Houyhnm In Gulliver's Travels

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In Gulliver’s Travels, Book IV by Jonathan Swift, the narrator, Gulliver, finds himself in an unknown land where he encounters the Houyhnhnms and Yahoos. The well-ordered and rationally driven Houyhnhnm society is compared with the greedy, irrational, and violent society of the Yahoos who are deformed and singular-shaped creatures that closely resemble humans. While a society based on structure and reason has positive attributes, nevertheless employing these attributes to an extreme has severe consequences. Gulliver represents the social reality that as people go through life and face various situations, they assign different meanings to what they perceive. Throughout the book, Gulliver presents significant details about the culture of the …show more content…

The Houyhnhnms procreate for eugenic reasons, and their marriages lack romance. Once “the matron Houyhnhnms have produced one of each sex, they no longer accompany with their consorts” (1122). This statement shows that the superficial nature of the Houyhnhnms way of life is demonstrated by the absence of profound sentiments such as courtship, love, presents, and jointures that are essential to human experiences. They treat each other with “the same friendship, and mutual benevolence that they bear to others of the same species who come in their way” (1122). There are no feelings of jealousy, discontent, fondness, or quarreling, which indicates an inhuman way of living. The Houyhnhnms function like robots, that have no depth to their lives. Furthermore, parent-child bonding, which plays a significant role in healthy development is nonexistent. If one family has two males and another has two females, they exchange with each other. This way each family has one of each sex. However, in a utopia, the regulation of children would be handled with a great deal of care. The parental duty of care is to provide protection, guidance, appreciation, and love for a child. Moreover, the Houyhnhnms preserve their race, but do not display signs of progression. Their society is not developed to its maximum potential because they have a limited way of thinking. Thus, it does not represent a

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