True Story By Lucian Samosata Analysis

In this context Swift was much inspired by Lucian as can be understood from the style of writing that he adopted for the book. Lucian’s story was highly popular with Swift and that accounted for the influence. True Story by Lucian Samosata is a satirical travelogue. For centuries his format has been copied. The facts in this book like journey to our moon inspired later science fiction writers. Lucian criticized everything through his writings; no one was spared, whether they were national heroes, philosophers, patriots or dishonest contemporary writers. For instance he criticized the writings of the older writers like Homer. Beyond commentaries on society, symbolism and parody, the True Story of Lucian enabled the reader to enjoy humour and …show more content…
Although it is generally looked upon as a fairy tale for children the story is full of satire. Swift commented on religious wars and many other problems England, her leaders and people faced. The thorough reader can catch many allusions but generally, with time the incredible fabulous descriptions have pushed it to the background; only the highly perspective can catch the essence. The influence of Lucian on Swift can’t be ignored. Both authors hit out at many similar institutions and use the same devices to ridicule the world of their days. Both respected the older tradition of travel writing which focused on such extravagant beasts and unfound lands. The popularity of the book written by Swift was partly due to the introduction of the fascination for travelling to remote parts of the world, discovery of new sea routes, expansion of trade, finding rare creatures and so …show more content…
The beginning and the end of the voyages that Gulliver goes on have sparks of realism in it. In the description of the travel of Gulliver, Swift blends both the fantastic and the real elements. The fantastic elements included in the book were quite similar to Lucian’s who parodied them in his writing. Pseudo realism blended with self mockery led to the making of the style of Swift’s writing so ferocious. Thus in his writing, Swift mentioned giants, flying islands, pygmies, following the tradition of the older travel writers. However he also shifted focus on the real life descriptions when he mentioned about nautical information, mutiny, escape from pirates, names of ships and captains mentioned and other such information. Pygmies seemed to form an important part of Swift’s readings and this has also became an important part of his writing too. The writer had read other travelogues pertaining to the existence of pygmies and he uses them for enriching his story. The giants and the pygmies that Swift mentioned in his story was a direct influence of the books that he actually