Gulliver’s Travels Essay / Summary, by Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels is Swift’s most famous book. The book seems to be a true account of events that have actually happened because he includes several realistic details. In the novel, Gulliver’s Travels, Swift uses several objects of satire. He does this to make fun of today’s society and the way society used to be. He uses satire by comparing the lives of the people on the islands of Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and Laputa. Gulliver’s Travels is a story that attacks human misbehavior.
Gulliver is first washed upon the shore of Lilliput. On this island everyone is the size of a bug to Gulliver. When Gulliver gets to know the Lilliput people he ridicules their weaknesses and their way of life. He satirizes the two parties that are in Lilliput. They distinguish their parties by the height of the heels n their shoes, and how they eat their eggs. Swift also uses satire when he urinates to put out a fire, when he is disobeying a rule by urinating in public. Swift relates these events to things that have happened in English History.
Gulliver is then washed upon the shore of Brobdingnag where the people there are six inches. On this island Swift continues to make fun of English politics. This time Gulliver is looked upon like he looked upon the Lillputians while the Brobdingnag’s represent English ways. Swift makes fun of the way that the people of Brobdingnag go about their daily life. Swift is basically stating that all people, royalty or servant, are all alike.
Next Gulliver is found on a raft and is pulled up to the floating island of Laputa. While on the island Swift compares the way the people act on the island to the way people in the 18th century talked about scientific discoveries. The people of Laputa are such airheads that they are on an island that floats in the air. The Laputians on the floating island are so distracted with everyday life that they do not even notice that their wives are cheating on them right in front of them, just like some people of today do. Like our society, the people of Balnibarbi do not see beauty in nature. Instead the Projectors ruin what they already have in the process of trying to advance their scientific study. In Luggnagg Gulliver meets people...