Gullivers Travels Written by Jonathan Swift Power Point

Gulliver's Travels Written by: Jonathan Swift Power Point by: Anita Hoffman Period 2

Genre, Setting, and Mood • Genre: Gulliver’s Travels is an obvious satire piece. • Setting: The setting of Gulliver’s Travels is mainly in England, but also in the fictious countries of Liliput, Brobdingnag, Blefuscu, Laputa, and the country of the Houyhnhnms. in the past, during the 18 th Century. • Mood: The mood is adventurous, emotionally affecting, and also I think ignorant at the same time.

Imagery • Page 190 : “The buildings were in bad repair and the people all in rags. ” • Page 242: “The gray steed rubbed my hat all round with his right fore-hoof , and discomposed it so much that I was forced to adjust it better, by taking it off, and settling it again…” • Page 299: “When I happened to behold the reflection of my own form in a lake or fountain, I turned away my face in horror and detestation of myself, and could better endure the sight of a common Yahoo than of my own person.

Narrator and Symbolism • Gulliver is the narrator, and it is told in first person. • Symbol 1: The Yahoos symbolize humans for what we truly are. • Symbol 2: The way the storm takes him down when he is traveling symbolizes the hardships of life. • Symbol 3: The Liliputian’s represents the small mindedness of human kind and how trivial we are.

Protagonist and Antagonist • Theprotagonist is Gulliver. • You have to look deeper to find the true antagonist in Gulliver’s Travels, and it is the society that humans have.

Themes • Themes: 1) The limits of human knowledge 2) No form of Government is ideal 3) Power may be great, but using it for what’s right is what is truly great.

Plot • • • Expository: Gulliver becomes a surgeon on a ship called swallow. His business begins to fail. Rising Action: Gulliver begins to encounter different places. Climax: Gulliver really starts to reject human society because of all of his travels. He calls the Brobdingnagian king ignorant because he refuses Gulliver’s offer to teach him how to make gunpowder. Falling Action: After Gulliver encounters the horses during his voyage to Houyhnhnm, he returns to England with a less than excited attitude, and buys horses of his own that remind him of Houyhnhnm. Resolution: Gulliver’s epiphany is that human society is all gross. He becomes a hermit and tries to find his own secluded land when the Houyhnhnm’s reject his return. When he gets home to England, Gulliver cannot even stand to be in the same room as his wfie and children.

Conflict • Gulliver washes onto the shore of Liliput during his first voyage. The Liliputians are tiny, ignorant, and petty. This is Gulliver’s first encounter with the insignificance of human society and it is when he first begins to despise it. This conflict is external because of his first encounter with Liliput, but internal because of the slow but sure spiral of misanthropy he gets into.

Character Relations • Gulliver and the Houyhnhnm’s: Gulliver first encounters the Houyhnhnm’s after a less than pleasant interaction with the Yahoos. They surprise him because animals in his own reality are simple minded beasts (the Houyhnhnm’s think of themselves as “the perfection of nature. ”) Gulliver becomes a member of the horses’ household and starts to both admire and accept their lifestyle more than his natural human one. He begins to act like the Houyhnhnm’s but after a time the Houyhnhnm’s expel him for being a danger to their society because of his Yahoo likeness.

Characterization • Lemuel Gulliver: Gulliver is a educated, bold adventurer who travels to many foreign lands. He goes through many difficult circumstances, showing courage and perseverance through them. Gulliver doesn’t show too much emotion. During his travels he begins to hate humanity, he’s absolutely repulsed by it. He becomes a misanthrope and a hermit, and rejects his family because of his experiences. • Lord Munodi: He is the Lord of Lagardo, and though he is a minor character, he symbolizes the possibility of a brainwashed community. His civilization is more of a science based one, where they try to create sun beams. Munodi is isolated like Gulliver, but Munodi is ignorant of being so.

Overall Meaning/ Connection to Life • The overall meaning of the story is what human society is like, and how no matter high and mighty we claim to be, there is no such thing as a perfect anything. • ALL throughout history there is conflict of culture and conflict of individuals. During my life, I have experienced both, just as everyone has. I do not believe that a person can live without conflict because conflict is the basis of human nature.