Saturday 25 November 2017

How did Gulliver and his race differ from the Yahoos?

On the one hand, the Yahoos have, as Gulliver puts it, a "perfect human figure." Their physical differences chiefly lie in the amount of hair on their bodies and in some other features--flat, broad faces, coarseness of skin, and some other essentially cosmetic differences. The main difference is that the Yahoos are enslaved by the horse-like Houyhnhnms. They are, as described by Gulliver, dumb brutes. He is repulsed by their smell, shocked by the fact...

On the one hand, the Yahoos have, as Gulliver puts it, a "perfect human figure." Their physical differences chiefly lie in the amount of hair on their bodies and in some other features--flat, broad faces, coarseness of skin, and some other essentially cosmetic differences. The main difference is that the Yahoos are enslaved by the horse-like Houyhnhnms. They are, as described by Gulliver, dumb brutes. He is repulsed by their smell, shocked by the fact that they live in kennels, and disturbed by the fact that the Houyhnhnms seem to discern no difference between himself and the Yahoos. The Houyhnhnms, indeed, cannot believe that in Gulliver's society, the roles are reversed. Eventually Gulliver, despite the disturbing implications of the fact, is forced to accept that he is a Yahoo, and that only circumstances differentiate him from what he views as an "accursed race." Most disturbing of all is what becomes evident over time--Gulliver is not objectively superior in intellect to the Yahoos. Moreover, he is clearly inferior to the Houyhnhnms.

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