2023年book review of gulliver 格列佛游记读书笔记.docx

2023年book review of gulliver 格列佛游记读书笔记 商英1201 王丹 1207090138 Book Review Of Gullivers Travels For most of us, Gullivers Travels is not a strange work.Once as a child, I was amazed at the adventurous stories of Gulliver, and it also made me contemplating at the same time.Now I finally realize that this work is not simply a fantasy fiction, but a satire. Written in the early 16th century by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, Gullivers Travels narrates the four fantastic journeys of Lemuel Gulliver, a practical-minded Englishman trained as a surgeon who takes to the seas when his busine fails.Through the deadpan first-person narrative that narrating the adventures befalling him on the journeys, Jonathan Swift creates several imaginary countries, tries to find a ideal type of society, and satirize the European governments directly or indirectly, explore human nature at the same time. At the very begging of his voyage to Lilliput, Gulliver starts to narrate in satire-“This resolution perhaps may appear very bold and dangerous, and I am confident would not be imitated by any prince in Europe.” In the later chapters, Gulliver learns about Lilliputian culture, and the great difference in size between him and the Lilliputians is emphasized by a number of examples, many of which are explicit satires of British government.For instance, Lilliputian government officials are chosen by their skill at rope-dancing, which the Lilliputians see as relevant but which Gulliver recognizes as arbitrary and ridiculous.The would-be officials are almost literally forced to jump through hoops in order to qualify for their positions.Clearly, Swift intends for us to understand this episode as a satire of Englands system of political appointments and to infer that Englands system is similarly arbitrary. Then Gulliver is asked to help defend Lilliput against Blefuscu.Despite the fact that the history of the conflict between Lilliput and Blefuscu is blatantly ridiculous, Gulliver reports it with complete seriousne.The more serious the tone, the more laughable this conflict appears.But Swift expects us to understand immediately that the entire history Gulliver relates parallels European history exactly, down to the smallest details.The High-Heels and the Low-Heels correspond to the Whigs and Tories of English politics.Lilliput and Blefuscu represent England and France.The violent conflict between Big-Endians and Little-Endians represents the Protestant Reformation and the centuries of warfare between Catholics and Protestants. Throughout much of Part 1, Swift satirizes European practices by implicitly comparing them to outrageous Lilliputian customs.In Chapter VI, however, Gulliver describes a number of unusual Lilliputian customs that he presents as reasonable and sensible.This chapter, which describes improvements that could be made in European society, is le satirical and ironic than the previous chapters.We may infer that Swift approves of many of these institutions.Clearly, there is a good case to be made for treating fraud as a more serious crime than theft and for making false testimony a capital crime.The very fabric of society depends upon trust, so dishonesty may be even more damaging than theft and violence. In general, the customs of Lilliput that Swift presents as good are those that contribute to the good of the community or the nation as opposed to those that promote individual rights or freedoms.Ingratitude is punishable by death, for instance, because anybody who would treat a benefactor badly must be an enemy to all mankind.Children are raised by the community rather than by their parents because parents are thinking only of their own appetites when they conceive children.Children are raised in public nurseries, but parents are financially penalized if they burden society by bringing children for whom they cannot pay into the world. I still remember the policy of raising children in Lilliput.Since the first time I read it, it had caught me into contemplating.In Chinese culture, children should be grateful and submiive to their parents who give them lives.And as we all know, Hsiao ethic(filial piety) is a important part of Chinese culture.But in Lilliput, it reverses.Children are not responsible for their parents since their birth are not out of their own will, but their parents sex desire.This thought changed my thinking pattern as a child and it is more reasonable to me. In Part 4, the fourth voyage of Gulliver's Travels is easily read as an attack on the human species because of the clear satire regarding the Yahoos.However, a careful reading suggests that the author is just as satirical toward Gulliver and the Houyhnhnms as he is toward the Yahoos, but it is surely more subtle, therefore misconceptions arise on the meaning of Gulliver's encounter with the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver remains true to his gullible nature as he seems unable to see the negative aspects of the Houyhnhnms rational philosophy to life, therefore a reader must be more conscientious to see that Gulliver's idealized view of the Houyhnhnms logical approach to life is not shared by Swift.Up to this point in the story, it has been effortle and easy to see Gulliver's point of view as being always consistent with Swift's but this is not the case. The primary purpose of the fourth voyage is to reveal the crude barbarian traits of humanity.Swift divides man into his animal side, in the Yahoos, and into his logical side, in the Houyhnhnms.By showing how each acts when separated, the hidden attributes are highlighted.The animal, instinctual, and primitive components of human nature that we generally prefer to ignore are called concentrated on.This distasteful manifestation is further more described with deliberately offensive language used. He is a self-hating, self-proclaimed Yahoo at the end, announcing his misanthropy quite loudly, but even this attitude is difficult to accept as the moral of the story.Gulliver is not a figure with whom we identify but, rather, part of the array of personalities and behaviors about which we must make judgments. book review of gulliver 格列佛游记读书笔记 Book Report Gullivers Travels 格列佛游记 Gulliverx27s travels 格列佛游记读书笔记 格列佛游记读书笔记 格列佛游记读书笔记 格列佛游记.读书笔记 格列佛游记读书笔记 格列佛游记读书笔记 格列佛游记读书笔记 格列佛游记读书笔记