Home Archive Reflection Archive FAQ Support (Ko-fi)

Search Results

Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Fate and Duty

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: destiny, family, exploration, obligation, imagination  | Source: Project Gutenberg

In a little time, I and my family and friends came to a right understanding: but my wife protested “I should never go to sea any more;” although my ev...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Imperial Vulnerability

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: war, isolation, strategy, power, cunning  | Source: Project Gutenberg

The empress’s apartment on fire by an accident; the author instrumental in saving the rest of the palace. The empire of Blefuscu is an island situated...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Morality and Justice

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: fraud vs theft, integrity, economic ethics, cultural customs, power dynamics  | Source: Project Gutenberg

The emperor also confers on him some public mark of his favour, and proclamation is made of his innocence through the whole city. They look upon fraud...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Perception and Reality

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: exploration, misinterpretation, fear, humor, resilience  | Source: Project Gutenberg

That upon coming nearer, and finding his error, he sent out his long-boat to discover what it was; that his men came back in a fright, swearing they h...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Sustenance and Satire

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: civilization vs savagery, human nature, nourishment, degradation  | Source: Project Gutenberg

She gave me a large bowlful, of which I drank very heartily, and found myself well refreshed. About noon, I saw coming towards the house a kind of veh...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Philosophy of Mundanity

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: human experience, observation, personal narrative, enlightenment, triviality  | Source: Project Gutenberg

The good woman, with much difficulty, at last perceived what I would be at, and taking me up again in her hand, walked into the garden, where she set ...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Isolation and Discovery

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: exploration, survival, nature's power, isolation, resilience  | Source: Project Gutenberg

Three days after my arrival, walking out of curiosity to the north-east coast of the island, I observed, about half a league off in the sea, somewhat ...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Exploration and Discovery

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: discovery, duality, burden, exploration, imagination  | Source: Project Gutenberg

In the smaller pocket on the right side, were several round flat pieces of white and red metal, of different bulk; some of the white, which seemed to ...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Recovery and Hospitality

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: storytelling, resilience, compassion, adventure, transformation  | Source: Project Gutenberg

However, upon waking, I found myself much recovered. It was now about eight o’clock at night, and the captain ordered supper immediately, thinking I h...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Observation and Folly

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: wisdom vs folly, isolation, observation, authority, enlightenment  | Source: Project Gutenberg

That he laughed at their folly, and went himself in the boat, ordering his men to take a strong cable along with them. That the weather being calm, he...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Horses and Humanity

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: rationality, governance, moral critique, nature of power, enlightenment  | Source: Project Gutenberg

When I asserted that the _Yahoos_ were the only governing animals in my country, which my master said was altogether past his conception, he desired t...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Courtly Rituals

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: power dynamics, social hierarchy, ritual humiliation, honor, submission  | Source: Project Gutenberg

A messenger was despatched half a day’s journey before us, to give the king notice of my approach, and to desire, “that his majesty would please to ap...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Struggle at Sea

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: survival, resilience, nature, vulnerability, dependency  | Source: Project Gutenberg

The seamen threw me the end of the cord, which I fastened to a hole in the fore-part of the boat, and the other end to a man of war; but I found all m...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Perception vs Reality

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: identity, misjudgment, loyalty, enlightenment, gender roles  | Source: Project Gutenberg

But this princess, who has an infinite deal of wit and humour, set me gently on my feet upon the scrutoire, and commanded me to give his majesty an ac...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Tradition vs Innovation

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: heritage, change, ambition, societal conflict, nostalgia  | Source: Project Gutenberg

By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and des...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Concealment and Discord

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: modesty, authenticity, discord, human nature, social norms  | Source: Project Gutenberg

He had therefore begun to think it not unwise in us to cover our bodies, and by that invention conceal many of our deformities from each other, which ...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Futility of Conflict

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: opinion, power, conflict, absurdity, insecurity  | Source: Project Gutenberg

Neither are any wars so furious and bloody, or of so long a continuance, as those occasioned by difference in opinion, especially if it be in things i...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Observing Power

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: separation, perspective, power dynamics, isolation  | Source: Project Gutenberg

and, the space being so wide between that and the palace, I could easily view it on every side.
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Savage Satire

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: power dynamics, brutality, societal critique, human nature, civilization  | Source: Project Gutenberg

This favourite is hated by the whole herd, and therefore, to protect himself, keeps always near the person of his leader. He usually continues in offi...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Resourcefulness and Dependency

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: care, adaptation, survival, vulnerability, communication  | Source: Project Gutenberg

Her mother and she contrived to fit up the baby’s cradle for me against night: the cradle was put into a small drawer of a cabinet, and the drawer pla...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Boundaries and Journeys

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: nature, exploration, barriers, transition, aspiration  | Source: Project Gutenberg

I was an hour walking to the end of this field, which was fenced in with a hedge of at least one hundred and twenty feet high, and the trees so lofty ...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Travel and Patronage

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: journey, social bonds, gifts, dependence, hierarchy  | Source: Project Gutenberg

I hired two mules, with a guide, to show me the way, and carry my small baggage. I took leave of my noble protector, who had shown me so much favour, ...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Voyages and Encounters

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: exploration, satire, adventure, critique, isolation  | Source: Project Gutenberg

In the mean time, I here conclude the second part of my unfortunate voyages. A VOYAGE TO LAPUTA, BALNIBARBI, GLUBBDUBDRIB, LUGGNAGG AND JAPAN. I had n...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Surrender and Awe

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: power dynamics, cultural exchange, surrender, vulnerability, technological fascination  | Source: Project Gutenberg

The astonishment here was much greater than at the sight of my scimitar. Hundreds fell down as if they had been struck dead; and even the emperor, alt...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Curiosity and Conflict

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: innocence, nature, vulnerability, awakening, conflict  | Source: Project Gutenberg

I soon fell asleep, and all I can conjecture is, while I slept, the page, thinking no danger could happen, went among the rocks to look for birds’ egg...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Power and Fragility

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: authority, rebellion, resilience, vulnerability, governance  | Source: Project Gutenberg

said, of one entire adamant, two hundred yards thick, might happen to crack by too great a shock, or burst by approaching too near the fires from the ...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Curiosity and Fear

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: vulnerability, curiosity, isolation, unpredictability, companionship  | Source: Project Gutenberg

The weather being very warm, the closet-window was left open, as well as the windows and the door of my bigger box, in which I usually lived, because ...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Motivations of War

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: warfare, morality, power dynamics, opportunism  | Source: Project Gutenberg

Sometimes a war is entered upon, because the enemy is too strong; and sometimes, because he is too weak. Sometimes our neighbours want the things whic...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Translation and Truth

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: language, humility, identity, fidelity, authority  | Source: Project Gutenberg

But I shall here only set down the substance of what passed between us concerning my own country, reducing it in order as well as I can, without any r...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Courtly Chaos

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: power dynamics, innocence, betrayal, absurdity, vulnerability  | Source: Project Gutenberg

One day, at dinner, this malicious little cub was so nettled with something I had said to him, that, raising himself upon the frame of her majesty’s c...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Social Dynamics

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: gender roles, societal expectations, desire for freedom, marriage, fidelity  | Source: Project Gutenberg

This conversation they are apt to run into with the same temper that boys discover in delighting to hear terrible stories of spirits and hobgoblins, w...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Struggle for Freedom

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: resilience, exploration, survival, ingenuity, adventure  | Source: Project Gutenberg

In this necessity I was forced to swim behind, and push the boat forward, as often as I could, with one of my hands; and the tide favouring me, I adva...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Cultural Curiosities

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: immortality, cultural exchange, travel, personal experience, curiosity  | Source: Project Gutenberg

I thought this account of the _struldbrugs_ might be some entertainment to the reader, because it seems to be a little out of the common way; at least...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Fear and Resistance

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: warfare, fear, resilience, suffering, determination  | Source: Project Gutenberg

The enemy was so frightened when they saw me, that they leaped out of their ships, and swam to shore, where there could not be fewer than thirty thous...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Nature of Vice

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: power, morality, human nature, desire, enlightenment  | Source: Project Gutenberg

He was wholly at a loss to know what could be the use or necessity of practising those vices. To clear up which, I endeavoured to give some ideas of t...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Truth and Authority

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: political dynamics, pursuit of knowledge, moral integrity, enlightenment ideals  | Source: Project Gutenberg

He makes a proposal of much advantage to the king, which is rejected. The learning of that country very imperfect and confined. The laws, and military...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Justice and Mercy

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: power dynamics, sacrifice, loyalty, morality, authority  | Source: Project Gutenberg

He said, the friendship between you and him was so well known to the world, that perhaps the most honourable board might think him partial; however, i...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Supernatural Encounters

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: exploration, supernatural, vulnerability, colonialism, otherness  | Source: Project Gutenberg

He desired me to give him some account of my travels; and, to let me see that I should be treated without ceremony, he dismissed all his attendants wi...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Authority and Illusion

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: fear, power dynamics, the supernatural, transformation, travel  | Source: Project Gutenberg

He desired me to give him some account of my travels; and, to let me see that I should be treated without ceremony, he dismissed all his attendants wi...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Transformative Landscape

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: transformation, leadership, isolation, pastoral beauty, societal critique  | Source: Project Gutenberg

But, in three hours travelling, the scene was wholly altered; we came into a most beautiful country; farmers’ houses, at small distances, neatly built...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Despair and Ingenuity

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: isolation, survival, desperation, hope, communication  | Source: Project Gutenberg

I then fastened my handkerchief to a stick I usually carried, and thrusting it up the hole, waved it several times in the air, that if any boat or shi...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Natures Scale

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: perspective, nature, imagination, human limitation  | Source: Project Gutenberg

Their tallest trees are about seven feet high: I mean some of those in the great royal park, the tops whereof I could but just reach with my fist clen...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Existence and Indifference

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, human nature, satirical critique, agricultural practices, emotional detachment  | Source: Project Gutenberg

With tools made of these flints, they likewise cut their hay, and reap their oats, which there grow naturally in several fields; the _Yahoos_ draw hom...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Noble Education Inquiry

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: education, nobility, governance, societal change, power dynamics  | Source: Project Gutenberg

When I had put an end to these long discourses, his majesty, in a sixth audience, consulting his notes, proposed many doubts, queries, and objections,...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Governance and Identity

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: national identity, governance, sociopolitical analysis, cultural fabric, historical reflection  | Source: Project Gutenberg

I mentioned the prudent management of our treasury; the valour and achievements of our forces, by sea and land. I computed the number of our people, b...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Civilization vs Savagery

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: existential struggle, societal critique, survival, nature of humanity  | Source: Project Gutenberg

This is enough to say upon the subject of my diet, wherewith other travellers fill their books, as if the readers were personally concerned whether we...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Human Nature Revealed

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: vices and follies, admiration, self-reflection, respect, identity  | Source: Project Gutenberg

He went through all our vices and follies, and discovered many, which I had never mentioned to him, by only supposing what qualities a _Yahoo_ of thei...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Nature and Illusion

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: urbanization, nature, illusion, coexistence, industrialization  | Source: Project Gutenberg

These fields were intermingled with woods of half a stang, [301] and the tallest trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven feet high. I viewed the...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Resource Mobilization

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: survival, colonization, agriculture, resource management, migration  | Source: Project Gutenberg

I stored the boat with the carcases of a hundred oxen, and three hundred sheep, with bread and drink proportionable, and as much meat ready dressed as...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Eccentric Ambitions

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: human folly, enlightenment, nature of knowledge, ambition, absurdity  | Source: Project Gutenberg

Every room has in it one or more projectors; and I believe I could not be in fewer than five hundred rooms. The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Societal Degradation

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: desperation, escapism, moral decay, survival, societal critique  | Source: Project Gutenberg

Hence it follows of necessity, that vast numbers of our people are compelled to seek their livelihood by begging, robbing, stealing, cheating, pimping...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Critique of Humanity

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: human folly, authorship, public discourse, distortion, enlightenment  | Source: Project Gutenberg

And it must be owned, that seven months were a sufficient time to correct every vice and folly to which _Yahoos_ are subject, if their natures had bee...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Identity and Perception

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: identity, social hierarchy, self-perception, concealment, dignity  | Source: Project Gutenberg

He desired to see no more; and gave me leave to put on my clothes again, for I was shuddering with cold. I expressed my uneasiness at his giving me so...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Movement and Music

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: power, absurdity, satire, authority, distraction  | Source: Project Gutenberg

His majesty had given orders, that the island should move north-east and by east, to the vertical point over Lagado, the metropolis of the whole kingd...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Struggle for Freedom

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: oppression, autonomy, violence, fantasy, colonialism  | Source: Project Gutenberg

I lay all this while, as the reader may believe, in great uneasiness. At length, struggling to get loose, I had the fortune to break the strings, and ...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Diplomatic Rescue

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: diplomacy, chaos, heroism, sacrifice, political intrigue  | Source: Project Gutenberg

Ambassadors arrive from the emperor of Blefuscu, and sue for peace. The empress’s apartment on fire by an accident; the author instrumental in saving ...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Identity and Contempt

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: identity, societal labels, vulnerability, secrecy, self-preservation  | Source: Project Gutenberg

I expressed my uneasiness at his giving me so often the appellation of _Yahoo_, an odious animal, for which I had so utter a hatred and contempt: I be...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Struldbrug Society

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: mortality, aging, societal critique, dignity, existential dread  | Source: Project Gutenberg

“If a _struldbrug_ happen to marry one of his own kind, the marriage is dissolved of course, by the courtesy of the kingdom, as soon as the younger of...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Political Ambition

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: betrayal, loyalty, power dynamics, cynicism, integrity  | Source: Project Gutenberg

The worst mark you can receive is a promise, especially when it is confirmed with an oath; after which, every wise man retires, and gives over all hop...
Cover image

Gulliver's Travels / Gendered Education

Author: Jonathan Swift (Gutenberg)  | Themes: education, gender, societal roles, morality, domesticity  | Source: Project Gutenberg

In the female nurseries, the young girls of quality are educated much like the males, only they are dressed by orderly servants of their own sex; but ...