gullivers travels
...spapers, magazines and travel books such as ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ were very popular. Gulliver tells his story of his travels, which took place in the early 1700’s when England was discovering and claiming lands around the world. However, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ is not just a book about travel, it is a satire on the state of religion and government in England in the early 18th Century. He comments on each country’s government and uses these countries to highlight the problems in England at this time. In the first part, we read about the Lilliputians ongoing war with Blefuscu, which is all to do with an old argument about which end of an egg should be opened first. This is a satirical view of the endless arguing and fighting between England and France. By using such a stupid argument, Swift is telling the reader how pointless it is to fight over unimportant issues. The ‘big end/little end of the egg’ argument also refers to the Catholic/Protestant arguments that raged in England at this time. Swift is trying to tell us through the use of satire, that the substance is the same for both Catholics and Protestants and that it is only their view on certain things in the Bible that are different. Therefore how stupid it is to argue over something which, when studied closely, is fundamentally the same. The dispute between the Low Heelers and the High Heelers is typical of the use of satire which Swift uses throughout the book. It represents the English political parties, the Whigs and Tories, who were fighting for control at this time. It is a clever way for Swift to express his own vie...