"Gulliver's Travels" by Jonathan Swift summary

Lemuel Gulliver is the main character of the novel. His profession doesn't have anything to do
specifically with traveling: he works as a surgeon. As soon as his career as a surgeon seems to be
plummeting, he the takes to the seas.

Gulliver’s adventure in Lilliput emerges when he arouses subsequent to his shipwreck to realize he has
been tied by numerous tiny wires and that a enormous crowd of minuscule captors who are clearly
surprised by encountering him but at the same time aware of the necessity of defending their kingdom
from any type of threat. Thus, they are not afraid to use violence against Gulliver, despite owning almost
inoffensive devices due to their shrinked size. Using force isn’t nevertheless necessary, because Gulliver
poses no threat. Although feeding Gulliver is no easy task, they do manage to do that, while disregarding
their own priorities, though. That’s mainly because Gulliver consumes more food than a thousand
Lilliputians combined could. After figuring a way to feed him, they deliver him straight to the capital,
inside a specially designed wagon, so that their emperor could meet him. As expected by many, the
emperor is actually fascinated by the rather bizarre creature. Gulliver also is flattered by the attention of
royalty. A fruitful cooperation emerges between Gulliver and the empire’s inhabitants. In exchange of
national recognition and luxurious conditions, Gulliver offers military support in the war with the people
of Blefuscu, whom the Lilliputians despise for doctrinal differences concerning the proper way to crack
eggs. But things change when Gulliver is convicted for treason for putting out a fire in the royal palace
with his urine and condemned to be shot in the eyes and starved to death. Fortunately, Gulliver escapes
to Blefuscu, where he is able to repair a boat he finds and set sail for England.

After spending two months in England alongside his wife and family, Gulliver ventures on his next sea
voyage, which ends up with him discovering a land of giants called Brobdingnag. Here, a field worker
finds him. He keeps Gulliver for the sake of his own entertainment and treats him as a more valuable
animal, until deciding to sell him to the queen, who is astonished by his musical talents. Living among
giants is nevertheless difficult to grasp in various respects, especially while you are minuscule and they
could literally crush you with the tip of their fingers. Moreover, their ordinary flaws are magnified by
their huge seize, making it unbearable to be anywhere near them. Thus Gulliver’s repulsion when it
came to playing on the naked bodies of a couple of courtly ladies who offered him that “privilege”. He is
generally surprised by the ignorance manifested by most people there: the king himself doesn’t really
know anything about politics. More alarming findings in Brobdingnag are represented by the presence
of various animals of the surrounding area that endanger his life. Even “small” insects leave sticky trails
on his food that hinder him from consuming adequate amounts of food. He manages to escape the
harsh life as a minuscule individual trapped into a world of giants when his cage is plucked up by an
eagle and dropped into the sea.

Next, Gulliver sets sail again and, after an attack by pirates, finishes up in Laputa, where a floating
island populated by theorists and scholars tyrannizes the land below, called Balnibarbi. The scientific
research conducted in both Laputa and Balnibarbi seems totally senseless and impractical and the
nation’s inhabitants seem to have completely lost touch with reality. While taking a short trip to
Glubbdubdrib, Gulliver witnesses the evocation of figures from history, for instance Julius Caesar and
other military heads, whom he considers not as intriguing and impressive as in the books. Then he visits
the Luggnaggians and the Struldbrugs, whom are physically strained yet immortal entities claiming age
does not bring wisdom. Finally, he is able to sail to Japan and from there back to England.

On his final journey, Gulliver sets out as captain of a ship, but ensuing a rebellion of his crew and thus
a prolonged confinement in his cabin, he arrives in an unknown land, inhabited by Houyhnhnms,
analytically-aware and thus capable to reason and by Yahoos, brutish human-like creatures who serve
the Houyhnhnms . Gulliver acknowledges their language in order to narrate his adventures to them. He
is handled with great courtesy and goodness by the horses and is enlightened by his numerous
discussions with them and also by the comprehensive nature of their noble culture. He wants to remain
there, alongside the Houyhnhnms, but his bared body reveals to the horses that he is very much like a
Yahoo, thus he is banished. Gulliver hardly embraces the fact he has to leave. He manages to create a
canoe and make his way to a nearby island, where he is picked up by a Portuguese ship captain who
treats him well but that doesn’t prevent Gulliver from comparing the captain and all of his crew with the
Yahoo creatures.