Choose from any of the 4 topics. no resources required just fro the litlerature book only - Essay Example

Gulliver lives with the Houyhnhnms for three years, learns their language and culture and shares his adventures and life with them. He is so impressed by the nobility of the Houyhnhnms, that he is willing to spend the rest of his life in their land. However, it is decided by the Houyhnhnms that since Gulliver is a Yahoo, he must either live with the Yahoos or leave Houyhnhnm Land. Gulliver sorrowfully chooses to leave. He builds a canoe and makes his way to a nearby island, from which he is rescued by a ship and returned to England.

Swift’s purpose in characterizing the Houyhnhnms is to define his ideal of human existence. Swift contrasts the demeanor and practices of the Yahoos with that of the Houyhnhnms in order to highlight human depravity and its desired ideal. The Yahoos are Swift’s symbol of depraved humans. This is seen in Gulliver’s assertion that “I observed in this abominable animal, a perfect human figure” (Swift, 2592). These parodies of humans are described as “detestable creatures” (Swift, 2592), whose physical appearance and demeanor is repulsive to an extreme degree.

Their shape is “singular and deformed” (Swift, 2588) and every physical feature reflects a bestiality which connotes depravity. They are hairy, have long, sharp, hooked claws, and communicate hostility by howling and defecating. Their skin emits a very rank, disagreeable odor. They prey on the putrid flesh of asses and dogs which they hold in “the claws of their fore feet, and tore it with their teeth” (2592). Their greed for food manifests itself in their fights to have it all for oneself and the refusal to share with others.

Swift paints an extreme picture of abomination in his depiction of the Yahoos. His unequivocal declaration that “the YAHOOS were the most filthy, noisome, and deformed animals which nature ever produced” (3-9), emphasizes that the Yahoos exemplify humanity at its worst. In contrast, the Houyhnhnms are refined in appearance and demeanor. Their behavior is “so orderly and rational, so acute and judicious” (2590) that it is clear that Swift elevates them to a lofty plane which connotes ideal humanity.

Gulliver admires the Houyhnhnms’ “strength, comeliness, and speed” (4-4) and addresses them as “Gentlemen.” Their manners at table are exemplary and they feed sparsely on oats boiled in milk, “sitting on their haunches upon mats of straw, not unartfully made, and perfectly neat and clean” (2592). In every part of Gulliver’s sojourn in Houyhnhnm Land, Swift underscores the contrast between the Yahoos’ “strange disposition to nastiness and dirt,” and the Houyhnhnmss “natural love of cleanliness” (3-4).

The filthy Yahoos, with their uncouth behavior, stand in contrast to the comely, clean Houyhnhnms. This contrast continues to be emphasized by Swift in his depiction of the practices of the two species. In accordance with their ugly appearance and demeanor, the Yahoos are “most restive and indocible, mischievous and malicious (3-9). They have no language and communicate through the coarsest of howls, snarls and grunts. They throw tantrums even when they are young, well-fed and lack for nothing in comfort: a reference to the depression of “the lazy, the luxurious and the rich”