Book 2 Group F (Lexi and Brandon)

Gulliver makes Value Statements about the observations he sees, particularly about the people and behaviors he encounters.

An example of this is when Gulliver first encounters a giant breast. He remarks in disgust when he says, " I must confess no object ever disgusted me so much as the sight of her monstrous breast, which I cannot tell what to compare with, so as to give the curious reader an idea of its bulk, shape, and colour" (84). This reminds us of a child when he/she first encounters a new food. They might respond in disgust before even coming into contact with it. This is a humorous example because he's talking about a giant breast, but he has that complex of "my home and my life is normal, and this is different, therefore it's weird or disturbing."

He talks much about the bodies that he encounters on his travels, often making value statements and comparisons to other bodies. He compares how he sees the Bromdignag woman to how the Liliputians viewed him, saying "my face appeared much fairer and smoother when he looked on me from the ground than it did upon a near view when I took him in my hand" (85).

He makes these value statements with no desire to understand the cultural contexts, assuming his perspective and evaluation to be factual, more akin to an observation. This satirizes the English colonial mindset toward the world: that the English are progressive and industrious while cultures with different progress and priorities must, of course, be savage, uncivil, and backwards.