Moral Touchstones

Morality is a code of conduct, or a set of beliefs in classifying between right and wrong behaviours. In the novel, Gulliver’s Travels, Swift used a moral touchstone in each adventure that Gulliver has traveled too. In each travel Gulliver has journeyed too, there is only one set of characters that depicts the morals of society and how mankind are currently viewed.

Gulliver’s first and second travel, were the most similar because it viewed the insignificance of size amongst the human race. The moral of these two travels were that you shouldn’t underestimate the size of your enemies, or anyone in particular, because though insignificant in size – you can’t fully have knowledge of who they are. For example, the Lilliputians are six-inch-tall people whom Gulliver met in his first travel, but though they may seem small and appear harmless to his giant form, the Lilliputians were savage and had a thirst for war thus representing the pettiness in the human race. In contrast to the Lilliputians, in the second travel, Gulliver has encountered the Brobdingnagians, who are a race of giants. ...