The Debate Jonathan Swift Rhetorical Analysis

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In the passage, Swift gives a deeper insight into the irrationality present on Houyhnhnm society: the Yahoos characteristics and how they came to this country. While listing rational reasons of why the Yahoos should be exterminated Swift builds up the irony for finding the perfect rational society where the human race is at risk of been exterminated. The debate in this passage is a representation of a much bigger debate that nineteen century nations underwent while deciding how to navigate encounters with different races. Since the start of part IV the reader is aware of the existence of the Yahoos, however not until chapter IX the possible origins of the Yahoos are reveal. Their possible origins are very similar to the Christian creation myths and a parallel of enslavement. Gulliver’s master says that the Yahoos might have been a result of “heat or sun upon corrupted mud and slim” or be a product of “ooze and froth of the sea”. According to Adam and Eve’s creation myth after God breathed life/fire into dust and …show more content…
What appears to be an image of intellectual enrichment is quickly replaced with extermination and obvious irrationality of the Houyhnhnm society. The Yahoos are the only problem that Houyhnhnm face due to their “filthy”, “noisome”, “deformed”, “restive and innocuous”. This characteristics are clear opposites of Houyhnhnm cleanness, rationality, and love of knowledge. To stablish a straight line between rational Houyhnhnm and irrational Yahoos, the narrator gives the example of the Yahoos killing cats and destroying the oat and grass to demonstrate that they invading their domestic life as well as destroying their lethal resources to survive. Parallel to this debate, in the era of British expansion and slavery, dominant nations accused their enslaved people for been irrational and debated their role in

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