Voyage to the Houyhnhnms Breaking the Barrier to True Influence on Societal Change
Jonathon Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels: Voyage to the Houyhnhnms is a satirical work of genius that is wholly effective and time universal. ... To clear the fog Swift stomps on our pride, humiliating and embarrassing us, then speaks blatantly about what is wrong, and expects change. ... This is a great leap in the race to the finish with Swift’s satirical message as the Yahoos not only make a large contrast with the Houyhnhnms but they also influence a large shock of recognition, as the reader finally understands that they’re a Yahoo, that the blood flowing in their veins is the same blood in the veins of that repulsive creature. ... Aside from the universal influence the Yahoos were also a satire in Swift’s time – eighteenth century Europe, when they were applied as the romanticists, a much more emotional and nature based group of people. ... The interesting thing here is that contrary to popular belief, it is even worse to be the extreme of the opposite, the opposite being the Houyhnhnms. The Houyhnhnms are the horse creatures Gulliver meets shortly after being prodded with excrement. ... But that is where their perfection ends, that is where Gulliver’s tinted glasses come off to expose what the Houyhnhnms really are. ... Now, if one crosses these flaws with the flaws of the Yahoos one is soon to realize that what makes humans human is exactly what the Houyhnhnms lack. ... If what it means to be a human is to have emotion and imagination and the Houyhnhnms – the most logical and reasonable creature alive – don’t have that, then a reasonable man isn’t a man at all for they would have the same problem Gulliver had: trying to be a horse when you’re a human. ... Well he isn’t satirizing anyone, but he helps complete Swift’s ultimate goal – for the human race to change, and Pedro is the set example.