Lemuel Bulliver: The Hero In Gulliver's Travels

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Lemuel Gulliver: The Hero in Gulliver’s Travels In the novel Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, there are many reasons that Lemuel Gulliver should and should not be considered a hero. Three characteristics that make someone a hero are being good-natured, naive, and wise. Gulliver in this story shows these characteristics at one time or another. In the novel, Gulliver’s Travels, Lemuel Gulliver is considered a hero. The first characteristic of a hero that Lemuel Gulliver shows in the novel is being good-natured. "I confess I was often tempted, while they were passing backwards and forwards on my body, to seize forty of fifty of them of the first that came in my reach, and dash them against the ground. But the remembrance of what I …show more content…

The novel states, “I could not sufficiently wonder at how the intrepidity of these diminutive mortals who durst venture to mount and walk upon my body, while one of my hands were at liberty, without trembling at the very sight of so prodigious a creature as i must appear to them.” (Swift 31). This passage states that Gulliver is amazed at how much courage each of these little people have to walk on a giant’s chest and feed him food. It shows that he isn’t full of himself and how he is naive and admiring of the little people, even though they are inferior to him. In the analysis, Themes and Construction: Gulliver’s Travels, the author states, “Naive Gulliver encounters his physical and moral inferiors, the Lilliputians” (“Themes”). This shows that Gulliver is naive and that he is superior to the little people both morally and physically. Even though he is superior, he is still naive and admires their bravery to walk on a giant (his) chest and feed him. Gulliver is considered a hero in this novel because he shows the characteristic of being …show more content…

The novel states, "But this I conceived was to be the least of my misfortunes; for, as human creatures are observed to be more savage and cruel in proportion to their bulk, what could I expect but to be a morsel in the mouth of the first among these enormous barbarians that should happen to seize me? Undoubtedly philosophers are in the right, when they tell us that nothing is great or little otherwise than by comparison." (Swift 96). In this passage from the novel, Gulliver is saying that it doesn’t matter how big or small someone is, and that size is relative. He is saying that everyone is the same, and once you start talking to someone, they would feel less different than you. This is a very wise comment made by Gulliver. In the analysis, Jonathan Swift, the author states, “Such a travelogue format allows the narrator to take his readers on a vicarious journey of adventure and concludes by suggesting that the traveler has fulfilled the pattern of the bildungsroman and has attained education, growth, experience, and Aristotelian cognitio (insight, maturation, and the acquisition of new knowledge).” (“Jonathan” 4416). This source is saying that this novel is a bildungsroman, or a coming of age novel. It tells us that in this kind of novel, the character is coming of age, maturing, as well as gaining knowledge and wisdom. In the novel, Gulliver gains wisdom and knowledge, as shown

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