pokes fun
at weaknesses and problems in people and institutions.
In
, Swift pokes fun at the European tendency to be violent, to judge by
surface appearances, to put vanity ahead of commonsense, and to generally behave
irrationality.
Swift uses two tried and true methods to make us laugh at our
own weaknesses: a clueless narrator and exaggeration.
Gulliver, as his name
implies, is gullible. He accepts everything he hears on his travels and tends to repeat it
verbatim without any questioning of how absurd it sounds. He also quite openly describes the
absurdities and violence of European warfare and society and is surprised when his hosts, such
as the king of Brobdingnag, find Europeans hopelessly barbaric and bloodthirsty.
Swift also exaggerates. His Lilliputians, for example, are externally attractive,
tiny, doll-like people; and their minds are especially petty. This pokes fun both at thinking
pretty people are good inside and at the similar pettiness of British...
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