Gulliver’s Travels By Jonathan Swift

As it is described by Jonathan Swift, Lamuel Gulliver is among the third of the five sons who are born to the man of the modest means. Gulliver is of proper and good, although he is plain English stock-born to the Nottinghamshire, a country which is very ordinary with very little in the ways of excitement, he seems to be the epitome of the people of the British middle classes in his time. Gulliver’s name is suggesting, quite “gullible” Gulliver tends to believe in what other people tells him, and takes everything on his face value. Gulliver’s Travels is all about a detailed sets of the political conflicts, but it would have been long ago forgotten if it would have been nothing more than that. The staying rule of all the works comes as of its depiction of human condition furthermore its frequently despairing, although occasionally hopeful, draft of possibilities for the humanity to harness in baser instincts. This paper helps in analyzing the ways in which the use of the strange, and unfamiliar prompts the reader to think about the known and the familiar.

Gulliver’s Travel is a story of adventuring that involves several voyages of a man by the name Lemuel Gulliver, known to be a surgeon because of the series of the mishaps and an ability to route to the recognized ports and end ups on several of the unknown islands where he lives with the people as well as, animals of the unusual sizes, how they behave and the philosophies, however who, after every adventure, he is able to go back to his home in England where he gets to recover from the unusual experiences as well as , he sets out on the new voyage.

The ways in which the use of the strange and unfamiliar prompts the reader to think about the known, and the familiar comes in when the ship Gulliver is destroyed in the storm but still we find Gulliver ending up on the island of the Liliput, where when he wakes up, he finds that he had been captured by the Liliputians, who are very small people approximately the six inches in height. Gulliver in turn, helps them to solve their problems, more so their conflicts with Blefuscu who are their enemies. Blefuscu is an island which is across the bay from them. Gulliver then falls from the favor, although, since he had refused to support an Emperor’s desires of enslaving. Gulliver then converts a huge war ship to be his as well as setting sails from the Blefuscu in order to be rescued when he was in sea by the English merchant ship plus to return to his home England (Wiener and Gary, 168).

As Gulliver travels back as a ship’s surgeon, he is therefore sent to fetch for water in the island plus his crew. Instead they both encounters a giants land, as these screw flees back, Gulliver is left alone behind and then captured. The person who captures him is a farmer where is then taken to the farmer’s house where he is treated very kindly and curiously. Gulliver is the assigned for the keeper by the farmer where he is well taken care of by Glumdalclith who is the farmer’s daughter. When the farmer took Gulliver for a tour displaying him to the onlookers, he eventually sells Gulliver to a queen where he meets a king in the court, and they both spend a lot of their time discussing customs as well as the behaviors of the Gulliver’s country. At every moment the story is told, the king is seriously shocked. Gulliver, most of the time defends his country England whenever he gives the story (Lemke, 49).

Other ways in which the use of strange and unfamiliar prompts the reader to think about the known and the familiar is seen when one day Gulliver was sitting on the beach looking at the sea from the portable room, he is then snatched up by the eagle and then dropped inside the sea. It comes very strange when Gulliver’s chest is spotted on floating water by the passing ship and rescues Gulliver, and then returned to his home England so as to meet his families.

Another case of the known and the familiar comes in when Gulliver takes a ship back to Levant where he is assigned to be the captain of the sloop so as to visit the islands which are nearby as well as establishing a trade. It becomes so weird that while he was on the trip, the pirates’ attacks that place as well as the sloop and puts Gulliver inside a small boat. Gulliver then discovers the flying island called Laputa while he drifts at the sea. While on Laputa, Gulliver meets many inhabitants such as the king, and all of them are preoccupied some things which are associated with music as well as mathematics.

The astronomers seem to know everything hence they use laws of magnetism in order for them to, move the islands any way that they would love it to be. For example the island was moved forward, or backward or up, and down hence controlling the movements of island in the relation to the islands which are below (Balnibarbi). While he was in this land, Gulliver visits Balnibarbi, an island of the Glubbdubdrib, as well as, Luggnagg. Gulliver at long last arrives in the Japan where he meets the emperor of the Japanees.

Gulliver is selected as the captain of the merchant ship bound of Barbados and Leeward island, where many of his crew members becomes sick, and all of the die on voyage. When Gulliver saw this happening, he hires several sailors in Barbados to replace his crew. The strange and the familiar prompts in when Gulliver discovers that the replacement done has turned out to be the pirates who convince other crew teams to mutiny. This then makes Gulliver to be deposited back to the island in order for him to fend himself. On his way he is again discovered by a herd of the ugly, human-like creatures called the Yahoos. The creatures attack him by climbing the tree as well as defecating on him. He is then saved from the disgrace when he sees horses and identifies the horses by their names, the Houyhnhnm, where one of the horses with the grey color takes Gulliver to his home, and introduced to a grey mare (his wife), the colt as well as a foal which was his children, and the sorrel nag who is the servant. Gulliver identifies that the Yahoos, and himself are the same animals but at the first he thought that the Yahoos are kept in the pens which are far away from the house (Wiener and Gary, 68).

However, Gulliver is determined to be a Yahoo by the Kingdom Assembly, despite of him being treated well in grey steed’s home. When Gulliver is determined to be a Yahoo, and he therefore must live with uncivilized Yahoos or he must return to his world. Gulliver becomes very sad ant takes his leave of Houyhnhnms. Gulliver builds a canoe and he sails to the nearby island where is found hiding by the crew from Portuguese ship. The captain of the ship returns him to Lisbon hence living in the captain’s home. Gulliver then agrees to go back to the family in England. When he arrives, he becomes so repelled by the Yahoo family, and he then buys two horses as well as spending most of his time caring for and conversing with those horses in the stable so as to be far from his yahoo family.

Goblin Market by Rossetti

The Goblin Market is a poem which is narrated by Christina Rossetti’s, the poem describes the markets place dynamic and Rossetti depicts on how the” Goblin” or the merchants cries for the business. The merchants croon by shouting out loud for the crowd to come and buy, come and buy which they repeat it several times so that they can attract the customer’s attention to go, and buy their products. The merchant does this by preparing the list of the items in a paratactic manner. Rossetti happens to do many things in order to show how the market place looks like, and how the market works. Some of the things that actually Rossetti stated happen to remind the readers of a type of the market that is found on the Canal Street in New York. When Rossetti describes the market, the description of that market happens to be very similar to one which is of a modern day market. For example, one lacks interests of buying of any of the items that are being sold in the market place. For that case, we may conclude that, the strange and unfamiliar prompts Rossetti to think about the known and the familiar. This also comes in clear when a person has no interest of buying things sold yet, she, or he is sucked in by a siren-like calls of the merchants, or of the “Goblins”. In addition to that, some other merchants in the market place shares some descriptions which are of the same, this is either sharing them physically or metaphorically as it is described by Rossetti:

“One had a cat’s face,One whisked a tail,One tramped at a rat’s pace,One crawled like a snail,” (71-74)Rossetti’s poem of the market descriptions give the people some elements of mental pictures which are shady, wily, as well as, animal-like merchants. There are also some similarities that exist in the two different market places because of the products which are sold. Rossetti once more describes the “Goblin” or the merchandise, a fruit, as it comes from a place which is not to trust anymore “Who knows upon what soil they fed / their hungry thirsty roots?” (44-45).  

The strange and unfamiliar also comes in when Rossetti’s market place resembling the modern market place of today in a way that the merchants can now freely interact with their buyers. On the other hand, Rossetti outlines that, in the market place, there seems to be many people who are competing for sales. Rossetti also describes the merchants or the goblins to be as “Leering at each other” (93), as if they have spiteful strategy of selling products only to the new customer. Rossetti continues describing the constant clash between the merchants of Laura’s business, “One set his basket down, / one reared his plate,” and she continues describing what every goblin does in order for them to get a business.( Bloom and Harold (97-98).

The merchants are given different types of the selling pitch by Rossetti. This is seen when Laura gets surrounded by different merchants, where each of the merchants did something that could attract the attention of Laura. For example, the merchant says “bade her taste in tones as smooth as honey” (Bloom and Harold, 107-108). Another merchant also “Spoke a world of welcome” (9), while the other one merchant “whistled like a bird”. (Bloom and Harold, 114). This reminds listeners of the market place in comparable ways. For instance the “click-clack” of the sale advertisements, the screaming as well as the shouting for the products which are sold in stand, and also the whistling, are all ways of gaining competitive advantages in an organization for business. The way the merchants are negotiating when they are selling their products are another similar of the market place aspects which Rossetti reveals out in her poem. The attention of Laura is attracted by the screaming of the merchants while they shouted “Come buy, come buy” Laura then tells the merchants, or the goblins that she has got no money to buy their commodities, she says, “I have no copper in my purse” (118). She is again replied by the goblins, in unison, telling her that there is no problem but still she can buy the products by using her golden hair, they merchants say, “You have much gold upon your head” (123). Laura then decides to trade with them, and then pays the merchant for their fruit, “she clipped a precious golden lock . . . Then sucked their fruit globes fair or red” (Bloom and Harold, 126-128).

Conclusions

Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” is truly resembliling that of the contemporary day market places. Christina Rossetti does a tremendous job by portraying the malevolent merchants, and their craftiness ways. Rossetti then goes even farther, by describing how the merchant presents their fruits, they attract the attention of Laura, and they are able to barter with the unfortunate girl called Laura. Rossetti also describes the market place to be very well in other ways.

Work Cited

Bloom, Harold. Christina Rossetti. London: Chelsea House Publishers, 2004. Print.

Lemke, Donald B., Cynthia Martin, Benny Fuentes, and Jonathan Swift. Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s travels. London: Stone Arch Books, 2008. Print.

Wiener, Gary. Readings on Gulliver’s travels. New York: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Print.

Woodside, Martin, Jamel Akib, and Jonathan Swift. Gulliver’s travels. New York: Sterling Pub., 2006. Print.