Finding Wisdom in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels

Finding Wisdom in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels

A wise man once said, "That which does not kill us only makes us stronger". Jonathan Swift obviously made good use of the moral of this quote when writing his book, Gulliver's Travels. In this book, Swift tells of Lemuel Gulliver's travels to fantastic nations that exist only in Swift's own imagination. However, as Gulliver journeys to these new places, his attitudes about the state of man and his morals gradually change. In every stage of his travels, Gulliver sees a new side of mankind that makes him pity the state of his kind, while allowing him to see the light and become a better individual himself. So as Gulliver progresses from Lilliput, to Brobdingnag, to Laputa, and finally to the Land of the Houyhnhnms, he learns different facets of the human character that depress him somewhat but cause him to emerge as a stronger person.

On his first voyage, Gulliver learns the corruption and pettiness of humans and how these emotions can lead to distress. When he first lands on the island, he seen as a threat to the security of the people residing there and thus is treated accordingly as a prisoner. However, as the people of Lilliput become accustomed to the "man-mountain", he becomes somewhat accepted into their society and thus he sees all the disadvantages of their moral character. The people of Lilliput are corrupt and very materialistic. People earn places in the government by performing tricks on a rope not by using their merits and qualification for the job. Gulliver sees the petty differences between the Lilliputians emerge into full-scale wars that result in many deaths. However, Gulliver sees something else that causes the main sorrow in his heart. He sees the similarities between these characteristics of the Lilliputians and the people of his beloved England. Though he doesn't come out and say it he knows that the argument between the Big-Endians, and the Little-Endians, is no different than the differences between Whigs and Tories, and Catholics and Protestants. Though seeing his culture's petty differences illustrated in front of him made Gulliver see the error of his ways and this realization allowed him to be ready to benefit from the Utopia he would visit next.

In Brobdingnag, Gulliver is in sorrow because he sees what people can become if only they try.