Book 4 Group D

Book 4 Group D (Lylah Uttamsingh, Sam Moyer, Cristina Granados)

Enlightenment and Disillusionment

Upon arrival in Houyhnhnmland, Gulliver becomes entranced by the Houyhnhms and their lifestyle. Their core virtues of reason, honesty, and rationality are appealing to Gulliver and he feels englightened after realizing the distinction between Houyhnhms and Yahoos. Once he leaves the Houyhnhnmland, he cannot help but view other humans as mere Yahoos. His entire outlook on humanity has changed and he is forever disillusioned.

In the 4th book, Swift characterizes Gulliver as first a human being, and then a kin of the Houyhnhms. This is an enormous jump; he begins a human/Yahoo and a "savage", and ends a human/Houyhnhm and a virtuous individual. It is intriguing that the beings that Swift desires that Gulliver, and therefore the reader, form the most respect and connection to are the furthest from Gulliver's own human form. Gulliver is so deeply changed that he is unable to think as a member of human society when he returns, and must take years of rehabilitation to achieve even the smallest degree of normality. In previous travels and locations, Gulliver is among the society as an object of awe but something different and imprisoned. For the first time, in Book 4, Gulliver is apart but works with his whole heart and soul to integrate himself into Houyhnhm society and away from his association to an 'intelligent Yahoo'. Gulliver is attracted to the society he is in and does not want to leave it; he deeply values the simplicity, honesty, equality, etc. of the Houyhnhm to the exclusion of all else, including his own life's history.

Notable passages:

• Last two paragraph of Ch XI, when Gulliver returns to his family again, and cannot stand to be around them. "I must freely confess the sight of them filled me only with hatred, disgust, and contempt; and the more, by reflecting on the near alliance I had to them" (Ch XI)
• Ch XII, when Gulliver discusses what he can and cannot do even after living as a human again.
• Beginning of Chapter IX. Admiration for the politics employed by the Houyhnhms.
• Intellectual history: Ch VI: "First or Chief Minister of State...exempt from joy and grief, love and hatred, pity and anger...there are three methods by which man may rise to be chief minister."