Lemuel Gulliver
Lemuel Gulliver, the writer of Gulliver’s travel, is a surgeon who traveled by sea. In his life, he made many complete journeys, but the last four of them were strange as he discovered something about his culture. His trips became different when a storm swept everyone in his and became the only survivor. Lilliputians saved him, and their emperor asked for Gulliver’s help in conquering his enemy. He agrees and finally became a friend to the ambassador. Things turned sour when Gulliver was charged for urinating on fire at the emperor’s place. He luckily finds a boat and returns to England, his home.
The second journey was in Brobdingnag, a land of giants. Gulliver is enslaved in the farms of the giants for two years, and by good luck, he returns home with the help of an English sailor. Gulliver is called for another journey and travel East Indies. He first went to Laputa then Balnibarb, where he found educated people. He became upset by the lives of those and proceeded to the nearby land known as Glubbdurdrib. He finally goes to Luggnagg, where he learned something about immortality and eventually went back home through Holland. Few days after his return, Gulliver captained a ship to the land Yahoos and Houyhnhnm. He interacts with them, learns their language slowly while adopting and living into their way of life. He later goes back home in England with the help of a Portuguese.
Differences
Swift describes Houyhnhnm as a horse species and Yahoo as a species of naked ape that he encountered in his fourth journey. In his narration, swift regard Yahoos as being weak in socializing, foolish and corrupt. Additionally, Gulliver defines yahoos as dirty with unfriendly habits. Swift did not like life yahoos. On the other hand, the Houyhnhnm portrayed quite polite behavior. Swift says that these types of horses were calm and give a clear picture of a rational society. Moreover, their level of intelligence made Swift prefer the Houyhnhnm to Yahoos.
Biologically, the Yahoos who are of the ape species are closer to Gulliver than the Houyhnhnm, who are of the horse species. It is satirical for Gulliver to discredit the Yahoos who are more of him and give credit to animals. He refers to Yahoos as livestock, violent humanoid creatures, and that’s why he prefers the company of the Houyhnhnm because they are calm and intelligent.
In his voyage to Laputa, swift encounters scientists who had felt superior and were regarded as rational by the people who were around them. According to Swift, these people did not have common sense and were regarded as irrational by people around them. The reader was trying to say that people in a particular circle view their behaviors and their doings as rational, but those outside the circle exhibit them as irrational. Most people who sit and watch behaviors of others mostly consider them as irrational.
Jonathan Swift uses exaggeration in his peculiar story, a modest proposal. In this essay, he says that in order to reduce the number of abortions in Ireland, mothers should eat their infants once they get to the age of one year. He goes ahead and says that those infants are not fit for employment, and they are too young to steal. Swift continues to describe how the meat of the infants would make delicacy food and how their skins would be used to make handbags and ladies gloves. These exaggerations are brought in because Irelands have not yet found a solution for their overpopulation.
Swift uses irony in his proposal by listing the six reasons why the proposal should be adopted. One, he says the plan will reduce the number of dangerous Catholics. Second, the poor will have a chance to own property. Third, national wealth will increase from the saved cost of children’s upbringing. Fourth, mothers will avoid the severe burden of children’s upbringing. Fifth, the new foods will be highly welcomed. Sixth, marriages will be enhanced as women will better care for their children for sale and also take care of their husbands so that more children are born and more sales will be made.
The relationship between Gulliver’s journey and John 10: 1 and 9 is elaborative in that when Gulliver made his voyages, there were challenges encountered in the foreign lands. The scripture says that he who enters the sheep pen through the gate is the true shepherd, whereas the one who comes through the fence is a thief. Gulliver travels made him an intruder in the foreign land was more often regarded as a stranger as the scripture. When we were at the lands of Lilliputians, he was given a whole navy to command and fight their enemies. Although the emerged a winner and was regarded as a hero in Lilliputians, things later got sour, and he was forced to flee that land. If Gulliver was not considered as a stranger, maybe he could not have been charged with treason. Furthermore, the writer says that he was a friend to the emperor, which satirical.
According to the scripture in the book of Hebrew 4:12, the bible says that the word of God is a double-edged sword, sharp and penetrates souls, spirits, marrows, and joints. The scripture also means that the word of God judges the attitude of the heart and the thoughts of the mind. In our context, the writer tells us about a modest proposal which included the thinking of the solutions that could be applied in Ireland to solve the problems of poverty. Though the ideas were satirical, they were by far very serious right from the proposals of eating infants and using their skins for gloves to reduce the population to the six other recommendations highlighted above. Such thoughts are not in line with the bible and particular this scripture which says that God will judge them. The understanding of this scripture is that we should always guide our minds and thoughts as God’s word penetrates through them, and we are subject to his Judgement.
In the book of 1st John 1:1-5, the scripture says that we proclaim what we have seen with our eyes, what we have heard with our ears, and what we have touched with our own hands, that it is what was there at the beginning. We tell you that God is the light, and there is no darkness in Him. From this verse, we learn that John was writing this as a testimony of God’s deeds to him. The scripture tells us to tell the truth and, most important things we have witnessed. Swift, in his proposal, talks of people eating children, which something he had not witnessed because it is against humanity.