Reading Gulliver’s Travels was an interesting experience for me. I’ve never read it before and I only remember hearing about it a few times in my late childhood outside of a few references to it in what I believe were probably Looney Tunes or something similar. Even then, the most commonly- referenced portion of the book seems to be the section about Lilliput. The sight of a giant man being tied down by hundreds of tiny men is somewhat iconic at this point, most likely because of the book’s reputation as a children’s novel, and the wonderment that children often feel toward the idea of giants or fairies/gnomes/elves (essentially anyone much larger or much smaller than themselves). I’m pretty sure that a new movie is either in production or slated for release this year based on Gulliver’s Travels, starring Jack Black if I’m not mistaken. I remember seeing trailers for it featuring the aforementioned scene from Lilliput. If I also remember correctly, it’s being released with either a G or a PG rating.
Gulliver’s Travels is not a children’s book, though. Part IV of Swift’s novel reminds me of a twisted application of an idea laid out in Thomas More’s Utopia, describing Gulliver’s time spent with the Houyhnhnms and both sides’ curiosity over each other’s strange and foreign culture. It is stated outright that the Houyhnhnms believe, after simply learning about them from Gulliver, that human beings are much in nature like the Yahoos that also inhabit their land: depraved, savage, disgusting creatures who wallow in filth and are stupid and bloodthirsty. That’s not an idea typically explored in a children’s novel. It asks questions about the nature of mankind, and whether or not a society that permits (and sometimes encourages) war, even for the sake of the protection of its people, is really a good thing. That’s something that requires some deep thought, and most importantly, a thorough understanding of morality and ethics, which is something that most children do not yet have. The idea then comes forth that human beings may not be the most superior species on the face of the earth.
The Houyhnhnms, however, though presented as having a supposedly perfect society, base their interactions with others on what appear to be ideals of friendship and respect, yet they clearly view all others as inferior to them. They don’t understand what war or evil are, yet they segregate themselves from what they clearly perceive as improper or unsuitable ways of living. They must understand that the Yahoos are bad, in their opinion. They clearly have a system of values and an understanding of what they believe is right and wrong, especially since they eventually decide that Gulliver cannot live among them due to his status as a human. Are the Houyhnhnms really a superior race, then? Is their way of life acceptable, or even something that can be presented as good at all?
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In many ways, then, this section of the book is a satire of the idea of a Utopia. It’s not quite presenting the idea in a way that could classify it as a Dystopia, but it does call into question the practices of the people who are supposedly living perfect lives. So much is left unexplained and unsaid about how and why the Houyhnhnms feel the way that they do, and perhaps it’s left ambiguous on purpose because of Gulliver’s narration and his own bias about the situation, but I can’t help but personally dislike the Houyhnhnms and their apparently hypocritical system of beliefs. If they would at least acknowledge the fact that undesirable things exist and that they do in fact understand the concept of evil and wrong, they would be more representative of the perfect society that Gulliver believes them to be. Then again, maybe that’s the point. Children also wouldn’t notice a serious gap in logic like that.
