Gulliver’s Travels
.... Swift is satirizing the foolishness of the whole process and trying to illustrate England this way. England and many other kingdoms during Swift’s time was very corrupt and had to please the king in order to get a position in the kingdom. Although the parsimoniousness of the Lilliputians is humorous, it is very thought provoking to the people of England. The next journey, Gulliver travels on to Brobdingnag. Now instead of being the giant, Gulliver is in a land of giants. Gulliver encounters these giants with fear but realizes that they are great rulers and politicians. Because of his small size, Gulliver lives in fear of everyday obstacles such as killing a rat. When the monkey kidnaps Gulliver and force-feeds him, it is a funny incident. However after a few moments, the reader will realize the parallelism between this incident and real life. England, one of the most powerful countries in the world, always bullies small countries and takes over them. Through Gulliver’s point of view, the reader can see the abuse the smaller and the weaker countries has to go through everyday. Gulliver scrutinizes the people of Brobdingnag very closely and their flaws and obnoxiousness seem to magnify. He is disgusted with their large pores, large breasts, and sees them as savage-like. This incites hesitant laughter because the audience is wondering whether they are disgusting in appearance similarly to Brobdingnags in closer view. The king’s inability of understanding the English system of taxation, armies, and religion and his belief that the people of England are, “the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to craw upon the surface of the earth,” are harsh but has validity to it. Therefore the audience has to decide if he or she should be offended or to laugh at this satire. The ridiculous nature of Laputians is also great comedy. Their impossible goals to extract sunshine from cucumbers, build houses starting from the roof, and to teach the blind apprentices to mix co...