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Yahoos And Houyhnms In Gulliver's Travels By Jonathan Swift

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Are we humans simply brute animals, or are we capable of being rational, intelligent creatures? These questions are discussed in Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, but the answers are primarily left up to the personal discretion of the reader. Both perspectives are analyzed. Gulliver bears an undeniable resemblance to the brutish Yahoos, but he also shows the Houyhnhnm-like characteristics of reason and language. This satirical book is used to draw attention to how brutish and unreasonable humans can be, even though most of the time we don 't recognize this about ourselves. The author gives both perspectives of the first question, and he suggests that humans have some characteristics of both the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms.

The race of Yahoos and the race of humans are …show more content…
(266)
Gulliver’s master chided him for thinking that the human race had any reason at all. “ What you have told me (said my master) upon the subject of war, does indeed discover most admirably the effects of that reason you pretend to: however, it is happy that the shame is greater than the danger, and that nature hath left you utterly uncapable of doing much mischief” (268).
The Houyhnhnm was critical of the fact that Gulliver claimed that humans had reason, because of all the similarities the Houyhnhnms noticed between the humans and the Yahoos. Gulliver spent time explaining to his master all about human politics and conducts, then he listened as his master explained the Yahoos’ characteristics and behaviors. The two races were remarkably and undeniably

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