Post 3- Gulliver's Travels

In Book 2, Gulliver presents himself as powerless compared to the large beings of the land he occupies, while still maintaining that he has some authority. His smallness necessarily forces him to be physically at the behest of the giants of Brobdingnag, but the way he frames events in the narrative retelling lends him some sad, vengeful authority.

Towards the end of Gulliver’s political discussions with the king of Brobdingnag, the king goes on something of a rant against the governmental makeup of Gulliver’s home, culminating in calling the British “the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth.” (Swift 118) Gulliver proceeds to call his nation “noble and most beloved” (Swift 119) in the narration. This ploy, describing the king’s arguments and assertions only to undercut them afterwards in the narration, leads Gulliver to appear weak in praxis but still somewhat authoritative to the reader.

This also comes across in the several giant animal attacks that take place in this section. Swift places Gulliver at the mercy of rats (79), wasps (96), a dog (102), a frog (107), a monkey (107-109), and finally an eagle (127). In all of these instances Swift reverses the expected dynamic between human and animal, as animals which are typically relegated to pest, pet, or distant presence are turned into beings with genuine power over Gulliver. Yet even as Gulliver is made to look powerless by this dynamic, so too is his intelligence comparative intelligence emphasized. He is, again, telling the story so that regardless of his apparent weakness he still maintains some integrity.

Ultimately this reading is significant for the way it emphasizes the lens of storytelling as a tool to exert influence. Gulliver’s relative powerlessness in Book 2 is not up for debate. He is literally carted around by several individuals in the course of his stay on Brobdingnag. Yet the simple fact that he is ultimately the one telling the story privileges his perspective in a way which makes him seem more powerful than he actually is. This is a testament to the significance of perspective in establishing and altering power dynamics.

Work Cited

Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver’s Travels. 1726. Penguin ed., 2010.