For Ceci and Carla:
Part 1: Choose a quotation from the section you are reading, it should now be the end of the book - the concluding chapters. Post the quotation and discuss its relevance in two ways, consider:
- historical-political references,
- the power of the language (imagery or poetic devices etc.),
- in terms of the ideals of Romanticism or the era,
- the quotation's symbolic meaning,
- its purpose such as a flashback or foreshadowing or character development.
Part 2: Mention what Themes seemed to be dominant in your novel. Choose one to expand upon!!! The expansion does not have to be long but it does need to be insightful.
Your seventh reflection is due on Monday, December 7.
1 comment:
There is something interesting that I felt would be relevant to blog about-and that is another character, I actually just noticed this-that while the whole book is criticizing various aspects of the English society-like politics, society, technology, he never really talked about humans themselves.I just saw that Capitan Don Pedro de Mendez,the capitan of the Portuguese ship who takes Gulliver back to England, is a way more or less to show an ideal human being. He has been talking about society in general, and with Don Pedro he talks in depth about his perception of an ideal individual.Like I said in the previous blog, humans can chose right or wrong, ideal or dysfunctional societies. Don Pedro is a Yahoo, but possesses the qualities of a Hounyhnhnm.This shows how Swift says that even though all society is corrupt and bad (liek the Yahoo society), even individuals can make a difference if they decide to achieve a higher self, or try to chose good. Swift also gives Don Pedro more humanlike characteristics. For example, the Houhynhmns were unreal-like robots, they had no emotions or feelings.While possessing good, unselfish valuies and characteristics of the Houhynnms, Don Pedro was also more human like because he showed and had emotions. He was kind and warm, and he also was more individualized, like he cared for himself and for the rest, not only for society.Gulliver describes him with such admiration, thoroughly describing his "graet civilities" (305). For instance, the capitan "often entreated me[Gulliver] to strip myself of my savage dress, and offered to lend me the best suit of clothes he had" (310).Not only was he really unselfish, but he was really helpful-it was he who generously helped Gulliver re-adapt into the human soceity. Something I found very interesting, and I am still unsure of why Swift did this, was that Don Pedro was Catholic.I know Portugal was a Catholic country, but the thing was that during this time especially, Catholics were greatly discriminated from society, as England determined who was their friend or enemy through who was Protestant or Catholic.I think in a way he is just saying that the English should get over the most insignificant differences, as there is more to a human than their religion.That human kindness and postivism is more significant than politics or rules.
I also wanted to mention some of the most important themes. Of course, since this is a satire, most of the themes are critical of society. For instance, the abuse of power.The Lilliputians took advantage of Gulliver's personality (nonagressive, good intentions) to attack him with arrows and hold him prisoner. Also just the way the Lilliputians tortured their subjects. Then another theme I noticed, which was similar to Brave New World, was individual vs. society.Gulliver, much like John, is basically an outcast in every society he meets. His practices were very different from every societys, which made him stand out. He tries to emulate the behavior of the Houynhnmn society, he never was able to become one of them. Lastly, there was pride, which was i think the MAIN theme in this novel, because every society that gulliver visited was very proud of itself. Where various other themes (such as the ones above) are present in only 1 or 2 societies, pride is evident in every one. The Lilliputians were proud of their "grand" military.The Brobdingnagians were really vain and shallow-they were proud simply of their size and appearance.The Laputans were overly proud of all their scientific accomplishments and theories, which in turn makes them blind of the needs of their people (starving people, weird fitting clothes, etc). The Hounhyhmns are very proud of their perfectly functioning society.The only society that wasnt really proud was the Yahoos, because there was total disorder and everything was a mess.In fact, I think during his time with the Yahoos it was the other way around, Gulliver was the proud one, not the scoiety.He thinks he is better than the Yahoos just because of their appearance and the way their society functioned.
Post a Comment