Gulliver's Travels

In this excerpt from Gulliver's Travels, the narrator tells us about his 3-year trip to the country of the Houyhnhnms. he lands there after his mutinous crew leaves him there. He meets this species of animals, the Houyhnhnms which are rational creatures like humans, have govnerments and moral values. They are not human though, they resemble horses. In this land, the roles are changed as the beasts of burden here are actually humans, or at least primates, that are called Yahoos.

In Swift's novel, the country of the Houyhnhms is a Utopia of human thought. Every citizen fulfill his social contract of the better good, and there is no evil, not even a word for evil. "I know not whether it may be worth observing,that the Houyhnhnms have no word in their language to express anything that is evil...(pg 4)." Everyone works for honor and acts in accordance to the benefit of society, not for personal gain and still everyone lives comfortably and in complete serenity. This is what every single society desires, what religion wants and what none of them has managed to achieve. This is why the narrator, when he is banished, he does not want to live with humans again, he has tasted ideological Eden and cannot stand the bitter fruits of human society. "For, supposing I should escape with life by some strange adventure, how could I think with temper, of passing my days among Yahoos (pg 7)..."

An interesting thing I would have never thought about a human utopia was how a government would not force someone to do something, but simply Exhort them to take their advice. "For they have no conception how a rational creature can be compelled, but only advised or exhorted, because no person can disobey reason without giving up his claim to be a rational creature (pg 7)." I found this amazingly simple and very logical. Strangely enough, I haven't read in any ideological paradise about anything similar to this. Could it be a general believe that men need to be ruled by force in order to function properly?

Interestingly, the only true discussion the Houyhnhnms actually have in their councils is the situation of the Yahoo population. The Yahoos are bestialized humans. They don't possess speech, are much hairier and posses claws. They are used as beasts of burden and their body parts are used for tools, to create textiles and other things. The exact opposite occuers in human land, the horses are the beasts and the humans are the masters. Perhaps this is a metaphor for the humn race itself. It has always happened that one nation or culture believes another is savage and thus deserves to be enslaved or destroyed. The Europeans with the Native Amerincas and Africans, the Christians with other religions, etc. Maybe in the story the Humans represent the domianat culture of the area and the Houyhnhnms represnt the savage culture in that area. In the Houyhnhnm nation, they represent the dominant culture while they feel the humans are the barbarians. This reminded me of the movie The Last Samurai, here Tom Cruise's character first sees the Japanese as an inferior nation and the Samurai as savages, but after he is captured this view changes, much as how the narrator changed his view of horses.