Text Analysis - Passage from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels

Text Analysis - passage from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (Part I, Chap. 2)

The 18th century gave way to a long line of new works and ways of thought that enabled thinkers to explore the whole notion of change of perspective. Indeed, in the same way that Montesquieu paints a european social portrait in his epistolary novel Lettres Persanes, for instance, one aspect that could be perceived as significant and worthy of study in this particular passage of Swift's narrative is in fact the idea of the perception and somewhat judgement that one attributes to the other (in this case, the relation between an 18th century Europe and the fictional world and culture that the author envisions and fabricates).

What is perhaps even more compelling in this case is the fact that this idea of the 'study of the other' is present but it is here reversed, in the sense that the 18th century reader is grasping insight and catching a glimpse of what is supposedly familiar to him but through the new and invasive eyes of the Lilliputian people. Thus, at a time where cross-ocean travels and expeditions are increasing, one important and somewhat omnipresent concept at that time is the way we choose to perceive other cultures. With that in mind, in what way is the author here trying to create a rupture, or break with the way one looks at the things he or she is not familiar with in the society of his time? Through a subversive or subtle critique of the European way of thought, Swift seems to be forming a new perspective, by means of satire and social and political commentary.

Each object in the passage is given a somewhat synecdochic description based on what the author assumes is a familiarity to his readers: "[...] for on the transparent side we saw certain strange figures circularly drawn, and thought we could touch them, until our fingers stopped with that lucid substance" (p.2503). In doing so, Swift succeeds in portraying the banal and the habitual under a new light, thus modifying pre-conceived notions and expectations. In addition, one could think this is also a commentry or critique of the way one submits a judgement upon another culture by attributing labels to it and categorising it as strange simply due to it being different from what we know, or different from our own system of values. In adopting such an attitude, perhaps what Swift suggests here is that we reduce our ability to understand and even empathise with the other, let alone tolerate it. In other words the synecdochic device used in this paragraph is effectively used as a subversive tool.

In that similar traveloguesque nature of narrative, something that could come across as noteworthy in this passage is also the fact that the inventory of Gulliver's own voyages and observations mirrors that of the Lilliputian's own investigation of the content of their intruder's pocket, which here perhaps depicts the cross-culture sensitivity of the author. Notably, the Lilliputians' study of our narrator's possessions is significant, and somewhat symbolic, in the sense that Gulliver's belongings are seemingly carefully chosen by the author himself; they almost serve purpose to paint a social portrait of Swift's own world at that time, and the people in it, by using objects to illustrate the character of an 18th century everyman. This is almost aimed directly at the reader, and here again we notice the whole idea of a de-familiarisation through the eyes of another culture.

One part of the passage I found striking was the interpretation of Gulliver's pocket watch by the Lilliputians. The contrast