Gulliver’s Travels PART II

Chapters 1-4

His second adventure begins successfully, but Gulliver loses many of his companions in a storm. To make matters worse, he also has to deal with a monster. On seeing the monster, his companions return to the ship before Gulliver can join them. As he walks deeper into this new land, he sees several scythe-wielding giant monsters. There are many corn fields in this land, and they, too, are gigantic. In an unmissable reversal, Gulliver is the dwarf in this land of giants.

The giants, among them a farmer in particular, look amusedly at Gulliver. He is then picked up by one of the giants and put away in his pocket. Gulliver then finds himself living in the farmer’s house and addresses the farmer as “master.” At the master’s house, Gulliver is constantly threatened by giant rats, a giant baby, and a giant cat. Once again, Gulliver finds himself urinating on a strange object: this time it is a leaf. Gulliver finds out that the land of the giants is called Brobdingnagian. The farmer’s daughter, Glumdalclitch, takes good care of Gulliver; she even teaches him their language. The farmer presents Gulliver as an exhibit at the market, where Gulliver is asked to perform tricks for money. This turns out to be a lucrative business for the farmer.

The farmer sells his daughter and Gulliver to the Brobdingnagian queen who is impressed by Gulliver’s intelligence. The queen is keen to introduce Gulliver to the Brobdingnagian king, and Gulliver regales them with tales about life in England, and the king gives him several luxuries in return. Here, too, he continues to be attacked by creatures. Gulliver goes on exploratory trips with Glumdalclitch, which allow him to deduce that Brobdingnagian is a peninsula, likely situated between Japan and northwest America. He is unimpressed by Brobdingnagian’s chief temple, though.

Analysis

While Lilliput shocked Gulliver with its smallness, he is taken aback by the sheer enormity of the people of Brobdingnagian. Nonetheless, these experiences tell him that there is no absolute smallness or largeness; they are, he realizes relative terms. Gulliver gains favor with the farming family by agreeing to work for them. He finds himself having to draw repeatedly from his adaptability and survival skills to deal with several vulnerable situations in the farmer’s house. In particular, Gulliver has to adjust to the vastly different defecation practices in these lands, and that he does so is a testament to his moral truth and bare honesty. “Clothes” and “exhibition” are recurring symbols: Back in England, Gulliver shows off the Lilliputian cows for gains, whereas Gulliver himself, in what should count as abuse, is later exhibited as a curiosity by the farmer. Glumdalclitch is the lone ray of hope. She sees Gulliver as a human being and treats him fairly.

Gulliver’s humanity and rationality endear him to the king and queen. They are able to see him as a human being, even though Gulliver seems to suggest that his countrymen don’t seem normal to him. When he is ridiculed by the giants, Gulliver gets a sense of the corruptibility of strength, especially physical strength.