Great discussion last week--I only wish more were participating--but they lose!
This week we will shift our focus to Gulliver. Thinking about Books I and II, what do you think is the most important result of the contrast between big and small? What about the Lilliputians and Brobdingnagians most impresses and influences Gulliver? What about humanity generally (and British or European people, specifically) do you think Swift, via Gulliver, is commenting on? (You might want to think about how Gulliver sees the Lilliputians and how the Brobdingnagians see Gulliver interms of how human each is.)
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I think the importance of size is really how you look at what is different. The Lilliputians are so appalled by Gulliver's size but then he too is appalled by the giants. They look down on what is different from themselves. I don't know if that is what Swift was going for, but as I read Gulliver's Travels it's what I see. Everyone in the book has this very closed view of the world itself. They don't seem to want to know what else is out there, and when they are faced with it they think it's ignorant or disgusting. No one really connects pieces of information together and evaluates them in a "whole" except Gulliver who just now, after book 2, is starting to see different worlds and question his own with what he sees. Everything is either my way or the highway which to me, is truly ridiculous.
I hope any of this makes sense. I needed my soapbox moment.
I'm pretty sure there was more meaning behind the story rather than just looking at size difference. Contrast between big and small to me just makes me think of my height and wonder what tall people think about me. Do people take me less seriously because I'm the same size as middle school kids? Or do tall people feel important because I have to look up at them to talk to them? Or do they feel like I just don't "measure up"? This may seem like I'm just ranting but what I'm really getting at is, do the Lilliputians feel inferior because Gulliver is bigger than them? Or maybe Gulliver exaggerated the difference in height because he first saw them as inferior to him? On the other hand, did Gulliver feel inferior to the Brobdingnagians, therefore calling them giants because they made him "feel small"? I am just playing with words now.
Gulliver is obviously enthralled by the ability to talk politics with the Brobdingnagians' king. He gets the chance to share (or brag about) the ways of his homeland's government, even though the king doesn't think so highly of Gulliver's description.
This book so far seems to be an adult version of a fairy tale or some other children's fantasy story. It reminds me of Animal Farm because Swift is making blatant comments about his society and pointing out its flaws while at the same time disguising these views in a harmless, adventure story. It seems to me that he dislikes his own society and he is saying that people/civilizations outside of his own, that are generally considered "less than" or "smaller than" the mighty British Empire, are actually able to take notice of the many flaws and imperfections within the British culture.
As far as what is represented by the different cultures in Gulliver's Travels, I'm not totally convinced that they represent any one particular country or people. I think that Lilliputians and the giants represent anyone other than England...but maybe that's just me.
Gulliver eye-opening travels teach us a lot about human perspective, detail and reality. His visit with the Lilliputians places him in a realm where he's a giant of a man amidst the six-inch critters. Never had he encountered a situation like this one, and he was able to nurture his personal development in sort of seeing things from an 'all-seeing eye’. The scope of the Lilliputian's civilization is narrow--from Gulliver's perspective--and I think Swift was trying to show us how his society is comparison driven.
The same principle applies to his visit with the Brobdingnagians; here he was at the other end of the David and Goliath relationship. Here he learns about size's relativity and much, much more about perspective. Swift paints a nice portrait showing us how to look beyond the surface when he describes the things we don't actually see in the human body--the intricate measures that appear repulsive up close.
Swift uses both stops as checkpoints in Gulliver's enlightenment. By having the opportunity to view things from opposite sides (or perspectives) of the human spectrum, Gulliver is able to appreciate size's relativity and differentiate between reality and deception.
When applying this to his society, it appears that in another one of his misanthropic efforts, Swift ridiculed European intention and motivation.
martin,
one of your sentences had me nodding my head in agreement while at the same time shaking my head at the ways of modern society:
"Swift paints a nice portrait showing us how to look beyond the surface when he describes the things we don't actually see in the human body--the intricate measures that appear repulsive up close."
too often do people nowadays look at what's on the surface rather than trying to delve deeper into things, the things that actually matter.
Martin and Claudia,
I really enjoyed reading your responses to this prompt. I wrote mine just on the fly and I really didn't THINK about it. Both of your repsonses really made me think and sit on the subject.
Claudia- I loved your height comments. I don't know if they were supposed to be funny but I caught myself laughing.
I thought you needed special kudos for that. ha!
When Gulliver was in Lilliput, he looked down on the people there because of their size. He was bigger therefore he was smarter. He made all of their rituals and ideas seem insignificant and petty. However, when he was in Brobdingnag, he was the one that was looked down upon for his size. He was smaller therefore he was the less intelligent one. The King laughed at his explanations of England finding humour in their silly rituals and ideas. I think that Gulliver/Swift does this to open his readers' eyes, forcing them to see that there are different kinds of people in this world. He points out flaws in his society trying to prevent closed ways of thinking. English society may believe that they are the biggest and the best, but look at what else is out there. They needed to realize that they were not the only ones there with ideas and that sometimes those ideas need to be looked at and revised.
Jeff,
Good comparison to Animal Farm. I hadn't really thought of that. However, instead of using animals to point out flaws in his society, Swift uses weird humans. It is true that sometimes it takes someone outside of the immediate problem to see what needs to be done.
The size issue if very significant in these two stories, first the Lilliputians who, Gulliver look down on as beneath him with their trivial wars that he couldn't see the people of England thinking about going to war over, how to crack an egg (funny). But the shoe is on the other foot when he travel to Brobdingnag, they treated him like he was nothing, they showed him respect but I think they did only because they felt sorry for him because they didn't understand with his small size how he could survive out in the world.
lacey
I agree with your veiw of how everyone he meets veiws the world in his travel and that is what I think Gulliver was going for he wants everyone to take a look at how we view others especially people we see as beneath us. I think he did a great job of showing society what was wrong with society.
I think I agree with just about every post on here this week! It's clear that Swift juxtaposes Gulliver's experiences as "big" and "small" in order to emphasize the relativity of it all. He has, in essence, become a Lilliputian in Brobdingnag, and now realizes why the Lilliputians' concerns seemed not at trivial to them. He can also sense how he must have appeared to the Lilliputians, and seems to gain a new respect for the way they treated him while he was there.
I think the point of all this is to show the fallacy of ethnocentrism. I wouldn't go so far as to say he's a relativist, but I think Gulliver is learning that society is not one-size-fits-all, and that humanity consists of more than outward appearance.
Claudia,
I thought your comments about inferiority with relation to size were really interesting - was it the size of the Lilliputians/Brobdingnagians that caused Gulliver to see them a certain way, or did he describe them physically as he viewed them morally/mentally/etc?
Gulliver mentions in book II that the smallest of insects can be more intelligent than the large beasts, so I think it's really striking that the various humans remain unable to recognize that potential in each other.
Claudia, I think everyone seems to like your talk about perspective in relation to height (or size). Coming from your height-deficient brother over here, I understand your wonder regarding what someone vertically endowed might think of you. Although they might be able to dunk a basketball, reach the top shelf at Wal-Mart, or tell you if its raining first, that's certainly nothing to feel ashamed of.
I think that's what Gulliver was trying to make us understand with his descriptions of the tiny-men and the giants: we each have our advantages and apparent disadvantages in the eye of the beholder. We each exist for a purpose, both big and small, and that's the beauty of it.
I've given up working on that dunk.
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