Gulliver's Travels Book Analysis

Gulliver’s Travels is a very well-known book, and has never been out of print ever since its first publication (McCrum, 1). In four books, it tells the story of a man who ended up in four unknown places. However, one thing that stands out is how the author uses essentially the same plot in each of his four books. The stories follow a specific pattern, and although the pattern is obscure sometimes, it is still there. In each story, Gulliver sets out to sea, ends up in an unknown land, and later escapes or is forced to leave. In each book in Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver sets out on his journey, leaving his family behind. In the first book he sets out because his business failed and he was looking for some other way to support his family. He …show more content…
In the first book, Gulliver longs to go home, and finally escapes when a chance arises. He describes his departure on page eighty-two, when he says, “Having thus prepared all things as well as I was able, I set sail on the twenty-fourth day of September, 1701, at six in the morning.” In this quote, we can see that Gulliver had no hesitation in leaving the Lilliputians, and was relieved to be free again. However, in the fourth book, the circumstances are quite different. When Gulliver was told he had to leave the Houyhnhnms, he records his reaction as a dramatic one, saying, “I was struck with the utmost grief and despair at my master’s discourse, and being unable to support the agonies I was under, I fell into a swoon at his feet: when I came to myself he told me, that he concluded I had been dead” (Swift, 279). Gulliver was so emotionally attached to the Houyhnhnms, that at the prospect of leaving, he was so devastated that he fainted. Although these two departures are different, Gulliver was still left the islands after a period of time, and returned