a wide variety of literary critique and social interpretation. Although

many readers, at first glance, take this tale to be simply a fantastic

narrative of a common man and his encounters with unusual locations and

people through several journeys, further inspection reveals Swift’s true

purpose of creativity--satire. Using the contemporary style of the Travel

Narrative, Swift is able to insert his own personal criticisms of modern life

into the experience of Gulliver. Swift focuses entirely on satirizing

humanity in Book IV of Gulliver’s Travels.

Gulliver, representing a common man, encounters a wide variety of

characters along his travels, each representing a subject Swift wishes to

criticize. His satire ranges from relatively simple political criticism in his

experiences in Book I and II to a socio-political criticism in Book III, to

European man, but rather that the European man is merely a “more

Gulliver sees the Yahoos not as beasts far-removed from the

notion of man as superior being for a more cynical outlook after

physical appearance of humans. Though their behavior seems to be

A final indication that the Houyhnmns are an attack on humanity is

Some topics in this essay:
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