Social Systems Encountered in Gulliver's Travels - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The main character in the novel, Gulliver encounters several social systems as exemplified by writings in trials of modernity. Despite the fact that it appears simple and straightforward, the novel intended for the delight of children, upon closer examination of the novel reveals an insightful work that satirizes the political and social systems of eighteenth-century England. After serving as a surgeon aboard the swallow, Gulliver returns to London. Gulliver marries and takes on patients while in London. His practice cannot allow him to sustain his family. Therefore, he decides to go to the sea so that he can sustain his family. He spent six years in two different ships. He works both as a captain and a physician. In all his travels, Gulliver encounters several aspects that indicate the importance and manifestations of several social systems that affect the behavior of people. The most notable among all this was civil society marked by political leadership and civilizations and the ways it affected the lives of people. The economic conditions of 1648 up to 1650 were marked by harsh conditions especially for most people who were poor. This period was marked b low crop production and a rise in food prices. It was a time when people were establishing agrarian communities across England so that they could grow food. Most people ho comprised of the poor population were going hungry yet there was plenty of idle land (Burton and Dworkin 14). In a declaration from the poor oppressed people of England (1649), Gerard Winstanley shows the inequalities and devastating life that people led (Burton and Dworkin 31). Winstanley captures the problems that Gulliver’s was going through at that time. The upper class was the only group of people who enjoyed life because they owned the means of production. Gulliver could not sustain his family and had to travel and combine two professions to earn more money for his family. Winstanley envisioned his wish for a different social order crediting his inspiration from a message he received in trance that says, “Work together, and eat bread together.” He campaigned for a democratic society dissimilar from the one that existed and favored privilege and wealth. He was concerned of the common man, the people at the lower ranks in society. Those who were ignored and forgotten. Winstanley engaged in fighting for the rights of the poor an oppressed by communicating to Lord Fairfax about the ill-treatment of the Digger community. The civilizations that Gulliver encounters reveal to him the flaws that exist in his society that he valued in his first voyage (Burton and Dworkin 34). The society at that time was marked by unfairness and only those who learn different tactics survived. Individualism became one of the major tactics of survival in an age that was characterized by the rise of capitalism that accounted for the tension between social hierarchies arranged in terms of status inheritance and accumulated wealth. The period was also marked by the mobility of populations that came up because of stable traditional values. Gulliver’s travels confirm this assertion because most of his journeys were made in the search of a better life. He moved from one place to another taking up different jobs and roles for his survival and that of his family. Thomas Hobbes, in his famous writing The Leviathan (1651) proposed an alternative political ...Download file to see next pagesRead More