Swift clearly shows Gulliver as a symbol of the oppressed, who is held captive, ordered around, and threatened with severe punishment, despite his gargantuan size compared with the small Lilliputians; yet, I believe his writing of the events in the book signify a sort of egocentrism seen in both imperialism and the role of oppressors upon foreign lands. The use of shifting perspective, with Gulliver’s perception by others of a giant, a miniature person, and even a savage Yahoo, illustrates this varying of roles, as Gulliver is able to see reflections of his own English society is different aspects of each culture he encounters. Gulliver’s varying states of subjugation, held as a giant captive in the land of Lilliput and enduring judgment as a Yahoo from the Houyhnhnms, illustrate him as a victim of the imperialist practices which his native England enacts upon other nations, such as Ireland. These episodes display Gulliver clearly as a racialized “other,” most notably by the Houyhnhnms, as he, first believing his own ways of life the most proper and according to logic, must become indoctrinated by each culture’s traditions. Despite feeding him and trying to educate him, the Lilliputians’ militarization of Gulliver show a clear parallel to oppressive imperialist practices, as he is used by the small people because of his size to destroy the military of the Blefuscudians, despite his confessing to them that he will not be merely a utility to enslave another people. Likewise, the Houyhnhnms also first judge him to be no more than a Yahoo, so they also begin to educate Gulliver into their culture, which he quickly adapts to and becomes obsessed with, despite his exile from their land because of his race. This sort of prejudiced expulsion, despite his clear passion for reason and logic, echoes the British and their genocidal tactics against native peoples, including forced removal from their homeland.
On the other hand, Gulliver’s reluctance to believe each of his new environments echoes the views of a travelling conqueror, contrasting his own customs and practices which he sees to be the universal norm with the apparently strange and otherworldly ways of the Lilliputians and Houyhnhnms, despite his eventual acceptance and obsession with the latter. His encounter with the Yahoos specifically shows this darker side of the narrator, criticizing their savage nature and culture, especially when compared with his own love of reason and the Houyhnhnms’ entire civilization built towards the end of fully using their own reason and intellect to create a sort of perfect society. Gulliver’s attraction to the ways of the Houyhnhnms show this imperialist mindset, as he convenes with the Houyhnhnms to discuss how to solve the apparent problem of the Yahoo’s existence. Even his writing of the book implies a superiority of the author, compelling the reader to listen to him and follow his example because he has done these things and written about them. Instead of muddying the metaphor of the text, the variability of Gulliver’s significance to the foreign lands illustrates each side of the English oppression of Ireland, with Gulliver both enacting harsh tactics and prejudices upon others, as well as being a victim to the same types of treatments from his hosts.
After finishing part 4, I would completely agree with this viewpoint. I know in class we discussed how some people find this section irrelevant, however, I thought it helped better understand Gulliver’s character and his significance. We see Swift maintain Gulliver’s physical features throughout the book, but morally and intellectually we see how fragile he is when he comes in contact with these different tribes. I think his journey shows us how he was oppressed and then turned to oppressor toward the end, which could illustrate how some Irish may have treated some blacks once they were able to enter “whiteness”. Although Irish were still oppressed, being able to enter “whiteness” indirectly supports the system in place that dehumanizes blacks, which causes them to act as the oppressors.
Gulliver’s place as an “other” but also a oppressor is rather problematic, but reflects the very position of the Irish at the time of this novel’s publication. Irish Americans were put into a position where they were an other due to their immigrant status, but also an oppressor due to their readiness to take part in labor that would have been available for blacks had they not been barred from participating in that kind of labor by racist whites. The only reason whites gave the Irish Americans jobs over blacks was because of the Irish similarity of being “almost white.” Gulliver is, in a way, almost a Lilliputian and almost a Houyhnhnm. He shares similarities with these groups and participates in their countries’ systems of labor, but can never be fully accepted as a member of society by the natives of the lands he travels to.