ENGL 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 28: Houyhnhnm, Misanthropy
Document Summary
When gulliver goes to the land of the houyhnhnms, he is unable to recognize himself in the yahoos, and describes them as more animalistic in nature than they would be otherwise. He feels antipathy rather than empathy toward them: the horse-people are like the people who are rational and the yahoos are like the animals. This reversal is to show us how culture is what makes us feel above the animals rather than being animals: gulliver is not an unbiased narrator. He constantly shows either appreciation or disdain in both description and outright in his memoirs. There is a huge emphasis on socialism in society and in the household: kids are raised by the whole community, houyhnhnms are also unable to understand negative attributes fully. We have more wars about differences that don"t matter then we do of. This is duty to his disenchanting opinion of humans. If he wasn"t so cynical he probably would.
