Horsing Around

I must admit that this fourth voyage was an interesting one. It seems that I was right about Gulliver - the guy is totally out of touch with reality.

Swift turns to the romantic notion of living in nature among the animals and places Gulliver smack down into a situation that can only be called bizarre. Gulliver finds himself in a land that is ruled over by the Houyhnhnms, a group of horses that are intelligent and civilized. In sharp contrast to these horses, are the Yahoos, a group of hairy, savage humans whose lives are ruled by their animal instincts.

Gulliver finds himself wanting to stay in exile from humanity, but he is not given the choice. He is appalled by the idea of going to live among the Yahoos, and he has so fully adopted the belief system of the Houyhnhnms that he cannot help but see his wife and children as primitive, ugly, beastlike creatures.

Their language is impoverished, their mating loveless, and their understanding of the complex play of social forces naïve. What is missing in the horses is exactly that which makes human life rich: the complicated interplay of selfishness, altruism, love, hate, and all other emotions. In other words, the Houyhnhnms’ society is perfect for Houyhnhnms, but it is hopeless for humans. Houyhnhnm society is, in stark contrast to the societies of the first three voyages, devoid of all that is human.

In the end, he is forced to return to the world from which he came—a single world that encompasses all of the flaws and complexities he has encountered in his travels.
Gulliver, but in the last voyage he becomes so alienated from humanity that it is difficult to sympathize with him.

Poor gullible Gulliver, I guess God should have given him some horse sense.