Describe
Gulliver's experience in Lilliput.
When Gulliver first wakes up in Lilliput, he
feels a desire to suddenly seize forty or fifty of the tiny Lilliputians and
"dash them against the Ground." He doesn't act on this urge because
he remembers the sting of their arrows and does not wish to relive the
experience. However, his unnecessarily violent wish might, perhaps, shed some
light on a point that Swift is trying to make about human nature. Gulliver
seems to feel the desire to squash the Lilliputians for no other reason than
that he can; are humans naturally disposed to assert our physical superiority
and might over those who are weaker than we are? After all, when Gulliver lands
in Brobdingnag, he expects to be treated in the same way he considered handling
the Lilliputians.
Gulliver also undergoes an inventory of his
pockets by the Lilliputians. One of the items they find there is his watch, and
they determine that it is likely "the God he worships" because
"he seldom did any Thing without consulting it." Gulliver seems to confirm
this when he tells them that the watch "pointed out the Time for every
Action in his Life." Again, Swift seems to be commenting on humanity's
flaws: is it right, even healthy, to be so bound to the clock? Shouldn't we eat
when we're hungry, and not when the clock tells us? Shouldn't we sleep when
we're tired, and not when the clock dictates? Why do we insist on becoming
slaves to the clock when our own bodies and minds can tell us when we need
something or when we're finished with something?
