality is presented with a different face it allows the reader to make less biased opinions based on previous beliefs. Most people are completely fine with how people treat cattle as a source of food, but when we see the

    Read More

  • Quest for Truth Depicted in Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Huxley's Brave New World

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    By having the Houyhnhnms speak and talk, its shows Gulliver the truth in the world and how he lives among a savage race, mankind. Boris Ford comments on Swift in his article “The Limitations of the Houyhnhms”: ‘In the real world the gift of reason is bestowed upon human beings and withheld from animals. In the land of the Houyhnhnms reason has been given to horses and withheld from--.’ Ford fills in the blank with “…withheld from human beings”, which Swift does to make the reader question what makes people ‘human’ and if they compare to that of a savage (Ford 148). Swift does this by bringing down the status of humans by comparing them to that of a Yahoo, a being less intellectual than that of a Houyhnhms. Even if Houyhnhms know that they outsmart...

    Read More

  • Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels - Yahoos and Houyhnhnms

    912 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the fourth voyage, Swift presents a case study for opposing states of nature, with the Yahoos representing the argument that man is governed by his passions, seeking his own advantage, pursuing pleasures and avoiding pain, and the Houyhnhnms representing the argument that man is governed by reason. If this is the case, then Swift’s misanthropy was such that he saw men as the foul and disgusting Yahoos, and made it plain that reform of the species was out of the question. A major fault with this theory is that it leaves no place for Gulliver. When attention is drawn to the figure of Gulliver himself, as distinct from his creator, Swift, he is taken to be the moral of the story. If you can't be a Houyhnhnm you don't need to be a Yahoo; just try to be like Gulliver. The trouble with this idea is that when taking a closer look at Gulliver, he isn't worth emulating. The final picture of him talking with the horses in the stable for four hours a day, unable to stand the company of his own family, makes him look foolish.   Another theory is that Gulliver made a mistake in regarding the Houyhnhnms as models to be emulated: so far from being admirable creatures they are as repulsive as the Yahoos. The Yahoos might be ruled by their passions, but these have no human passions at all. On this view, Swift was not advocating, but attacking reason.

    Read More

  • The Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the last part of the novel Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift, a dichotomy is established which crtiticizes two extreme ideas of man. The Houynhnms, a race of horses, are meant to symbolize man as a supremely rational being and the Yahoos, a primitive, vulgar version of humans, are made to symbolize man as an animal. The narrator Gulliver is a sort of reference point between the two, since in physical appearance he seems to be a Yahoo, but his ability to reason enables him to relate well to the Houynhnms. Readers have interrpreted the rational horses in a number of different ways. Some feel that the Houynhnms are the ideal to which humans should strive to attain. Others feel that the Houynhnms are as evil as the Yahoos. It is my opinion that Swift uses the Houynhnms and the Yahoos to illustrate both ends of the unattainable spectrum of reason, and why both are completely undesireable ways of life.

    Read More

  • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

    1535 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the fourth book of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift uses satire to draw reader’s attention towards his concerns about humanity and uses irony to reveal his cynical views towards human kind. According to the Great Chain of Being, a term developed by the Renaissance that describes a divinely hierarchical order in every existing thing in the universe, human beings are placed a tier higher than animals (http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english /melani/cs6/ren.html). However, by comparing human traits with unpleasant qualities of animals, Swift blurs the definition of human being and questions the hierarchical place of human. In the fourth book of Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver starts his journey as a well-educated European person who is considered to be a decent example of humanity. The first group of inhabitants Gulliver finds on the island where he is dropped off on are the Yahoos. Gulliver is disgusted by the behaviours of these wild creatures at first and he considers them to be animals that are owned by the dominate beings on this island. Gulliver then discovers the Houyhnhnms whom he perceives as brute beasts (Swift 2420) and animals (ibid.) because they share similar physical qualities compare to the horses in England. After a brief interaction with the two Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is taken to the house of a Houyhnhnm whom he will later refer to as his master. Through the interactions with the Houyhnhnms, Gulliver is able to show the ability to reason even though he shares some physical similarities with the Yahoos. Due to this quality and the fact that the Houyhnhnms cannot see his bare skin under his clothes, he is able to live with the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver starts to relate himself more to the Houyhnhnms than the Yahoos becau...

    Read More

  • Gulliver's Travels: Where Size Doesn't Matter

    1662 Words  | 4 Pages

    The. The "Gulliver's Travels (Book Review). " Utopian Studies 1.2 (1990): 167. Advanced Placement Source -. Web. The Web.

    Read More

  • Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

    1285 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today’s society, there are many who believe that humans have an innate sense of virtue and morality. They are confident that all human beings are born with a perception of what is right and what is wrong. However, there are others who take the traditional biblical stance, in which it is simply human nature to be sinful. In Gulliver’s Travels, the author, Jonathan Swift shows a strong inclination towards the latter thought: that all people are inherently evil. His disposition can easily be seen through his novel’s outlandish narratives that satire the corruptions of humanity. He puts the main character, Lemuel Gulliver, through four distinct journeys, which all inadvertently reveal vices in human society. In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, the theme of corruption is portrayed through the evils of politics, the deceitful nature of humanity, and the characters’ exploitations of pride.

    Read More

  • Satire in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels

    1941 Words  | 4 Pages

    On the surface, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver's Travels appears to be a travel log, made to chronicle the adventures of a man, Lemuel Gulliver, on the four most incredible voyages imaginable. Primarily, however, Gulliver's Travels is a work of satire. "Gulliver is neither a fully developed character nor even an altogether distinguishable persona; rather, he is a satiric device enabling Swift to score satirical points" (Rodino 124). Indeed, whereas the work begins with more specific satire, attacking perhaps one political machine or aimed at one particular custom in each instance, it finishes with "the most savage onslaught on humanity ever written," satirizing the whole of the human condition. (Murry 3). In order to convey this satire, Gulliver is taken on four adventures, driven by fate, a restless spirit, and the pen of Swift. Gulliver's first journey takes him to the Land of Lilliput, where he finds himself a giant among six inch tall beings. His next journey brings him to Brobdingnag, where his situation is reversed: now he is the midget in a land of giants. His third journey leads him to Laputa, the floating island, inhabited by strange (although similarly sized) beings who derive their whole culture from music and mathematics. Gulliver's fourth and final journey places him in the land of the Houyhnhnm, a society of intelligent, reasoning horses. As Swift leads Gulliver on these four fantastical journeys, Gulliver's perceptions of himself and the people and things around him change, giving Swift ample opportunity to inject into the story both irony and satire of the England of his day and of the human condition.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Experiences In Gulliver's Travels

    1835 Words  | 4 Pages

    Lemuel Gulliver recounts his findings over four of his most impactful voyages in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. In Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver gives his own candid account of all significant characters encountered and manages to fall into almost every influential person’s favor. Swift tactically shapes Gulliver’s encounters with characters from varying backgrounds to compare the behavior of the esteemed nobility with the behavior of commoners. Swift has Gulliver alter his demeanor based on his present surroundings to appeal to those around him and maintain his pride. By doing so, Swift intended to didactically explain his contempt for nobility, his misanthropy, and the dangers of pride.

    Read More

  • Changing Perspective in Gulliver’s Travels

    578 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver learns that experiencing different lifestyles he thought were better than his own actually makes him appreciate his own life with a more meaningful disposition through his journeys to Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and the Country of the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver’s journey to Lilliput effectuated forlorn feelings of his home. Likewise, Gulliver’s trek to Brobdingnag assists in his realization that changing perspectives also alter his attitude towards his homeland. Finally, Gulliver’s expedition to the Country of Houyhnhnms, where horses act civilized on and people act like wild animals. Gulliver soon learns that through his mystical journeys that changing the perspective in which he views the world reverses feelings of gratefulness towards his home. Gulliver’s first journey set sail to the Lilliputians on May 4th, 1699.

    Read More

  • Literary Response to Gulliver’s Travels

    513 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gulliver finds himself in a society controlled by creatures usually at the dispatch of humans, and in a sort of oblivion of his own, between the humane horses and the untamed, unruly Yahoos. The humans and their inability to compare to the Houyhnhnms instantly disgust him. Gulliver then grows fond of the Houyhnhnms and beings to enjoy life conversing with them about the differences in their worlds. He no longer desires to return to humankind.

    Read More

  • Free College Essays - The Hidden Meaning of Gulliver's Travels

    538 Words  | 2 Pages

    After a series of different looks at society through the first three voyages, Gulliver travels to Houyhnhnmland where the nature of people themselves are given the strongest censure, by being directly paralleled with the loathsome Yahoos. Here Swift bluntly attacks almost every aspect of society, which is then compared to the Yahoos point by point by the Grey Mare. Gulliver and the reader finally identify themselves completely with the Yahoos (see close commentary), and Gulliver decides to abandon Yahooism forever. But, he is then immediately banished from the island by the Houyhnhnm assembly.

    Read More

  • Abuse of power in Gulliver's travels

    1700 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels presents a narrator, Lemuel Gulliver, who recounts his various sea voyages to fantastical lands. During each voyage, Gulliver encounters different societies and customs to which Gulliver must adjust to. in order to be accepted into their society The entire novel serves as a commentary on how people everywhere have a tendency to abuse the power given to them.

    Read More

  • Gulliver's Travels: A Journey of Self-Discovery

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    In part IV of Gulliver's Travels we start to see Gulliver's hatred towards mankind explicitly stated. It is when he comes across the Houyhnhnms, a society completely governed by reason, having no major conflicts, and caring for one another among other things that makes Gulliver worship the Houyhnhnms and start to despise the Yahoo's. His self-identity starts to shift when he tries to explain to the Master how the Yahoo's treat one another. The Master cannot comprehend this behaviour and argues that the Yahoo's have no rationality or reason which makes Gulliver question where he comes from and where he belongs. A pivotal moment where Gulliver's self-identity shifts is when he overtly states his love for the Houyhnhnms "But I must freely confess, that the many virtues of those excellent quadrupeds, placed in opposite view to

    Read More

More about What Are Humans Simply Brute Animals?

Open Document