Why Is Swift Described As A Pacifist?

The novel Gulliver’s Travel written by Jonathon Swift details the several voyages of Gulliver, who ends up on a number of different islands living amongst people of unusual sizes. Each group of people he encounters with have differing ideologies than his own. Perceiving him a certain way due to his size, some feeling inferior and intimated by his stature. Other using him as forced amusement due to his smaller size. Swift’s fictional account can be read as a great work of social criticism on European societies. The novel incorporates exaggeration and humour to ridicule humankind. Swift’s use of social satire presents the reader with detailed inspection on the reality of many during that period of time, however this scrutiny can also be placed …show more content…
He uses humour as a weapon to attack the vices of society and show how ridiculous their behaviour is. In the first voyage to the island of Lilliput, Swift uses satirical portraits when speaking on the conflict between the Little Endians and the Big Endians on the island. The novel further describes the reasoning behind their feud as simply being a difference of the way each cracks their eggs. Swift being a pacifist conveys the facilities of war, criticising issues which are blown out of proportion to the extent that lives are lost of such trivial matters. His use of satire on conflict compels the reader to think about the perversities of war between two groups, who at face value seem to be very similar. In this account, swift is ridiculing the conflict between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants in Great Britain at that time. He uses the fictitious depiction of the Little Endians and the Big Endians as a satirical portrait, showing how small differences of opinions can turn into petty arguments where weapons are used to kill. “My little Friend Grildrig; you have made a most admirable Panegyric upon your Country. You have clearly proved that Ignorance, Idleness and Vice are the proper Ingredients for qualifying a Legislator. …But, by what I have gathered from your own Relation, and the Answers I have with much Pains wringed and extorted from you, I cannot but conclude the Bulk of your Natives, to be the most pernicious Race of little odious Vermin that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth.” Here Gulliver describes his encounter with the King of Brobdingnag, where have discussion on the people of England. Gulliver firstly attempts to give a brief and honest summary on the lifestyle of the people of his native land. However, the King interprets Gulliver’s very misanthropic account as a