Realization in Swift's Gulliver's Travels

Realization in Swift's Gulliver's Travels Jonathon swift's novel, Gulliver's Travels, is an adventure into the human psyche. We discover through Gulliver how effortlessly we can be swayed despite what we have been taught through religion or politics. Everything Gulliver knew about his race failed to matter when he became enamored with the Houyhnhnms. While the story itself is interesting, it is becomes a mirror when it comes to the persnickety human condition.

Gulliver is willing to abandon his own race and people to fit in with another group that he believes to be superior. Through his arrogance, he exposes the depravity of man. Gulliver learns that his country is quite backward when it comes to politics. He realizes that his people are driven by greed and selfishness. Many in the government are corrupt and discovering and interacting with the Houyhnhnms enlightened him.

He states the Houyhnhnms "opened my eyes and enlarged my understanding, that I began to view the actions and passions of man in a very different light" (Swift 250). In his discussion with his master, he attempts to unveil the particulars of the government but only talks himself into a circle regarding reason and rationale. Gulliver's master notices that in order for Gulliver to favor them, he had "concealed his own particulars, and often said the things which was not" (252).

He learns that his evolved society is not as evolved as it thinks it is. Gulliver learns that religion is not necessary for a society to function. The Houyhnhnms have no religion other than reason. John Ross maintains that the Houyhnhnms society is one that "depends on head and not heart" (Ross xi). Gulliver learns that there is no need for religion and this causes him to despise his own race. He t admires the Houyhnhnms and, wants to be accepted as one of them. Gulliver realizes the Yahoos.

"were observed to be the most unteachable of all brutes" (Swift 227). Here we see how Gulliver abandons religion as a teaching tool and a way to coexist with his fellow man. He believes that society cannot only function without religion but that it can do so quite well. Gulliver learns he is not what he thought he was and he is not as spectacular as he wanted to be. He realizes that he is from the very race that he considered repulsive and imperfect.

Ross asserts that, "Gulliver, "trying to be a rational animal, reveals that he is not wholly so, but only capable of reason, in a limited Houyhnhnm way" (Ross xiii). This is the thing that drives Gulliver to madness. The Houyhnhnms' rejection of him is devastating. He discovers that if he thinks the human race is disgusting than he must be as well. This knowledge becomes too much for him to tolerate. He wants to consider himself somehow better than his fellow man.

The corruption of reason reaches a peak at this point in the novel. Gulliver.