Jonathan SwiftÆs satirical adventure story GulliverÆs Travels recounts the misadventures of Lemuel Gulliver, a shipÆs surgeon who winds up having various encounters in unknown lands with people and animals of all types and sizes. From the miniature Lilliputians, hell-bent on world domination, to the gigantic Brobdingnagians whose king rules with reason, GulliverÆs Travels is a book that has delighted countless generations of children. Even so the book works on a much deeper level for adults, including its harsh satire of the human race and human foibles.
The adventure of Lemuel Gulliver are entertaining for both children and adults. For adults, however, SwiftÆs satire of the human race and its foibles provides a deeper source of pleasure that inspires critical thinking. The Yahoos are for all intents and purposes SwiftÆs satire of the human race. In GulliverÆs Travels the Houyhnhnms are horse-like creatures with great capacity for learning and reason, while the Yahoos are perceived as an odious group of cunning creatures that highly resembled human beings. When he encounters the Houyhnhnms, we see SwiftÆs (IV.30) satire of the ôhumanö Yahoos in GulliverÆs explanation that the Houyhnhnms at first perceived him to be a Yahoo but, lacking any of their vile traits, they quickly recognized otherwise: ôHe was convinced (as he afterwards told me) that I must be a Yahoo; but my teachableness, civility, and cleanliness, astonished him; which were qualities altogether opposite to those animals.ö While children might be amused by the ugly creatures that climb trees and defecate on Gulliver, adults are able to recognize some of the worst human tendencies in SwiftÆs characterization of the Yahoos.
On the island of Lilliput, Gulliver is treated with care by the tiny people known as Lilliputians but his relationship with them deteriorates because he cannot abide by their tendency toward worl
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