E2

Study Questions on Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels,” Part 4 (1)

http://www.literaturepage.com/read/gulliverstravels-184.html

You can find chapter 1 continued at the bottom.

1. Describe some of the reasons why the Houyhnhnms come to believe that Gulliver is a Yahoo. From their perspective, does this judgment seem justified?

2. Why does Gulliver come to admire the Houyhnhnms? Does his admiration seem justified? Why or why not?

3. Does Swift want us to us to see the Houyhnhnms’ view of language positively or negatively? Why?

Study Questions on Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels,” Part 4 (2) and “A Modest Proposal”

http://www.literaturepage.com/read/gulliverstravels-190.html

You can find chapter 2 continued at the bottom.

1. How would you characterize the Houyhnhnms’ view of what it means to be rational? Is there anything that seems limited about this view of rationality?

2. At the end of Gulliver’s Travels, Gulliver describes the “British nation” as “an example to the whole world for their wisdom, care and justice in planting colonies”. How, specifically, in the context of what Gulliver has said earlier about Britain, do we know that this is intended by Swift to be ironic?

3. At the time that Swift wrote “A Modest Proposal,” there was widespread starvation in Ireland, his native country. How, specifically, might the satirical argument of “A Modest Proposal” be intended to address this problem?