Hello! My name's Liliana. I'm a teacher of English (Language and Literature) to Italian teenage stu

Sunday, April 17, 2016

INTERPRETATIONS GULLIVER's TRAVELS

 INTERPRETATIONS
GULLIVER's TRAVELS

IT’S A POLITICAL ALLEGORY


1) FIRST JOURNEY


The LILLIPUTIANS                                       CRUELTY
                                                                                              GREED
                                                                                              CORRUPTION
                                                                                              PROVINCIALISM
They see  GULLIVER as a weapon to destroy their enemies
                              
Swift refers to some political figures of his time      The idea is that they do nothing in the public interest
2)SECOND JOURNEY
The giants of BROBDINGNAG                                       VANITY
                                                                                             PRIDE
                                                                                            SELF-LOVE

Gulliver sees how the Lilliputians saw him                        The idea is that the human body may be an obstacle to SPIRITUAL GROWTH

3)THIRD JOURNEY
It’s a SATIRE against the new theories and abstract thought
In particular Swift attacks the ROYAL SOCIETY (THE OLDEST SCIENTIFIC ACADEMY)

4)FOURTH JOURNEY
The HOUYHNHNMS are HORSES       REASON
                                                                                                   LOGIC
                                                                                                  RESPECT

The YAHOOS are men-like apes (a SUB_HUMAN RACE)  The idea is that underneath humans are indeed just like the Yahoos, only a bit more sophisticated in their being rough and violent


Simple Definition of ALLEGORY

 a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation


Simple Definition of satire

 

a way of using humor to show that someone or something is foolish, weak, bad, etc. : humor that shows the weaknesses or bad qualities of a person,government, society, etc.




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